Future Watch: Jimmie Johnson NASCAR Racing Cards – Johnson was born in El Cajon, California, and began racing motorcycles at the age of four. In 1993, Johnson was given the opportunity to drive for Herb Fishel. He refused the deal and continued racing buggies and trucks in off-road stadium and desert races. He also reported for ESPN in the Short Course Off-Road Drivers Association (SODA). The years he was driving in SODA, SCORE and MTEG he accumulated over 25 wins, 100 top-three finishes, six championships, and received Rookie of the Year honors in all three leagues. 1998 he started to race in ASA the American Speed Association and part time NASCAR Busch series now called Xfinity series. In the same year, Johnson won the ASA Pat Schauer Memorial Rookie title. Surprisingly Johnson’s only recorded one win in the Busch Series and in 2001 he started to race some races in the Winston Cup Series with Hendricks motorsports. In 2002, Johnson left Herzog Motorsports to move to Hendrick Motorsports in the Winston Cup Series, driving the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet.
First full year with Hendricks in 2002 he got his first pole at the Daytona 500 becoming the second rookie to do that. Only took him 13 races to get his first win NAPA Auto Parts 500 at Auto Club Speedway. Jimmie Johnson became the first rookie driver to lead the point standings and to win twice at the same track during a season, by sweeping both races at Dover. Despite the strong season he did not win the rookie of the year, it was Ryan Newman.
In 2006 he started a long championship streak when he won the NASCAR Championship five times in a row. He added a lot of other awards from that five year streak such as the 2006 Driver of the Year Award. Johnson later became the first racing driver to be named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, 2008 Driver of the Year and won an ESPY as the Best Driver, 2009 won back to back years of the ESPY Best driver and in 2010 he won his fifth Nascar championship and was put on a short list of drivers who won only five or more NASCAR championships. A few years later he joined the two greatest championship drivers, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty with his seventh NASCAR championship in 2016.
In 2018 Lowe’s announced they would no longer sponsor the 48 car at the conclusion of the 2018 season. They were Johnson’s main sponsor for 16 years. Months later Hendrick Motorsports announced that Ally Financial signed a two-year deal to sponsor the No. 48 team starting in 2019.
On November 20, 2019, Johnson announced that the 2020 Cup season would be his last full-time season of racing.
Check out Jimmie Johnson’s career racing stats at Racing-Reference.info
As one of the top NASCAR drivers of all-time, collectors can expect to find Jimmie Johnson’s cards across all of Panini’s NASCAR trading card programs. Due to his incredibly long tenure in NASCAR, look for Johnson’s cards in Press Pass NASCAR sets from the early 2000s. Just because Johnson is retiring doesn’t mean you’ll miss him in future releases from Panini. He’s sure to get the royal treatment reserved for the very best like Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon. Look for Jimmie Johnson’s cards in 2020 Donruss, 2019 Prime and 2019 Victory Lane to name a few.
Future Watch: Jimmie Johnson NASCAR Racing Cards – More Resources
- NASCAR.com Driver Profile – Jimmie Johnson
- Jimmie Johnson – Secondary Market Pricing
- Follow Jimmie Johnson on Twitter @JimmieJohnson and Instagram @jimmiejohnson
- JimmyJohnson.com
Future Watch: Jimmie Johnson NASCAR Racing Cards – Image Gallery
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