JIMMIE JOHNSON Career Statistics

Jimmie Johnson Season Statistics

Jimmie Johnson Track Statistics

(Click the track name to see Jimmie Johnson's race results at that track.)

Jimmie Johnson Track Type Statistics

Jimmie Johnson Bio

James Kenneth Johnson was born on September 17, 1975. He is a native of El Cajon, California.

He races the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS owned by teammate Jeff Gordon and operated by Rick Hendrick's Hendrick Motorsports.

He has never finished below 5th in the final NEXTEL Cup points standings and finished second twice (in 2003 and 2004). Since his rookie season Johnson ranks second among all active drivers with an average of 4.5 wins a season (behind Jeff Gordon's 5.6) and second in average top 10 finishes a season with 21.25 (behind Tony Stewart's 21.28).

In 2006, Johnson became only the second driver to win the prestigious Daytona 500, and Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in the same year. He is the only driver to win three Coca-Cola 600s in a row. He is the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup champion.

Jimmie Johnson began his racing career in several off-road leagues including SODA, SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group. He accumulated over 25 wins, 100 top-three finishes, six championships, and received Rookie of the Year honors in all three leagues.

Johnson raced with Herzog Motorsports in the 1996 and 1997 SODA series. Johnson was a field reporter for ESPN in the SODA series.

In 1998, Johnson joined the American Speed Association (ASA) circuit, finishing fourth in the season while picking up Rookie of the Year honors.

During this time, Johnson also began racing in the NASCAR Busch Series, driving in three events. In 1999, Johnson continued to run in both the ASA and the Busch Series, winning twice and finishing third in the ASA point race.

By 2000, Johnson became a Busch Series driver with Herzog Motorsports, finished 10th in the points standings and third in the Rookie of the Year standings. He won his only Busch Series race in 2001 at the Hills Brothers Coffee 300 at Chicagoland Speedway in his 81 series events.

Johnson began racing in the NEXTEL Cup series in 2002. Johnson stunned the NASCAR world by winning the pole at the 2002 Daytona 500 and ending up with a quality 15th place finish. He would only improve from there, winning three times, averaging a 13.5 place finish, and becoming the first rookie ever to both lead the series in points (he eventually finished fifth overall) and the first to sweep races at a track (Dover). Johnson's first Winston Cup win was at his home region of California Speedway.

Despite finishing the highest of any rookie in points, he was runner-up to Ryan Newman for NASCAR Rookie of the Year because of NASCAR's controversial 'Rookie of the Year' award being based on a driver's 15 best finishes, and not points.

For the 2003 campaign, Johnson had three victories, 14 top-five finishes and 20 top-ten finishes. He finished the season second in the points standings to Matt Kenseth. Johnson got his first win at Lowe's Motor Speedway at the time. He won in back to back weekends at the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge and the Coca-Cola 600. The All-Star Challenge was a non-points event.

In 2004, Johnson started slowly in weeks two and three at Rockingham and Las Vegas. However, he quickly rebounded with a week five win at the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway. Subsequent victories at the Coca-Cola 600 and the Pocono 500 helped solidify his place in the Chase for the Cup towards the end of the regular season. However, poor finishes at Talladega (37th) and Kansas (32nd) nearly sank his chances to win the Nextel Cup.

Four subsequent victories put him 18 points behind leader Kurt Busch going into the final race.

The second victory at the Subway 500 in Martinsville, Virginia on October 24, 2004, was marred by tragedy. Owner Rick Hendrick's son (Ricky Hendrick), nieces and brother were killed in an airplane crash on route to the race. All eight passengers and both pilots died in the incident, and Johnson was told after claiming the winner's grandfather clock.

Johnson passed Mark Martin with six laps to go the next week in Atlanta Motor Speedway. Johnson won under the lights at Darlington in the Mountain Dew Southern 500, and became the first driver since Jeff Gordon to win two legs of NASCAR's Grand Slam in a season. He eventually finished second in the Nextel Cup, losing to Kurt Busch by 8 points.

In 2005, Johnson stayed in the top five in the points standings all year, winning at Las Vegas, Lowes Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway, and again at Lowes Motor Speedway.

Johnson now has four straight wins at his sponsor, Lowes, sponsored track in Charlotte, North Carolina, and became only the second driver to win three consecutive races in one of NASCAR's majors. (owner Jeff Gordon won four consecutive Southern 500 titles from 1995-1998, but that leg of the Grand Slam was eliminated in the Ferko lawsuit.)

Johnson had a chance to win the championship coming into the November 20 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but finished 5th in points after crashing in the midway point of the event with a tire problem.

Source: Wikipedia GNU