NASCAR: Will Jimmie Johnson win his 8th Cup Series championship this season?
By Asher Fair
Jimmie Johnson has a chance to do something no other NASCAR Cup Series driver has ever done: win his eighth career championship. Will he pull it off this season?
There are just three races remaining in the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season, and Jimmie Johnson still has a legitimate chance to do something no driver has ever done before: win his eighty career championship. Can he pull it off in two weeks at Homestead-Miami Speedway?
Johnson currently sits 3 points below the Championship 4 cut line in the standings with two races to go in the Round of 8. The next race is set to take place tomorrow at Texas, and the final Round of 8 race and final race before the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami is set to take place next Sunday at Phoenix.
Can Johnson pass Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, the two drivers with whom he is currently tied, in career Cup Series championships won with his eighth this season?
Jimmie Johnson winning his 8th career Cup Series championship this season: BUY
Jimmie Johnson is a 7-time race winner at Texas, with his most recent win at the track coming in the most recent Texas race in April, and prior to last season’s November Texas race, he had won the last four November Texas races.
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Johnson is also a 4-time race winner at Phoenix, with three of those four wins coming in November Phoenix races. While he has just one win at Homestead, that win came last year after he started in last place but still managed to secure his seventh career Cup Series championship. His huge amount of past success at each of the three remaining tracks on this season’s schedule is indisputable.
Sure, Martin Truex Jr. has been the dominant driver this season with seven victories and is the favorite to win this year’s championship. But Johnson has 83 career victories, a total that is 40 wins higher than the 2nd highest total among active drivers, and he is the only active driver who has won more than one championship with seven. The guy knows how to win.
With all seven of those championships coming in the last 11 seasons and four of them having been won because of the fact that some sort of playoff system was used, it is extremely clear that Johnson not only knows how to win, but that he knows how to win when it matters most. There is not a driver in the world who is as clutch as Johnson is.
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If Jimmie Johnson can advance to the Championship 4, which looks very likely right now, and put himself in a position to win his eighth career NASCAR Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway late in the Ford Ecoboost 400 on Sunday, November 19th, there is no reason to believe that he won’t be able to pull it off and make history.