NASCAR: Will Jimmie Johnson capture 8th championship in 2018?

By Asher Fair | Jan 15, 2018

HOMESTEAD, FL - NOVEMBER 18: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet, stands in the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 18, 2017 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images) /

For just the fifth time in the last 12 years, Jimmie Johnson did not win the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2017. Can he win his eighth career title in 2018?

Coming into the 2016 NASCAR Cup Series season, Jimmie Johnson had won six of the last 10 championships. When he won his seventh that season to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt on the all-time titles list, he did so in just an 11-year span, which was by far a new record.

Petty’s seven championships came in a 16-year span and Earnhardt’s came in a 15-year span. The only thing left for Johnson, the only driver who has won more than three championships in a row with five from the 2006 season to the 2010 season, to do to set himself apart from these drivers in terms of winning championships became to secure title #8, thus setting a new all-time record in that category.

In the 2017 season, Johnson won three races, but all three of those victories came toward the beginning of the season. He never really picked up any momentum down the stretch, and he was unable to secure his eighth career championship to break the all-time record. He finished in 10th place in the championship standings.

More from NASCAR

But perhaps even more significant to Johnson in the 2017 season was the fact that he signed a contract extension to remain at Hendrick Motorsports as the driver of the #48 Chevrolet through the 2020 season, giving him at least three more chances to secure that elusive eighth championship.

Will he be able to win it in 2018?

In the 2017 season, the Chevrolet teams struggled, especially late in the season. For the first time since the 1999 season, no Chevrolet drivers finished in the top 4 of the championship standings. The manufacturer’s highest finisher in the standings was Chase Elliott, one of Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates, who finished in 5th place. Elliott was held winless in 2017 and still doesn’t have a single career Cup Series victory to his name.

But in the 2018 season, we are set to see the introduction of the new Chevrolet Camaro, which should help the Chevrolet teams become more competitive with the Ford teams and particularly the Toyota teams, as Toyota drivers won 14 of the final 19 races in the 2017 season.

Next: Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time

With the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season slated to be a good one for the Chevrolet teams and drivers, expect it to be a good indicator of whether or not Jimmie Johnson has what it takes to break the all-time championships record and win his eighth career title before he retires. If all goes right, he may be able to secure that title in 2018. Will he pull it off?