NASCAR: Is Jimmie Johnson’s career-long winless streak a reason for concern?

By Asher Fair | Mar 4, 2018

HAMPTON, GA - FEBRUARY 24: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's for Pros Chevrolet, stands in the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 24, 2018 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images) /

Is the 25-race winless streak of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson a reason for concern as the 2018 season really gets going?

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson has had an extremely slow start to the 2018 season. In two races, his higher finish is 27th place, and he sits in 35th in the championship standings behind drivers such as Jeffrey Earnhardt, Gray Gaulding, Mark Thompson and D.J. Kennington. To make things worse, Thompson and Kennington only drove in the Daytona 500.

However, should this really a reason concern for Johnson moving forward?

Given the fact that his 27th place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 means that he is now on a career-long winless streak of 25 races, it could definitely spell trouble moving forward for the 42-year-old.

But will it?

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Nearly everyone thought that Johnson’s career was on the decline in the 2016 season when he set a new career-long winless streak 24 races. Johnson won the fifth race of the season at Fontana, but he did not win again until the 30th race of the season in the Charlotte playoff race.

In the end, however, Johnson responded to his critics by going on to win the 2016 Cup Series championship, giving him seven career titles and causing him to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the all-time record in that category.

There has, once again, been speculation that Johnson’s career might be on the decline. His most recent victory came in the 13th race of the 2017 season at Dover. Having not won since then, he is now on a career-long 25-race winless streak.

But in reality, this should not cause much of a concern.

Petty ended his career on a 212-race winless streak and Earnhardt endured a 59-race winless streak in his career. From a big picture perspective, Johnson’s career-long 25-race winless streak really doesn’t seem like that big of a deal unless his career is truly on the decline, which doesn’t seem likely.

Given the struggles of the Chevrolet teams as a whole so far with the new Camaro ZL1, it would be hard to make the assessment that Johnson’s career is truly on the decline just two races into the season and with just two races driving the new Camaro ZL1 under his belt. Because of this, his career-long winless streak does not seem like it will end up being a huge deal.

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Is Jimmie Johnson’s 25-race winless streak really a huge deal, or will he bounce back and contend for an eighth career NASCAR Cup Series championship this year? The season resumes with the third of 36 races this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. That race, the Pennzoil 400, is set to be broadcast live on FOX starting at 3:30 pm ET on Sunday, March 4th.