NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson drops retirement clue amid Ally extension

Jimmie Johnson discussed potentially retiring from NASCAR amid Hendrick Motorsports’ contract extension with his current full-time primary sponsor, Ally Financial. He appeared to narrow his retirement options down to two years.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson is in the midst of what is the longest win drought of his NASCAR Cup Series career by nearly four times the size of his previous longest win drought.

However, even in the midst of this 88-race win drought and even though he failed to qualify for the Cup Series playoffs this season for the first time in the history of the playoffs, he has never suggested that he is “on the decline” or looking toward retirement because of his recent struggles.

In fact, just last month, he stated that his “fire is way too intense” for him to think about stepping away from the sport in which he has won a record-tying seven championships.

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The 44-year-old El Cajon, California native has driven for Hendrick Motorsports since the 2001 season, and he has done so as a full-time driver since the 2002 season. He has only ever driven for Hendrick Motorsports as a Cup Series driver.

His current contract, which he signed in June of 2017, runs through the 2020 season, but Johnson has left the door open to signing another contract extension to continue driving after that.

However, Ally Financial, his full-time primary sponsor which took over upon the departure of longtime full-time primary sponsor Lowe’s after the 2018 season, recently extended their contract with Hendrick Motorsports to sponsor the #48 Chevrolet on a full-time basis through the 2023 season.

Johnson’s contract, however, has not yet been extended.

Will it be?

That remains to be seen, and given the fact that there is still another year on it, it may not be seen for quite some time. Hendrick Motorsports stated that he will announce his plans at a “later date”.

But in the midst of this sponsorship contract extension between Hendrick Motorsports and Ally, Johnson discussed potentially retiring from the Cup Series, and he stated that he may very well do so in the near future.

If we are to believe his words at face value, he gave two possibilities.

Here is what Johnson had to say about the matter, according to USA Today.

"“Where I’m at is trying to balance my kids, my family life, the demands on all of that. And when the pressure comes to make a decision, I just need to be able to have a little time with my family to figure out what we’re going to do. I know Chani [his wife] wants me to race until the fire goes out, so we’ll see. I have full support.“I feel like as my kids get older, you hear some passing comments about wishing I was around…so you do feel a sense of missing out on things. So I could see another year or two potentially, but it wouldn’t go much further than that.”"

At face value, this “another year or two” comment indicates that Johnson will either retire after the 2020 season when his current contract ends or sign an additional one-year contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports and then retire after the 2021 season.

But as of now, his focus remains solely on NASCAR, just as he has indicated multiple times when discussing the possibility of making the move to IndyCar to compete in road course races.

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How much longer will Jimmie Johnson compete in the NASCAR Cup Series? Will he ever be able to break his career-long win drought and add to his career win total of 83, which is tied for the sixth highest win total in Cup Series history?

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