NASCAR: 5 replacement candidates for Jimmie Johnson in 2021

Jimmie Johnson announced that the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season will be his final full season in the series. Who will replace him in 2021?

Following several months of speculation about the future of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson in the Cup Series, Johnson took to Twitter on Wednesday and shared a short video.

The 44-year-old El Cajon, California native is set to finish out his contract, a three-year extension he signed in June of 2017, with Hendrick Motorsports in 2020, but after that, he will no longer be the full-time driver of the #48 Chevrolet.

Johnson has competed in the Cup Series since the 2001 season, and he has competed in the series on a full-time basis since the 2002 season. He has competed in each of the 648 races that have been contested since the 2002 season began, and he has made all 651 of his starts behind the wheel of the #48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Johnson, who tied the all-time championships record set by Richard Petty in 1979 and later tied by Dale Earnhardt in 1994 by winning his seventh championship in 2016, made the announcement that he will be #Chasing8 for the fourth and final time in 2020 exactly three years to the day after becoming the sport’s third seven-time champion.

Ally Financial, which signed a contract in late October of 2018 to become the full-time primary sponsor of Johnson’s #48 Chevrolet beginning in the 2019 season following the departure of Lowe’s, recently signed a contract extension to continue serving as the full-time primary sponsor of the #48 Chevrolet through the 2023 season.

So who will replace Johnson in 2021? Here are five possible candidates.

Noah Gragson

Noah Gragson is theoretically the driver in the best position to replace Jimmie Johnson behind the wheel of the #48 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, although the 2020 Xfinity Series season will be a huge season for him as it pertains to proving he belongs not only at the Cup level but with a top-tier team.

Gragson made the move to JR Motorsports ahead of the 2019 season after driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series, and he is the only full-time driver for the Rick Hendrick co-owned Xfinity Series team under the age of 33 at age 21.

The 2019 season proved to be a learning curve for the Las Vegas, Nevada native. He qualified for the playoffs and advanced to the round of 8 before ultimately settling for an eighth place finish in the championship standings, but he did not secure a race win.

He did record nine top five finishes, 22 top 10 finishes and a solid average finish of 9.3, but he led only 72 of the 5,743 laps that he completed.

With the “Big 3” of Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Cole Custer all set to compete in the Cup Series next year and Gragson having a full season of Xfinity Series experience under his belt, he can establish himself as a championship contender in 2020 and put himself in the conversation to replace Johnson in 2021.

Chris Buescher

Chris Buescher is not often a name associated with potential replacement candidates for drivers at top-tier teams, but he deserves a second look given his progression driving for some of the low-tier teams in the NASCAR Cup Series in recent seasons.

Buescher qualified for the playoffs as a rookie at Front Row Motorsports by winning the rain-shortened race at Pocono Raceway in August of 2016, and while he hasn’t won nor been back to the playoffs since then, he has steadily progressed as a whole during his three seasons with JTG Daugherty Racing.

He finished in 25th place in the championship standings in the 2017 season with four top 10 finishes, 16 top 20 finishes and an average finish of 21.4 before finishing in 24th in the standings the following year with two top five finishes, 18 top 20 finishes and an average finish of 21.0.

This past season, he finished in 20th in the standings with four top 10 finishes, 27 top 20 finishes, the most in team history, and an average finish of 17.8, tied for the best in team history.

During the 2019 season, Buescher went on a streak of 16 consecutive top 18 finishes. It may seem like an arbitrary statistic, but Jimmie Johnson himself never pulled that over the course of his Hall of Fame-caliber career.

That level of consistency is practically unheard of in the Cup Series, no matter what team a driver competes for, and Buescher did it driving for JTG Daugherty Racing.

Put that consistency at a top-tier team, and who knows what Buescher is capable of accomplishing. He is set to get a shot at Roush Fenway Racing, the team for which he competed in the Xfinity Series and won the 2015 championship, as the replacement for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. behind the wheel of the #17 Ford next year.

If that goes well and he has the opportunity to make another move after 2020, don’t be surprised if that move is to the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Daniel Hemric

After spending two seasons competing for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Daniel Hemric was promoted to the Cup Series team ahead of the 2019 season. He did not win an Xfinity Series race in the 2017 season or the 2018 season, but he advanced to the Championship 4 in both years.

However, after just one season driving the #8 Chevrolet in the Cup Series, he is set to be replaced by Tyler Reddick, who made the move from JR Motorsports to Richard Childress Racing ahead of the 2019 Xfinity Series season and won two championships in his two seasons competing in the series.

Hemric won the Rookie of the Year Award over JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ryan Preece and Front Row Motorsports’ Matt Tifft, but it is hard to criticize Richard Childress Racing for promoting Reddick given what he accomplished in the Xfinity Series.

On that same note, it is hard to say that Hemric deserved to be axed simply because he isn’t as good as Reddick.

Hemric had been rumored to land with Cup Series team Front Row Motorsports with two of their three drivers not set to return to the team next year, but instead he is set to return to the Xfinity Series as a part-time driver for JR Motorsports.

The 28-year-old Kannapolis, North Carolina native is set to compete in 21 races on the 33-race 2020 schedule. Having never actually won a race across any of NASCAR’s three national series despite having success in all three, driving for the Xfinity Series team co-owned by Rick Hendrick is the perfect opportunity for him to prove he deserves a second chance at the Cup level.

As of now, Alex Bowman is set to be Hendrick Motorsports’ oldest driver entering the 2021 season; he is slated to be 27 years old. In the team’s 36-year history in the Cup Series, their oldest driver has never been younger than 33 years old. Hemric would be 30 and have plenty of experience, more than five and a half seasons worth, in NASCAR’s three national series.

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson is set to enter a contract year with Chip Ganassi Racing in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, and there are already several rumors regarding where he might end up in 2021.

One such option is Stewart-Haas Racing, where the 27-year-old Elk Grove, California native has been rumored to end up for years after team co-owner Tony Stewart wanted him to serve as his own replacement following his retirement after the 2016 season.

There will more than likely be at least one seat open at the four-car Ford team after the 2020 season considering the fact that they haven’t maintained the same driver lineup from one year to the next since between the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

But Hendrick Motorsports also can’t be ignored. As much as the Chevrolet teams struggled in the 2018 and 2019 seasons with the Camaro ZL1, Hendrick Motorsports were the only Chevrolet team with more than two wins, and they collected seven, starting in the second half of the 2018 season. With the new Camaro ZL1 1LE set to debut in 2020, they will be a team to keep an eye on.

Larson, who is already linked to Hendrick Motorsports via their technical alliance with Chip Ganassi Racing and their contract to supply the team with engines, has also expressed interest in competing in the Indianapolis 500 and doing the Memorial Day Double, but doing that at while at Hendrick Motorsports likely wouldn’t be an option.

Team owner Rick Hendrick prevented Kasey Kahne, who had signed with the team for the 2012 season, from competing in the 2011 IndyCar championship finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a chance to win $5 million if he were to win the race after starting in 34th (last) place.

Dan Wheldon ended up being the driver who drove for the $5 million, and he was killed in a crash early on in the race, a race that was ultimately canceled. So after playing a role in effectively saving Kahne’s life, it’s hard to see Hendrick allowing Larson or any of his drivers to compete in IndyCar even with the new Aeroscreen that is set to be utilized beginning next year.

With that being said, Larson is still a NASCAR driver before he is an IndyCar driver, and he has driven for Chip Ganassi Racing for six full seasons already and still not competed in the Indy 500.

It’s hard to see that one race dictating where he lands, and assuming it doesn’t, driving the #48 Chevrolet isn’t out of the picture. But then again, neither is staying at Chip Ganassi Racing or moving to Stewart-Haas Racing.

Tyler Reddick

Tyler Reddick was at one point well-positioned to replace Jimmie Johnson, effectively in the same position that Noah Gragson is in now: driving the #9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Reddick even won the championship in his rookie season.

But before he won the 2018 title, he decided to switch to Richard Childress Racing for the 2019 season. He had more success as a whole there than he did at JR Motorsports, and he capped off the year with his second consecutive title.

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While that move may have paid off for him on the Xfinity side, questions abound about his Cup Series future even before his tenure as a full-time driver has begun. He is set to replace Daniel Hemric behind the wheel of the #8 Chevrolet next year, but Richard Childress Racing have not been the competitive force that they once were on the Cup level in recent years.

Hendrick Motorsports haven’t been as dominant in recent years as they have been known to be either, but they still win races on a fairly regular basis, having taken seven victories in the last 51 races going back to 2018 after going on a 37-race win drought.

With the new Camaro ZL1 1LE set to debut in 2020 following two seasons of an overall struggle for the Chevrolet teams with the Camaro ZL1, a struggle that resulted in only Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott winning more than one race with six victories, Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports should theoretically be better off next year than they have been in recent years.

But if Hendrick Motorsports maintain their competitive advantage over the team that completely missed the playoffs for the first time 2009 this year, don’t be shocked to see Reddick jump at the opportunity to switch to a more competitive team.

It’s not like he hasn’t done it before, and having won a championship driving for the Rick Hendrick co-owned Xfinity Series team shouldn’t hurt his case, even though he did leave the team after 2018.

Who will be Jimmie Johnson’s replacement behind the wheel of the #48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season with the 2020 season slated to be his last? Will it be one of the five drivers discussed in this article, or will it be somebody else?