NASCAR: From ‘big news’ to ‘big news’, Jimmie Johnson to go out on his own time

Jimmie Johnson, amid mounting speculation about his NASCAR future, announced his impending retirement, and he did so as promised, going out on his own time.

Before the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season began, there was speculation about the future of seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, whose 2018 season was the first winless season of his career as a full-time driver.

Johnson entered the 36-race season having not won a race since he won at Dover International Speedway for the record 11th time in June of 2017 to move into a sixth place tie on the all-time Cup Series wins list with 83 victories, and he entered it on a 16-year winning streak, the third highest of all-time.

Johnson heard the speculation, the claims that he was on the decline and the claims that his career was over.

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But before the 2019 season started, the 44-year-old El Cajon, California native stated that “I get to say when I’m done.”

And from “big announcement” to “big announcement”, that’s exactly what the seven-time champion did.

After winning the exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway, the Advance Auto Parts Clash, before the 2019 season began, Johnson stated that he had a “big announcement” coming.

Johnson signed a three-year contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports, the team for which he has competed in all 651 of his races going back to the 2001 season, in June of 2017 to continue driving the #48 Chevrolet through the 2020 season.

As such, there was speculation that this was it: Johnson would be announcing that the 2020 season would be his last following his first victory, albeit not a points-paying victory, since 2017.

Instead, he announced his participation in April’s running of the Boston Marathon.

Throughout the 2019 season, speculation continued, and it mounted after Johnson failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in his career.

Johnson hinted that he would like to compete in other racing series, most notably IndyCar in road and street course races, echoing the sentiment he expressed late last year following his first winless Cup Series season.

Still, he remained focused on the 2020 Cup Series season and nothing else.

Then Ally Bank, which began serving as the full-time primary sponsor of Johnson’s #48 Chevrolet this year, signed a contract extension to continue serving as the primary sponsor of the #48 Chevrolet on a full-time basis through the 2023 season.

However, Johnson notably did not sign an extension of any kind at this time, although he did say that he would likely spent one or two more years in the Cup Series after 2019, marking the first time he revealed any sort of retirement clue.

As a result, speculation continued.

Johnson stated in mid-October that Hendrick Motorsports would know his future within four to six months, meaning either a new deal or his impending retirement would be announced right around the start of the 2020 season or two months into it.

Again, speculation continued.

Just over one month passed since Johnson issued this timetable.

But with his announcement now supposedly set to come in three to five months, he posted the following message on twitter on Wednesday, November 20.

He notably posted his “#Chasing8 one final time” confirmation three years to the day after tying Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most championships in Cup Series history.

So more than nine months after fans thought that Johnson’s “big announcement” would be the confirmation of his impending retirement after the 2020 season, Johnson made a “big announcement” confirming his impending retirement after the 2020 season.

At the end of the day, the result is the same. But he did it on his time, and after winning a record-tying seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, Jimmie Johnson did more than enough in the first 18-plus seasons of his career to earn that right.