NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson’s perfect record remains intact

Jimmie Johnson’s 26 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at his home track, Auto Club Speedway, set a record that will likely never even come remotely close to being broken.

Homefield advantage is real, even in NASCAR.

Just ask seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, who made his 26th and what could be his final start at Auto Club Speedway this past Sunday.

The 44-year-old announced after the 2019 season ended that the 2020 season would be his 19th and final season as a full-time driver as the #48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. While he did not rule out returning from time to time as a part-time competitor, he currently has no set racing plans for 2021 or beyond.

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Johnson, who hails from El Cajon, California, started in second place in Sunday afternoon’s 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.0-mile (3.219-kilometer) oval in Fontana, California. After leading 10 laps, he settled for a seventh place finish, his best finish at the track since he won there for the record sixth time back in 2016.

With 83 career victories, Johnson is one win away for a fourth place tie on the all-time wins list, and with seven championships, nobody has won more titles. Only Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt are tied with him in that category.

But at all of the tracks where he has competed, Auto Club Speedway, which is only about a two-hour drive from El Cajon, is arguably his best. In 26 races there, his average finish is 7.58, his best at any venue. His statistics include six wins, 13 top five finishes and 18 top 10 finishes and 990 laps led out of 5,906 laps completed.

According to Racing Insights, that number of laps completed gives him a perfect record that has never even been remotely challenged by any driver at any track and likely won’t be — ever.

That is because in Johnson’s 26 starts at the track, including one each in 2002 and 2003 and from 2011 to 2020 as well as two each from 2004 to 2010, he completed every single lap. This 5,906-lap total is more than double the size of the second place total of laps completed at any track by any driver without missing a single circuit.

The second place total was set by three-time champion Tony Stewart at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ironically his home track as well. In 18 starts at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval in Speedway, Indiana, the Columbus, Indiana native completed 2,895 of the 2,895 laps that were contested.

The next highest total of all-time is an active total, but it is nowhere near Johnson’s and will never be considering the venue is the Watkins Glen International road course. In fact, it is nowhere near Stewart’s, either.

In 14 starts at the eight-turn, 2.454-mile (3.949-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Watkins Glen, New York, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. has completed all 1,262 laps.

Records are meant to be broken in NASCAR. But this particular Jimmie Johnson record is not going anywhere.