NASCAR: 5 possible Cup drivers for JR Motorsports

Possible JR Motorsports Cup drivers: No. 4 – Jimmie Johnson

Since the very first time he competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, Jimmie Jonson has been racking up achievements.

In 19 full seasons as a Cup Series driver, he scored 83 wins, including two Daytona 500 wins and four Brickyard 400 wins, won a history-tying seven championships, including a record-smashing five in a row, and amassed a long list of records and achievements that will land him in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Johnson and former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Jr. have a long-standing relationship that started even before the two were teammates at Rick Hendrick’s team, but Johnson has taken a very different “retirement” path than Earnhardt has.

Johnson ran part-time in the NTT IndyCar Series in 2021 and entered the 2022 Indy 500 as part of his first full season in the series. He has also run a handful of IMSA endurance races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona.

During Indy 500 race week this past May, Johnson admitted that he has considered attempting the Memorial Day Double, which consists of running the Indy 500 during the afternoon and the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race, later in the evening.

Only four drivers have ever attempted the feat, but with sponsors and manufacturers becoming more restrictive, in addition to the two races being so close together in timing, no driver has attempted it since Kurt Busch in 2014.

Johnson has sponsors, including Ally Bank, who have supported his ventures into different forms of motorsport, and as long as TV networks and sanctioning bodies work together to create the opportunity for Johnson, JR Motorsports would be a perfect fit for the future Hall of Famer to make his Cup Series return.