Jimmie Johnson Plans Final Daytona 500, Shifts Focus To Legacy
DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 11: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #84 Carvana Toyota, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 11, 2026 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
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Jimmie Johnson is downshifting. Not in a smoky, tire-scorching sort of way, but with the calm precision of a man who knows exactly which gear he’s in and how many laps are left. The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion announced Saturday that the 2027 Daytona 500 will be his final start in NASCAR’s top tier. The long goodbye has an end date now.
He said it at Daytona International Speedway, the cathedral of high-speed optimism, a day before what is now officially his second-to-last run in the Great American Race.
“We had a great run here last year,” Johnson said. “I think we have a real shot at winning the Daytona 500 and putting my name on here again. But, I’m just thankful for the opportunity that’s been granted to me through my career. I didn’t use the word retirement way back when in 2020. I still love to compete and want to be on the track and racing.”
Of course he does. Racers don’t stop loving it. They just eventually recognize that love and obsession are not the same thing.
In some respects, this all feels natural. Johnson has crossed the half-century mark. When he straps in for that final Daytona 500 in 2027, he’ll be 51. The razor edges of youth soften. Reaction times become more suggestion than reflex. And the invincibility you carry around at 25 starts to look like a bad investment by 50. Add in the relentless travel, the preparation, the political dance of sponsors and schedules, and you begin to understand why even a seven-time champion might look at the calendar and think, maybe that’s enough.
DOVER, DE – 2001: Jimmie Johnson along pit road prior to a NASCAR Busch Grand National race at Dover Downs International Speedway. Driving for car owner Stanley Herzog, Johnson took one victory and scored nine top-10 finishes during the BGN season. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)
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“The commitment it takes to be where I want to be in the field, I just, I don’t have that in me anymore,” Johnson admitted. “… When I reflect on who I was as a 25 year old kid jumping in that 48 car – I was up at o dark 30 with this passion and energy to chase the day and do the best that I could. I don’t have that passion for that part of life anymore, and that’s been a tough thing to kind of accept, and if I’m honest with myself, maybe the last year or two of driving, I was in that phase, but I mean, I had the best seat in the house. I was almost in denial of, maybe what was going on, and it’s taken time.”
That’s not surrender. That’s clarity.
And clarity doesn’t mean he’s parking himself in a rocking chair. Johnson may be easing off the throttle as a driver, but as a team owner he’s flat out. At Legacy Motor Clubhe’s as likely to be found wrangling emails as he is wrangling race strategy, or buying plants.
“I mean, I had four hours of sleep last night, because we have a sponsor event, and I was up all night doing emails,” he said. “And then I was over at Home Depot this morning buying plants and furniture for our hospitality area and the driver owner lot, and that was fun. I mean, we had a great time this morning doing all that.
“I’m going to go over there and start putting chairs together,” he added chuckling. “So, it’s just, I’m in a different place of life and really enjoying it.”
Seven championships, and now he’s assembling patio furniture. That’s either humility or the most elaborate long game in motorsports history.
The competitive fire? It’s still there. Just redirected. He insists he’s not done racing in general — only done chasing the grind of a full-time, or even part-time, Cup existence. His bucket list remains stubbornly long.
“Man, anything with an engine,” Johnson said. “I was just with Marty (Smith) and (Ryan) McGee, and, McGee mentioned the Bonneville Salt Flats, and, I mean, I’ve never been. I mean, that’s something I should probably try to do, so I’m going figure out. I know our Toyota friends are here, so guys, what can we go break a speed record with?
LE MANS, FRANCE – JUNE 05: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #24 NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet ZL1 looks on prior to the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe June 5, 2023 in Le Mans, France. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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“Between Toyota and Carvana, they’re like, yes, great idea. Let’s go do that. So, we’re racing the Mint 400. I get to go back and go to my roots. Back to my roots and compete with Troy Herbst here in a handful of weeks. So excited about that one. But trying to find those marquee moments, those neat opportunities to go racing.”
That’s the difference. He’s no longer chasing championships. He’s chasing experiences.
Johnson has also embraced a new role — mentor, steady hand, the guy who has seen every possible way a season can go right or terribly wrong. At Legacy, that means guiding drivers like Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek, not just on setup and restarts, but on life.
“I wish that I had more experience in this car to directly help Erik (Jones) and John Hunter (Nemechek),” he said. “I don’t mean necessarily for the car, but the outside parts in life, I love that. It is so rewarding, and something I’ve also really enjoyed was being the nucleus of a team, and getting people to work together – in my day, it was really about 15 to 20 people, just that road crew and a small group of the 48 team, and now it’s 140 men and women at Legacy, and we’ll be growing as we bring on that third car and get closer to 200 employees, and it fills a bucket and gives me a lot of purpose and something I really enjoy.”
That might be the most telling line of all: it fills a bucket. The hunger to win every Sunday has softened, but the hunger to build something lasting has not.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – OCTOBER 12: (L-R) Jimmie Johnson and Richard Petty attend as “The Running Man” Glen Powell serves as NASCAR grand marshall at The South Point 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 12, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Greg Doherty/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
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And whatever comes next, there is one thing that won’t change. Johnson is a NASCAR Hall of Famer and a seven-time Cup champion — a distinction shared with only two others in the sport’s long and loud history. For years, he didn’t quite lean into that.
“I wasn’t as focused on brand on my legacy that I was leaving behind,” he said. “I failed in that respect to take advantage of the moment when I was still in the car, and the next day in the car, and now where I sit in our evolution as a company, the intentionality around our name, the storytelling we plan to do as time goes on and what we want our brand to be about, gives me that chance to really put energy into it and treat that right, and hats off to the Earnhardt family and the Petty family for really carrying that on.
“Being famous or that part of it, and not that the others were, but I just, I didn’t pay any attention to it. I was in such a great system at Hendrick, and they did such an amazing job promoting me in the moment, that when I left, I just wasn’t prepared to keep that going, and I regret that I haven’t, but I still have time ahead of me, and obviously, deeply involved in the sport, and can do that now.”
He may not have chased the spotlight, but it found him anyway. Seven titles tend to do that. And a year from now when he finally climbs out at Daytona for the last time, helmet tucked under his arm and the noise fading behind him, it won’t feel like an ending so much as a handoff. The checkered flag will wave, the crowd will roar, and somewhere in the garage a new 25-year-old will be chasing the same impossible standard Johnson once did. Only this time, he won’t be the one hunting history. He’ll be the one helping shape it.
