CONCORD, N.C. _ To understand exactly how Jimmie Johnson was at one point as a NASCAR driver, you should remember the verb that his name inspired.
Unflappable, confident and brimming with California cool, Johnson rocketed to a record five straight series championships from 2006-10. So people started wondering how they could "Jimmie-proof" the Cup series. Change the playoff format? Modify the spoiler? What could stop the No. 48 Chevrolet?
It turns out nobody was going to "Jimmie-proof" anything, other than Father Time. Johnson, 44, hasn't won much the past couple of years, didn't make the playoffs in 2019 and so now he has decided that he's finally going to slow himself down.
Johnson said Wednesday he was going to stop driving full-time after the 2020 NASCAR season, which means he's about to have a 38-race retirement party next year and then go on to whatever comes next.
What will that be? He's not exactly sure, but he does know how he'd like to be remembered as a driver.
"For being one of the good guys out there on the track," Johnson said Thursday, "not for standing up and holding a trophy somewhere. More of that heartfelt thing than the stats."
Fair enough. It's impossible to dislike Johnson if you know him even a little bit. He was _ and is _ one of the good guys.
But it would also do Johnson a disservice to recite the most important statistic of his career _ he has won seven Cup series championships overall, which ties him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for the most ever. If you're putting four drivers atop NASCAR's Mount Rushmore, those are three of them. You can argue among yourselves about the fourth.
