Why 2020 isn't just a farewell tour for Johnson

After seven titles in 18 years at the top level, Jimmie Johnson starts his last full-time NASCAR Cup campaign at Daytona this weekend. It hasn't all gone to plan over the past two seasons, in which the now-44-year-old has gone winless. But he is hell-bent, convinced that a record-breaking eighth title is on the table this year, however unlikely that may sound.

Stadium Trophy Truck driver-turned-NASCAR dominator Johnson burst onto the scene full-time in 2002 and just a year later finished second in the Cup standings, hailed as the young challenger to threaten superstar Hendrick Motorsport team-mate Jeff Gordon. Gordon himself helped Rick Hendrick set up the #48 team to launch Johnson to stardom, perhaps creating a beast he couldn't tame in the win-thirsty upstart who has so far amassed 83 victories - the sixth highest in Cup Series history.

Johnson won the 2006-10 championships - earning the nickname 'Five-Time' as the first to win five Cup titles in a row - and added the 2013 and 2016 crowns as others caught up and perfected the tactics of 'The Chase', a 10-race shootout introduced for 2004 which he had immediately taken to.

But by March 2018, early on in what would be his first winless full season in NASCAR, everything was falling apart. The Hendrick Chevrolets weren't competitive against the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing and the Fords of Team Penske, while Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus parted ways after 17 seasons together.

Since then, Johnson has been in damage-limitation and then recovery mode. But 2020, his final full season, is about winning and returning to his rightful place at the top of the pile.

When asked if he thinks a turnaround is possible and whether he can have one of his trademark seasons, he replies: "Yeah, I really do" with the kind of blunt - albeit extremely polite - directness that hints he doesn't even think it's a question worth asking.

"The move with Cliff Daniels [crew chief] coming in late in the year and watching him grow as a leader within the team, there are a lot of things trending the right way," Johnson says.

"What's funny is when I knew everything was aligning that way [positively] at the end of last year, it made making this decision [about ending his full-time career] even easier because I really in my heart feel like I have a great shot of becoming an eight-time champion. That kind of helped with the process and it really could be one of my best years yet."

"After two years of working hard to win a race and then not, I don't care where it shows up, I just want to get back to victory lane" Jimmie Johnson

The thing is, a final year in American sport is usually a farewell period where the narrative is one of 'thanks for your contributions, we appreciate all you've done, finish now after a lucrative retirement circus tour and don't worry about your results'.

But while Johnson accepts that he doesn't know how emotional he's going to be when he hits the track this year, he knows his team is motivated. The fact that Chevrolet is bringing an updated car this year is a big help to what has been a struggling manufacturer and a Hendrick organisation that mostly dominated NASCAR for 20 years.

"I don't know what the emotions will be like at the track, especially later in the year," he says.

"But the excitement this [ending his full-time Cup career] has brought to myself, my family, my friends, and then inside the shop, everyone knows how much of a competitor I am and how badly I want to have a competitive year in 2020.

"Honestly, I haven't seen [such] energy in this race team before, in all of Hendrick, so I'm very excited for it."

Any opposition reading this should be worried about that last statement. Hendrick basically revolutionised modern NASCAR, and Johnson has been around it since the early 2000s.

So for Johnson to be saying he's not seen this level of energy from the team means his evergreen will to win and refusal to go out as a marketing tool to boost ticket numbers is going to be met with a like-minded team, eager to see off one of NASCAR's greats in the best possible way.

There's further proof of Johnson's competitive nature as he picks out some stats he's not happy about. OK, he's the equal best of all time in terms of championships won; he's the most successful driver at four tracks - Fontana, Texas Motor Speedway, Charlotte, Dover; and he's sixth all-time in race wins. But he's still picking out wrongs to right.

He lacks wins at Watkins Glen, the Charlotte 'roval' and Chicagoland, and is one short of Gordon's win tally in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and in the Daytona 500.

Asked about if there are specific events he's looking forward to or has picked out as potential favourites this year, he adds: "Not so much about specific events. But to your point about stats, I think one behind Jeff at Daytona, one behind Jeff at The Brickyard.

"There's three tracks that I haven't won at that are on the calendar so statistically, sure, there's some things out there to chase and if we were to hit them, that would be cool.

"After two years of working hard to win a race and then not, I don't care where it shows up, I just want to get back to victory lane."

That quest for victory will start with the Daytona 500 this weekend - an event he's won twice before - and there's no doubting the significance he places both on winning the event and on contesting it for the last time as a full-time driver. However, he says NASCAR - and the 500 - won't be a completely closed door and admits a return sometime in the future is far from off the table, once he's indulged in opportunities to race in other series.

"I'm definitely open to it [a Daytona 500 return], adds Johnson. "This is about me getting more balance in my life, more family time. Honestly, the competitive side is still very intense. I have some bucket-list races and cars and series I'd love to participate in, and if I don't get to it I'm not going to have a chance.

"When you package all that up, that's why I made the decision, and I'm excited to have 2020 be my last one. But if the right opportunity came along...

"I'm not retiring. It's not that fork in the road for me yet, but I definitely need a balance change.

"I look at the trophies and I don't necessarily see the race win on it, but I remember the guys I worked with and the battles I had with the other drivers" Jimmie Johnson

"The racing there [at Daytona] is really so different than anything else in that luck and other drivers' decisions play a role in success. You almost feel like you went to Vegas and you put your money down on the right colour and, 'Hell yeah, I just won that!'.

"The Brickyard or some of the other marquee events, the team and driver play a greater role. For me it's more the fact that it's the 500 and it's the only race in NASCAR that you get the title for.

"In 2006 [pictured below] we also won the championship at the end of the year, but when we won the race it was mindblowing to me how, everywhere I went, I went from being NASCAR driver to Daytona 500-winning driver Jimmie Johnson - that literally came with the title."

Now that the career - which will make him an almost instant inductee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame - is coming to an end, Johnson is for the first time getting the chance to reflect, something stock car drivers don't get much time for with 36 races in a season.

The California driver has done much to remove NASCAR drivers from the sterotype that fitness and diet isn't important, competing in 146-mile Hawaiian triathlons amid a grueling regime that has shocked even the fittest athletes outside of NASCAR. But it's not the fitness, the success on the race track, wins and championships that Johnson identifies as his legacy.

"The relationships I've made inside the sport and the friendships I have mean more than anything to me," he says. "I look at the trophies and I don't necessarily see the race win on it, but I remember the guys I worked with and the battles I had with the other drivers.

"I'm very much a people person. To have those moments, those are my real takeaway from 19 years in the sport.

"I think for me, I'm sure a lot of racers are this way if not all, but I've really not let in what I've experienced over the years and the race wins. That moment you have a good time with your team and then in NASCAR there's a race the next weekend. There's always a race the next weekend.

"I'm going to work really hard this year to let more in and enjoy this moment because I've spent a life time of worrying about next weekend and after November 8, there really isn't a next weekend. I really want to let that in and enjoy it with my family."

With 30-plus races per year on the calendar, it's easy to see why family man Johnson has announced an end to his full-time career. But he's convinced he's got a chance of a title, and what better way to kick off than with the only race that can be considered bigger than a NASCAR crown - the 500? Johnson, ever the competitor, fancies a third win at the event to tie the legend that is Gordon. And the motivation is there to pull that off.

Whatever his legacy, he'll be able to hold his head high as the dominant but personable champion, who's achieved just as much off the track as he has on it.

Autosport's Daytona 500 preview

You might think the Daytona 500 is way too unpredictable for anyone to get the favourites tag, but it's hard to look past last year's winner Denny Hamlin. At least that's what he believes.

The 2011 and 2019 Daytona 500 winner is NASCAR's nearly man when it comes to the Cup Series title, having yet to snare the crown coming into his 15^th season. But his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team have been strong in recent years on superspeedway tracks - Erik Jones won last weekend's Clash event, a warm-up for the 500 - and Hamlin himself believes he has what it takes to seal a third win.

"I think we have as good or better chance than anyone," Hamlin tells Autosport.

It's not unfamiliar for great drivers to take a long time to win a 500: Dale Earnhardt had to wait for 19 years until his 1998 victory

"I'm happy with the way our car ran in the clash. I'm happy with where we're at and hopefully we have that same success we've been having.

"It's not hugely unpredictable, there's a lot of the same guys up front pretty much every time. It's definitely a little but of luck, but not entirely. You still need to have the skillset to be able to put yourself in position to win these races."

On the otherside of his garage, alongside Jones, is Kyle Busch. He will no doubt go down in NASCAR history as one of its best drivers. But after two championships including last year's Cup Series title, still, one of NASCAR's biggest jewels alludes him. He hasn't won a 500.

To some, its an even bigger title than the NASCAR championship. But it's not unfamiliar for great drivers - even great superspeedway aces - to take a long time to win a 500 as Dale Earnhardt proved - 'the Intimidator' had to wait for 19 years until his 1998 victory. Busch is still four years off breaking that unwanted record, but there's little else for him to prove other than to go and win the 'Great American Race'.

Of active drivers, Hamlin (442) and Busch (423) have the most laps led at superspeedway races (drivers who have started 10 or more relevant races), which means they'll both be frontrunners. They qualified in that order as well, in fifth and sixth, even if Daytona qualifying is a bit like qualifying for a demolition derby - read, pointless.

JGR and Toyota won't have it all its own way though. The Chevrolet and Ford camps will have plenty to throw at Hamlin and Busch too. The man with the highest average finishing position (with 10 starts or more at Daytona) - 2018 500 winner Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing - will be a challenger while his RCR team-mate, two-time Xfinity Series champion Tyler Reddick, also comes with superspeedway pedigree having won at Daytona both in the Truck Series and Xfinity Series.

The Chevy marque brings an updated Camaro ZLE to the series this year with engine updates expected to help, the marque taking the top four spots in qualifying.

The Hendrick Motorsport stable led by the thirsty Jimmie Johnson, in what could be his last 500, mean the bow-tie is well covered. Johnson was fourth-quickest in qualifying, just behind team-mates Alex Bowman (second) and Chase Elliott (third). JTG Daughty's Ricky Stenhouse just pipped them to the pole..

Penske Ford team-mates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are both fierce restrictor plate racers - 2018 champion Logano winning the blue-ribband event as recently as 2015 - but will have to overcome some "dumb, dumb racing" at last weekend's Busch Clash (pictured below). Keselowski, the 2012 champion, called out Logano for his blocking move on Kyle Busch, which instigated a crash that eliminated Keselowski. Both were separately heading to Disneyland after the clash, so let's hope they found an arbitrator.

This year, there might just be one obvious outsider to keep an eye on for Daytona glory. The Wood Brothers - affiliated to the Penske set-up - are one of the most successful outfits in NASCAR history and have been around far longer than any driver in the series. It also helped deliver one of the most incredible sporting upsets when Trevor Bayne won the 2011 event in just his second Cup Series start, which remains his only podium finish to date.

That 'underdog' driver to watch this year then is Wood Brothers' latest signing, Matt DiBenedetto, who led the most laps of the Daytona 500 last year before he was caught in 'the big one', which always strikes on the restrictor plate tracks.

DiBenedetto had bounced around privateers in the Cup Series since 2015 but 2019 was his breakthrough year, his Leavine Family Racing equipment helpfully burbling along courtesy of Joe Gibbs machinery. The 500 was a meteoric rise that ended in disaster.

But now signed to the Wood Brothers after the Leavine team moved him aside to install JGR prodigy in Christopher Bell, DiBenedetto has the full-time drive his breakout 2019 season deserves and is confident of being a challenger at Daytona.

"Superspeedway racing has been something over the years I've studied hardest on and worked on the most to become a better plate racer and its directly correlated to my performance on the race track," he tells Autosport.

"It's become more and more down to a science. Drivers study more and make better decisions and that turned into team-mates working together and now that's turned into manufacturers working well together. There's a lot more studying and fine-tuning that goes into it now, than say, four or five years ago. It's drastically changed."

DiBenedetto (pictured below) was one of the feel good stories of 2019 after securing his Wood Brothers ride, and the best possible way to follow up on that would be with victory. But so much of Daytona is down to luck, and there's strong opposition for what is NASCAR's version of the Le Mans 24 Hours; the event bigger to some drivers than the championship itself.

Daytona 500 qualifying