How high can Jimmie Johnson climb on all-time wins list?

Jimmie Johnson matched Cale Yarborough’s win total Sunday at Dover with career victory No. 83 and now we sit and ask ourselves just how many more victories does ol’ Seven-Time have left in the tank?

Certainly enough to catch and pass Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip, who sit fourth on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ career wins list with 84 apiece. The Hendrick Motorsports driver could find himself ahead of them before the 2017 season ends.

Allison, the 1983 series champion, tied Yarborough with a win in the summer race at Daytona in 1987. He won the Daytona 500 the following year to take sole possession of fourth place before a career-ending crash at Pocono later that season.

Waltrip matched Yarborough with a win in the night race at Bristol in ’92, then won No. 84 the following week at Darlington. Although he competed for eight more seasons, Waltrip never made it back into the winner’s circle.

Past Allison and Waltrip, the trip up the win ladder gets a bit tougher. Former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon is third on the all-time win list, winning 93 times before moving from the driver’s seat to the broadcast booth after the 2015 season.

Gordon remained competitive right up until his final start, but it’s worth noting that his final 11 wins came during a five-year stretch.

Johnson wins with a frequency rarely seen in NASCAR, especially in recent years. The competitiveness of the series makes single-season, double-digit wins the exception today. Still, Johnson has averaged five wins a season for his career. The last driver to win 10 or more races in a single season was, in fact, Johnson in 2007.

The No. 48 might slow on occasion, but it continues to move forward. Gordon’s mark is far from safe.

Are 100 wins attainable? Or 105, the number of races won by David Pearson and No. 2 on the all-time win list? No one’s cracked the century mark since Pearson, who did most of his damage in the ’70s while driving for Wood Brothers Racing and running a limited schedule.

Johnson would need 22 more wins to pull off that feat and tie the Silver Fox. That’s at least five good years. Five really, really good years. But as he has proven time and time again, Johnson has been able to win consistently.

Johnson turns 42 in September, but his workout regimen would severely test someone much younger. About two decades younger, in fact. He bikes, he swims, he runs. He pushes others to bike, to swim, to run. He’s been known to go on long rides before practice and long runs the morning after races.

Behind the wheel? He’s one of the best at car control and dancing along that razor-thin edge.

But his 83 wins say just as much about his team as they do the driver. Crew chief Chad Knaus has been there from the beginning, pushing his driver and his crew to excel. So too has car chief Ron Malec. So too has primary sponsor Lowe’s and orchestrating it all behind the scenes has been team owner Rick Hendrick.

Take away any one of those and maybe we aren’t wondering how many more wins Johnson can collect. Maybe we aren’t talking about Johnson at all.

The trail beyond Pearson is an unfamiliar one, and used only once.

Richard Petty made it to 105 wins in the ’70s and never tapped the brake. By the time he finally hung up his helmet, Petty had 200 wins and a record that will never be broken.

The King earned his wins against small fields and large fields, on dirt and on pavement, running 50-60 races some years and fewer than 30 during others.

Johnson won’t catch Petty. No one will. The evolution of the sport just won’t allow it.

But the others? Allison and Waltrip and Gordon and Pearson?

Johnson can catch them. He will catch some of them. But all?

It’s certainly possible. So, too, is an eighth championship, something that would put him alone at the top. But would an eighth title quench the fire and leave Johnson and his team with little else to prove?

Only Johnson can answer that. For now, he’s made it to 83 and showing no signs of slowing down.

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