NASCAR drivers who made career comebacks

News of Jimmie Johnson's return to NASCAR with a part-owner stake in Petty GMS and a plan to run select races on the Cup Series schedule came as a pleasant surprise to fans of the seven-time champion. Johnson had been away since retiring at the end of 2020 and spent time racing in IndyCar and IMSA, among other series.

But Johnson isn't the only driver to make a memorable return to the sport. Scroll through the gallery and see who else resuscitated their need for speed.

GREG BIFFLE

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 2002-2016 and 2022.
Comeback details: It had been five years since Biffle saddled into a Cup Series car after collecting 19 victories over a span of 15 seasons. His return also came alongside the return of NY Racing Team and the pairing competed in five races during the 2022 season. Their best finish together was a 20th-place effort at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March.

MATT KENSETH

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1998-2018 and 2020.
Comeback details: News of Matt Kenseth's surprise return to NASCAR Cup Series racing in the No. 42 Chevrolet ended a significant hiatus for one of the sport's former champions. Kenseth had been away from the series for nearly three years after stepping away in 2017, but later returned to complete 32 races in 2020 with a best finish of runner up at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

BOBBY LABONTE

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1991, 1993-2016.

Comeback details: The 2000 series champ had dialed back his participation to three or four races a year in the final three seasons of his Hall of Fame career. But Labonte scratched his competitive itch overseas with 15 starts from 2017-19 in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. His best finish was a second-place result on the podium in Tours, France.

JEFF GORDON

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1992-2016.

Comeback details: The four-time champ had completed a farewell tour in 2015, making one last run at the series crown. He returned for eight races the next season as a substitute for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gordon's best finish in that fill-in stint with the No. 88 Chevrolet was a sixth-place effort in his final race, at Martinsville Speedway.

BILL ELLIOTT

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1976-2012

Comeback details: The full-time career for "Awesome Bill" ended in 2003, a season that produced his final major-league win. The years that followed included nine partial campaigns, four of which came with Wood Brothers Racing, but Elliott had been out of the NASCAR national scene for six years when he returned in the Xfinity Series with a one-off start at Road America for GMS Racing. He finished 20th in that 2018 effort at age 62.

RICKY RUDD

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1975-2005, 2007.

Comeback details: "I'll be coming out to check on weekends and I might just sit up in the stands, drink a beer and watch everybody," Rudd said after bringing his career to a presumptive end in the 2005 finale. By 2007, he was back for one last go in Robert Yates' No. 88 Ford. Rudd shared the front row with teammate David Gilliland in his final Daytona 500 but missed five races in his final season after suffering a separated shoulder in a crash at Auto Club Speedway.

MARK MARTIN

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1981-83, 1986-2013.

Comeback details: Martin's flirtation with retirement included a mix of part-time and full-time seasons in his later years. He ran two-thirds of the races in 2007-08 before Hendrick Motorsports lured him back for three full-time campaigns that included a five-win season and runner-up finish in the series points in '09. Martin rounded out the last season of his Hall of Fame career with a mix of part-time and substitute roles, including a 12-race deal in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 with Tony Stewart recovering from injury.

TERRY LABONTE

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1978-2014.

Comeback details: Labonte said farewell to full-time driving after the 2004 season and had marked a November 2006 date at Texas Motor Speedway in his home state as his final Cup Series drive. But the "Iceman" scattered 42 starts over the next eight years for various team owners, including Richard Petty, Michael Waltrip and Frank Stoddard.

TIM FLOCK

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1949-61.

Comeback details: Flock angrily quit NASCAR racing after he was disqualified from an apparent win in the 1954 race at the Daytona beach-road course, calling the penalty for a carburetor violation a "dirty deal." He was back behind the wheel by September of that year and added his second series championship the next season.

CURTIS TURNER

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1949-61, 1965-68.

Comeback details: NASCAR barred the hard-nosed competitor for trying to organize an unauthorized drivers' union during the 1961 season. After some legal wrangling, Turner spent time driving in USAC and managing his timber business before NASCAR reinstated him four years later. His 1965 comeback included his final Cup Series victory, a triumph in the circuit's debut of the North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham driving the Wood Brothers' No. 41.

JAMES HYLTON

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1964, 1966-83, 1985-87, 1989-93.

Comeback details: Hylton's long career in NASCAR's top division tailed off after his last full-season run in 1980, but years later, he made two attempts at Daytona 500 history. Hylton wound up short for qualifying for "The Great American Race" in 2007 and 2009, his last try coming at age 74 -- 16 years after his last Cup Series start. He did make one start in each the Xfinity Series and Craftsman Trucks Series in 2011, just shy of his 77th birthday.

DARRELL WALTRIP

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1972-2000.

Comeback details: After ending a Hall of Fame career on the Cup Series side, DW was lured back to competition with nine national-series starts on short tracks over the next six years. Those post-retirement appearances came at Indianapolis Raceway Park (three Craftsman Truck Series starts) and Martinsville Speedway (six starts -- five in Craftsman Truck Series, one in Xfinity Series). Waltrip's final go came in this No. 99 Dodge at Martinsville in 2006, driving in the Xfinity Series for his brother, Michael.

CHARLIE GLOTZBACH

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1960-61, 1967-76, 1981, 1990, 1992.

Comeback details: "Chargin' Charlie" never competed in a full season at the Cup Series level, and the path of his NASCAR career was not exactly a continuous line. When Glotzbach reappeared in 1990, it marked the four-time winner's first start in nearly nine years. His career ended with a seven-race stint in Junie Donlavey's venerable No. 90 in 1992, followed by an unsuccessful bid to make the first Brickyard 400 in 1994, when he was one of a staggering 43 drivers who failed to qualify.

RUSTY WALLACE

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1980-2005

Comeback details: Wallace closed out his career as the longtime driver of Team Penske's No. 2 with a farewell season billed as "Rusty's Last Call." While it might not count as a comeback in the truest sense, Wallace suited back up for one more round in 2014, taking the wheel of the No. 2 from Brad Keselowski for preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway. "If Rusty wants to drive my car, he can drive it any time," Keselowski cracked during Wallace's one-time return. "Just don't take my paycheck."

RICHARD BRICKHOUSE

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1968-1970, 1979, 1982.

Comeback details: Brickhouse's fleeting career (39 Cup Series starts) included one major highlight, winning the 1969 Talladega 500 in the Alabama track's debut. The promise of a steady ride never materialized after he broke ranks from the drivers' association boycott to compete that day. Still, Brickhouse's appearance on the entry list at Rockingham Speedway in 1995 -- 13 years after his final start -- came as a bolt from the blue. He failed to qualify in the No. 14 Skillen Racing Chevrolet, five days before his 56th birthday.

FRED LORENZEN

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1956, 1960-67, 1970-72.

Comeback details: The Illinois native had already built a reputation as a winning force during his partnership with the Holman-Moody team when he opted to retire after running just five races into the 1967 campaign. Three years later, at age 35, he returned. "I just got jittery," Lorenzen told The Associated Press in 1970. "I missed racing a lot. Every time I read in the papers about a race, I got homesick." He led 47 laps in his comeback race -- the World 600 -- before engine failure sidelined him. Overall, Lorenzen ran 29 races from 1970-72, claiming two pole positions but no wins as he closed out a Hall of Fame career.

HARRY GANT

Years active in NASCAR Cup Series: 1973-94.

Comeback details: "Handsome Harry" retired after scoring 18 Cup Series wins in a long NASCAR career, but he was drawn back to the race track on two fronts in 1996. Gant tried his hand at the relatively new Craftsman Truck Series with a recreational 11-race deal, saying he was racing "strictly for fun." His other return came in that year's NASCAR All-Star Race as a fill-in for Bill Elliott, who had suffered a broken leg in a crash two weeks earlier at Talladega Superspeedway. Gant finished 15th in the McDonald's "Hurry Back, Bill" No. 94 Ford in his final Cup Series appearance at age 56.