RELATED: Full race results | See all the winners of 2016
How many more wins? How many more championships? Jimmie Johnson admits he doesn’t know.
Who can know such a thing?
Who can know when there will be no more dominating performances, no more late-race charges, or the occasional last-lap surprise?
Who can possibly know?
As NASCAR’s premier series settles in for a one-week hiatus before resuming in early April, Johnson hasn’t a clue as to what lies ahead, only that he is prepared to meet it head on.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver won yet again on Sunday, victory No. 77 coming in the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.
The number, like most everything else Johnson does, is notable. He is no longer tied with the legendary Dale Earnhardt in career wins, but now ahead of the seven-time champion in that particular category. He no longer shares seventh place on the series’ all-time win list, but is sole owner of the position.
Five of the six ahead of him in career wins are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and a sixth, former teammate Jeff Gordon, will be an overwhelming selection when the time comes.
Johnson, father of two, turns 41 later this year. He has been competing full-time in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series since 2002 and he has never, ever won fewer than two races in a single season. Sunday’s victory was his second of 2016 and the season is only five races old. That he will win again before this season’s completed isn’t guaranteed, but it’s extremely likely.
Cale Yarborough sits just ahead with 83 career victories; then Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison (84). Gordon walked away with 93 checkered flags, while only David Pearson (105) and Richard Petty (200) ended their respective careers with triple-digit wins.
RELATED: Where Johnson stands in NASCAR history
Just how far can Johnson go?
“I feel like physically and mentally I’m the best that I’ve ever been in my career,” Johnson said Sunday evening. “I’m in a great space and really enjoying going to the race shop, going to the race track, working with my team.”
And that, he said, “tells me it makes me want to stick around and do this for a lot of years.”
Such an outlook might not strike fear into the competition, but it certainly should make them sit up and take note.
Physically, he’s in the best shape of his life — he said he biked some 200 miles during the days leading up to Sunday’s race and that’s only part of the routine that enables him to compete at such a high level each and every weekend.
Other factors – the car and crew chief and pit crew – are just as important, and when they mesh just so, as they have done so often and for so long, trips to Victory Lane often follow.
Chad Knaus, crew chief for 75 of Johnson’s 77 victories, doesn’t know how long his driver can continue knocking off wins or how far up the list he can climb. It’s counterproductive to consider such things, Knaus said.
“If you start shooting (for) goals like that, you can’t do it,” the veteran crew chief said. “The thing you have to do, from my standpoint, is we have to worry about going to Martinsville and trying to win that race first. We have to worry about practicing well, qualifying well, winning that race. Then we have to do the same thing going to Texas, then so on and so forth throughout the rest of the season.”
Case in point: Gordon was 30 when he won his fourth championship in 2001. That success spawned the “Drive for Five” slogan.
While Gordon continued to win races, 35 in fact, his championship total never changed. He ended his racing career last season still a four-time champion.
Johnson’s most recent title came in 2013. There may be more in his future. There may not. Who can know?
“There are no guarantees about when you’re going to win and have success,” Johnson acknowledged. “I’ve been very, very fortunate to win 77 of these things, which blows my mind.
“It’s easy to look at trends and say we win X (races) a year, but at some point that stops; that stops for everybody. I don’t know when that point is for me. I certainly hope it’s not soon.”