Jimmie Johnson’s #OneFinalTime send-off from full-time NASCAR racing is on hiatus — as is NASCAR racing, the sports world in general and normal life in the face of a global health crisis. There are now far greater concerns than how his final Cup Series season might play out and what sort of farewell gifts the seven-time champion might receive along the way.
The perspective isn’t lost on Johnson, who took time to soak in remembrances Wednesday as the stock-car racing industry celebrated his career on 4/8 — a day that represented his car number on the calendar — as NASCAR remains on hold as it follows national health guidelines to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
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NASCAR President Steve Phelps said March 17 that the sanctioning body would do “everything in our power” to complete all 36 points-paying races on the 2020 Cup Series schedule, indicating that many options were under consideration for how to fit those in. How that uncertainty might ultimately impact Johnson’s best-laid plans is also unclear.
“It’s been a popular question and I really don’t have an answer just yet, partly because I don’t know what’s going to happen in the coming months and if we’ll be able to run the full season or not,” Johnson told reporters in a Thursday morning teleconference. “I feel like I set out to make 2020 my last full-time year, but I’ve always left the door open for other racing in NASCAR and abroad for the future, and I feel like I’m still pretty much on that path.
“I am hopeful that we get our full year in and we can get back going here in a month or so or whatever the latest projected number possibly could be and that I can run the season in its entirety. I’ve just got to stay fluid at this point. I really don’t have an answer and it’s up in the air, just as so much is in the world right now.”
Johnson announced his plans Nov. 20, saying that while his full-time career in NASCAR was set to end after the 2020 Cup Series season, he still had “bucket-list” items to explore — either in stock car one-offs or other forms of racing. But that was months before the onset of the coronavirus, which has temporarily halted his final campaign just four races in.
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When racing does resume, Phelps said a revised schedule may entail more doubleheader Cup Series weekends or the possibility of compact, midweek events. It’s a scenario that Johnson called a “balancing act” for the series, tracks and broadcast partners, one that gets more complex as the pandemic’s effects continue to alter the schedule.
“How that happens for me, I’m totally fluid. I’m totally open,” Johnson said of a revamped 36-race slate. “I know we’re in uncharted territory here, and I’ll do my part in whatever I can and certainly support whatever decisions are made to try to get in all 36 races.”
Thus far, Johnson has done his share as a competitor in iRacing events — both in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series and in the IndyCar iRacing Challenge — offering fans a chance to see him drive on a near-weekly basis, even as real-world racing sits idle. It’s something he hopes fans will be able to savor again, once a sense of normalcy returns to this most unique of NASCAR farewells.
“For me in my final year in a Cup car, I feel more for the fans that wanted to see me at their track and experience that and have it,” Johnson said. “I mean, I know where I am, and I’m very content and fulfilled with the career I’ve had, and sure I want to be on track, and sure I want to go to these places a final time, but I feel more for the fans that aren’t having that opportunity now than I long for myself to experience it and be there, if that makes any sense.
“That’s only a small piece in the grand scheme of things when you look at the individuals that are affected by the coronavirus, the families that it’s affected, the economy, businesses, business owners. This is way bigger than me, way bigger than what was going to be my final time at these tracks, so that stuff hasn’t really even crossed my mind honestly is why I bring it up. There’s been so many other issues at hand to think about and be concerned with that I haven’t thought much about it at all being my final year and what I might be missing for myself. It’s been more about others.”