Now the Hendrick Motorsports driver has 10 races to reach a milestone few thought possible.
Jeff Gordon won four championships by the age of 30. At 43, the driver tabbed "Wonder Boy" by Earnhardt so many years ago is still chasing that elusive fifth crown.
In the meantime, Johnson has caught and passed his teammate and sits squarely in the mirror of two of the sport’s most recognizable figures.
If there is pressure and stress, it’s tucked away, hidden beneath the concerns that the No. 48 team faces each week.
Is he racing for the 2014 championship, or a place in history?
"Right now, it’s an opportunity to win this year’s championship," Johnson, 38, said last week. "And it’s kind of been that way for me over the years, even when we had that (five-year) consecutive streak going.
"I didn’t feel the pressure of that streak, and I don’t think I’ll feel the pressure to try and tie our two greats in our sport until it’s right there in front of me."
• • •
It took Earnhardt 15 years to equal Petty’s mark, finally drawing even with the King in 1994.
But team owner Richard Childress, who fielded cars for six of Earnhardt’s seven championships, said he and his driver never talked about catching a legend. Seven was just a number. It just wasn’t their number.
"We never talked about winning the seventh championship," Childress told NASCAR.com. "We talked about winning nine or 10. We never just got hung up on seven.
"We missed in 2000 (finishing second to Bobby Labonte); there was one other year, the year Rusty (Wallace) won (in ’89). We were racing him right up until the end."
Earnhardt won the season-ending race, held at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but Wallace won the title by just 12 points.
"So we were right there," Childress said. "But we never talked about just winning one championship; we always talked about ‘How are we going to win the rest of them?’ "
Childress said he expects Johnson to eventually win a seventh title, and likely more.
"With his age and if they don’t have some big blowup or something along the way, Jimmie Johnson will be the guy that will sit there and win those nine or eight … or however many he desires to win," he said.
"I just think he has the talent, and the team has the resources and personnel."
• • •
By the time Johnson arrived on the scene, drivers for team owner Rick Hendrick had already won five titles — Gordon was wrapping up No. 4 while Terry Labonte had won the title in ’96.
But how would the former off-road truck racer adapt to the rigors of stock-car competition?
"I felt like if Jimmie could win races and be competitive in the top 10 (in points), that would be great," Hendrick said. "You never know how a young guy will end up.
"I remember when the chairman of Lowe’s (primary sponsor for the team) asked ‘Can you win?’ When Jimmie said, ‘Yes, I can win,’ I was thinking, ‘Man, we better win.’ "
"I thought he had the potential to be a champion and win races, but I could never have predicted what’s happened since then."
Johnson began competing full-time in NASCAR’s premier series in ’02, and has driven exclusively for Hendrick. In addition to his six championships, he has won 69 races, including a record 24 in the Chase. He is the only driver to qualify for 10-race battle each year since the format was unveiled in 2004.
Winning a single championship brings with it a sense of accomplishment. It also brings the anxiety and pressure to continue to perform at a higher level than everyone else.
When Earnhardt won his second title in 1986, his first with Childress, the car owner admitted, "It was like the world was lifted off my shoulders.
"Then we came back and won our second one in ’87 and it was just as exciting, if not more exciting," Childress said. "But you knew what to expect."
Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress talk strategy before a Cup race in 1990.
Dale Inman served as crew chief for all seven of Petty’s championships, then added an eighth with Labonte in 1984.
Earnhardt won his seven titles with the combination of Jake Elder and Doug Richart in 1980 while driving for team owner Rod Osterlund, then Kirk Shelmerdine (1986-87 and ’90-91) and Andy Petree (’93-94) while with Childress.
The man in Johnson’s ear from the beginning, save for a handful of starts, has remained the same.
Chad Knaus had been an integral part of Gordon’s championship-winning teams in ’95 and ’97 as a crewman on the No. 24 team. Immediately following Gordon’s second title, Knaus left the organization.
"The day after we won the championship, I started at Dale Earnhardt Inc.," he said. "I never celebrated once with the team. I was worried and focused on going out there and doing the best I could do for my next new adventure."
His stay at DEI, however, was brief.
"That deal didn’t work out," said Knaus. "I’m not going to lie; the next few years of my life were painful to say the least. I went through some stages where I was unemployed. Here I am, a two-time champion mechanic, fabricator, tire changer (and) I couldn’t even get a job. I had nothing. I was down and out, much like what I was when I was trying to get my first job."
Work eventually surfaced — aiding Dodge and team owner Ray Evernham with the reintroduction of the automaker into NASCAR, as well as crew chief with Melling Racing and driver Stacy Compton in ’01.
Then came the call from Hendrick.
"If you ever see that name pop up on your phone, that’s kind of a big deal," Knaus said of the team owner.
"(Rick) says, ‘Hey we’re starting a new team in 2002 with this driver by the name of Jimmie Johnson. We would like to know if you would be interested in being a crew chief.’
"I was like, ‘Who in the world is Jimmie Johnson? He’s won one (Nationwide) race at Chicago on fuel mileage. Man, that’s a promising prospect you’ve got there.’
The plan was to use some of Gordon’s championship-winning cars from the previous year as well as several members of Gordon’s title-winning pit crew as the framework for the team.
It wasn’t until the driver sat down with the crew chief for the first time that Knaus said he knew it could work.
"Man we hit it off just like that," he said. "We talked about everything but race cars … everything but racing. And at that point in time, I felt like I had met a friend for life. It’s very interesting that we have been able to be as successful as we have. But that connection that we had in that first meeting was amazing."
Not that there haven’t been rough spots along the way.
Second in points in 2003 and ’04, Johnson and the team were favored to win it all in ’05. But by the time he finished 40th at Homestead, and fifth in points, he and Knaus were barely speaking to one another.
While not quick to pull the trigger and make a personnel change, Hendrick knows when it’s time to make a move. He also knows when to stand pat.
"Any time you have a driver and crew chief together for awhile, you’re going to have ups and downs," Hendrick said. "When things aren’t going well, there’s a tendency to finger-point and go at each other a little bit.
"They’ve grown to be so professional and to have so much respect for each other, there hasn’t been another time (since the ’05 season) when there was ever any thought of (splitting them up)."
Childress also knows the anxiety that comes with failing to live up to expectations. After a rash of engine failures in 1985 and an eighth-place points finish, the owner said he didn’t feel his team was as strong as its driver. Instead of making personnel changes, he suggested that Earnhardt "go find another (ride)."
"Because we weren’t doing him justice," Childress said. "(Dale) said, ‘Nope, I started it with you and I’m going to end it with you.’ "
The result?
"We came back the next year and won the championship," he said.
Richard Petty after his 200th Cup victory in the 1984 Firecracker 400.
Petty won two races in 1984, bringing his total to 200, and finished in the top 10 in points for one of the final times of his career.
Earnhardt and Childress were starting to make noise, in spite of the team’s occasional struggles at the time.
And Hendrick, a native of South Hill, Virginia, debuted as a team owner in NASCAR’s premier series.
Never did he imagine that one day one of his drivers would have the chance to match the accomplishments of such fabled drivers.
"It’s a very competitive sport," said Hendrick. "When I first started in 1984, my dream was to win one race. I thought that would be an incredible accomplishment and certainly never imagined what’s happened over the last 30 years or the things drivers like Jimmie and Jeff would do.
"You’ve got to say that Jimmie is one of the most awesome talents of all time. It would be nice to put on a race with those guys — Jimmie, Jeff, Richard Petty, Earnhardt and all — in their primes and see what would happen. Then we might be able to settle it.
"But history will show Jimmie as one of the best that’s ever driven. There’s just no question."
• • •
Seven? It’s out there, somewhere beyond the minefield of 10 Chase races that stretch from Chicago to New England, Phoenix to Homestead.
History is out there, too.
"If I get to Homestead and have a chance," Johnson said, "as much as I want to push that out of my mind that I’m racing for history, it will be there.
"And I won’t be able to hide from it at that point."
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