7-time NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson to retire at end of 2020 season
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Jimmie Johnson has announced plans to retire from full-time racing at the end of the 2020 season.
(Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion has spent his entire top-level career with Hendrick Motorsports.
Johnson debuted in the series in 2001 and won five straight championships from 2006 to 2010, adding two more in 2013 and 2016 to put him level with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt on the career list with seven titles.
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Johnson and wife Chandra have two daughters, Genevieve and Lydia. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Johnson’s 83 race victories also ties him with Cale Yarborough for sixth on the all-time wins list, but the 44-year-old is currently the oldest full-time driver in the series and has been struggling by his own standards in recent years, hot having won a points race since June 2017.
He’s looking to turn that around in his final full season on the circuit, when he says he will be "#Chasing8 one final time."
“I know what this team is capable of, and I hope that 2020 will be one of the best yet,” he said in a video he posted to Twitter to announce his retirement.
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