NASCAR insider reveals future Cup Series plans for Jimmie Johnson beyond Coca-Cola 600

This Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be NASCAR Cup Series start No. 700 of Jimmie Johnson‘s Hall of Fame career. While 700 for the seven-time champion has a nice ring to it, Johnson isn’t viewing this as an official retirement race.

Per Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, plans to return to Cup competition at some point after Charlotte: “There’s been speculation that 700 for seven-time is the end, but FYI that’s not the plan. It’s a significant round number at the place where JJ made his first start, but we will see him in a Cup car again,” Gluck wrote Friday on X.

Johnson also appeared on Friday’s “Rubbin is Racing” podcast, where he confirmed the plan is to compete more both this year and next. How many races is currently unknown.

“It really is just luck that the 700th start ends up at Charlotte and the track where I had my first start,” Johnson said. “I think we ran nine last year and once we started planning for this year in the Daytona 500, we realized 700 would be in Charlotte. I’m not a numbers guy, but I literally have not been paying attention to this. It would have been amazing to plan at being done at 700 or some element of, but that’s really not the case.

“I hope I can get in the car a few more times this year if circumstances present themselves. And then next year and our evolution into a third car here at Legacy Motor Club. There’s an option there where I could help build the team and so, we’re looking at that as one of the many options which would then put me in the car a fair amount next year.”

Jimmie Johnson returns to Charlotte for 700th career start

Johnson, the Legacy Motor Club co-owner, will be making his 14th start for his race team. He finished third in this year’s Daytona 500 back in February. His P3 finish at Daytona is his only top-25 finish in a Legacy car. In 2024, Johnson had an average finish of 30.55 in his nine starts.

Obviously, that isn’t stopping the 49-year-old from continuing to get back inside the race car. And for a driver who has an argument to be on NASCAR’s Mount Rushmore, who’s to tell him when it’s time to stop racing for good?

Beyond being his 700th start, Charlotte is the site of his first career Cup start, which came in 2001. It was the beginning of one of the greatest careers of any driver across any discipline of motorsport. Johnson has compiled 83 wins, 233 top five finishes and 375 top 10 finishes. His seven Cup Championships are tied for the most all-time with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Johnson won five Championships in a row from 2006-10, something no other driver has ever accomplished.