The Johnson Era is Over...w/Martinsville Notes

I sincerely apologize to any NASCAR fan or fantasy player who thought 2019 would be Jimmie Johnson’s comeback year.

It seemed like the perfect scenario to light a fire under Johnson and his crew: a new crew chief, a new sponsor and his first winless season in his Monster Energy Cup Series career out of the way. However, six races into the year, Johnson has simply been underwhelming.

Johnson has failed to fini

sh in the top five at all this year, and has only posted two top-10 finishes.

Sunday at Martinsville, a favorite track for Johnson, the seven-time series champ struggled immensely as he dragged his way to a 24th-place finish, two laps off the pace. This is the third race this season Johnson has failed to finish on the lead lap. As mentioned before, six races have been run so far in 2019.

It seems hard to believe the man who basically monopolized the Monster Energy Cup Series as his own since 2006 has basically fallen off the radar to the point where he no longer needs to be considered a contender. But, here we are.

With 83 wins and seven championships to his name, Johnson is one of the greatest of all time and certainly the best of the 2000’s. As for the 2010’s, it’s been an up-and-down ride.

Johnson has been gradually declining from his spot at the peak of NASCAR’s top series, with 2017 being the first big indicator of this. After winning three of the first 13 races, he only posted more six top-10 finishes that year. In 2018, things got significantly worse as he finished in the top 5 five just twice, and posted 11 top-10’s.

While there are 20 races until the 2019 playoffs start and Johnson could very well pull off a surprise win to make his 16th consecutive playoff appearance, the stats don’t look good. He sits 15th in the standings, just one point above the cutoff line. And that winless streak is now up to 65 races, nearly two whole years.

Notes from Martinsville:

• Short-track racing is no fun when one driver leads nearly 90 percent of the laps. Looking at you, Brad Keselowski. Also, Year of Ford.

• Chase Elliott with his first top-five of the season! Is he back? Did he ever leave? When will he win again?

• All four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers finished in the top 10 for the second time this season. Those top 10’s need to turn into wins though to challenge Team Penske or Joe Gibbs Racing cars.

• Where are you, Erik Jones? Another awful day for EJ has finishes a season-worst 30th. He has failed to post a top-10 finish since Atlanta.