Jimmie Johnson hasn’t competed in NASCAR full-time since retiring after the 2020 season, but the seven-time Cup Series champion has been picking a few races a year to compete in.
The 50-year-old – who is tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for the most Cup championships in the sport’s history – will run in a couple of NASCAR’s more high-profile races in 2026.
For the fourth consecutive season, Johnson will compete in the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s signature season-opening race. Johnson enters the race using the Open Exemption Provisional, which NASCAR grants to ‘accomplished, world-class drivers.’ Last season, four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves used the provisional to make his NASCAR debut.
The winner of 83 Cup Series races in his long career, Johnson had his best finish in a NASCAR competition since his retirement from full-time racing in last year’s Daytona 500, coming in third. He has two wins at the iconic asphalt superspeedway, taking the checkered flag in 2006 and 2013.
Johnson will race for the team he owns, Legacy Motor Club, which also features Cup Series drivers John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones. He’ll drive the No. 84 Toyota with a blue and yellow paint-scheme with a Carvana sponsor plastered across the hood.
That won’t be the only time fans will see Johnson in a 2026 race. The native of southern California will also compete in the Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series races in San Diego, on the road course for Naval Base Coronado.
‘Growing up just miles from San Diego, I dreamed about racing here in a NASCAR vehicle someday, but I never thought it would be possible. I just came to the realization that there would be no way NASCAR could race in that city – as there would be nowhere to put a track,’ Johnson said in a statement. ‘So, it’s just mind-blowing to me that NASCAR made this a reality.’
Johnson made it official in November that he would be driving in the Cup Series race in San Diego, but announced this week that he would be adding the Truck Series competition to his schedule as well. It’ll be just the second time in his motorsports career that he’s competed in the Truck Series, last doing so in 2008 at Bristol for a team that was owned by Hall of Fame NFL wide receiver Randy Moss. Johnson led 29 laps in that race before crashing out and finishing 34th.
In the 16-turn, 3.4-mile street circuit along the waterfront in San Diego, Johnson will be driving for Tricon Garage. The team has four Truck Series drivers racing in Toyotas, including 2025 champion Cory Heim. Toni Breidinger – another California native who was the only woman to compete in one of NASCAR’s top three touring circuits full-time last year – also races for Tricon.
‘Racing in San Diego means everything to me – it’s home,’ Johnson said. ‘Getting behind the wheel of a Truck Series entry has been on my mind for a while. The competition is incredible, and doing it at a historic street race on a Navy base in my hometown? That’s special.’
Johnson hasn’t won a NASCAR race since taking the checkered flag at Dover in 2017.
