Few car numbers in NASCAR history are as inseparable from one driver as the No. 48 is from Jimmie Johnson.
Before Johnson arrived at Hendrick Motorsports, the number did not carry anything close to the significance it does today. By the time his full-time Cup Series career ended in 2020, Johnson had transformed it into one of the most recognizable numbers in stock car racing.
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The numbers alone are staggering: 83 Cup Series victories, seven championships, five consecutive titles, two Daytona 500 victories and four wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Every one of Johnson’s Cup victories and championships came in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
With the No. 48 once again at the center of the NASCAR conversation, here are seven moments that helped turn Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and Hendrick’s No. 48 into one of the most successful combinations the sport has ever seen.
7. Johnson scores his first Cup Series victory in California
It didn’t take long for Johnson to show that Hendrick Motorsports had found something special.
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On April 28, 2002, Johnson won at Auto Club Speedway in just his 13th career Cup Series start. Better yet, he did it in his home state of California.
The victory was the first of a remarkable 83 for Johnson, but his rookie season offered an even bigger indication of what was coming. Johnson ultimately won three races in 2002 and finished fifth in the championship standings.
At the time, it was the breakthrough victory of a promising rookie. In hindsight, it was the first chapter of one of NASCAR’s greatest careers.
6. An emotional Atlanta victory after tragedy strikes Hendrick Motorsports
Not every defining Johnson victory can be measured by trophies or championship implications.
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Hendrick Motorsports suffered an unimaginable tragedy on Oct. 24, 2004, when a team airplane crashed en route to Martinsville Speedway, killing all 10 people aboard.
One week later, NASCAR raced at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Johnson won.
The victory came during an extraordinary late-season run for the No. 48, but what happened after the checkered flag mattered far more than another addition to Johnson’s win total. It became an emotional moment for an organization and racing family trying to process an enormous loss.
Nearly two decades of Johnson’s accomplishments followed, but few No. 48 victories carried more emotion than that one.
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5. Johnson conquers the Daytona 500 without Chad Knaus
Johnson entered the 2006 Daytona 500 under unusual circumstances.
Knaus had been suspended following an infraction during Speedweeks, leaving Darian Grubb to call the race for the No. 48 team. Johnson nevertheless worked his way into contention and survived an overtime finish to capture his first Daytona 500.
He led 24 laps, including the final 17.
The significance only grew from there.
Johnson went on to win his first Cup championship later that year, turning 2006 into the season that elevated him from perennial contender to champion.
And he wasn’t finished at Daytona. Johnson returned seven years later to win the 2013 Daytona 500 before capturing the summer race at the speedway as well, becoming the first driver since 1982 to sweep Daytona’s two Cup races in the same season.
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4. Five consecutive championships rewrite NASCAR history
Picking a single moment from Johnson’s championship streak almost misses the point.
The streak was the moment.
Johnson captured his first championship in 2006. Then he won another in 2007. And 2008. And 2009.
By 2010, Denny Hamlin finally appeared positioned to stop him. Hamlin entered the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway leading the standings, while Johnson arrived in second.
Johnson finished second. Hamlin finished 14th.
The result gave Johnson his fifth consecutive Cup Series championship, with Johnson ultimately beating Hamlin by 39 points.
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Nobody before Johnson had won five consecutive Cup championships. Nobody has done it since.
It remains arguably the defining accomplishment of the Johnson-Knaus era.
3. The No. 48 delivers Hendrick Motorsports’ 200th victory
Johnson didn’t just build his own legacy at Hendrick Motorsports. He became responsible for several of the organization’s biggest milestones.
One of the most important arrived at Darlington Raceway on May 12, 2012.
Johnson led 134 of 368 laps and won the Southern 500, giving Hendrick Motorsports its 200th Cup Series victory.
The setting made the achievement even more fitting. Darlington is one of NASCAR’s oldest and most demanding tracks, and Johnson delivered a landmark victory for an organization that had grown into one of the sport’s dominant forces.
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By then, the No. 48 wasn’t simply another successful Hendrick entry. It had become central to the organization’s history.
2. Johnson joins Petty and Earnhardt as a seven-time champion
Five straight championships established Johnson as one of NASCAR’s all-time greats.
His seventh put him somewhere even more exclusive.
Johnson entered the 2016 championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a chance to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most Cup championships in NASCAR history.
The day hardly unfolded according to plan. Johnson was sent to the rear before the race following unapproved adjustments, and the No. 48 wasn’t the dominant car among the Championship 4 contenders.
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Then everything changed late.
Johnson survived the chaos, grabbed the lead from Kyle Larson during NASCAR overtime and won the race and the championship.
Seven titles.
Petty. Earnhardt. Johnson.
Nobody else has reached that number.
1. Five straight titles turn the No. 48 into a NASCAR dynasty
There are bigger individual victories. There are more dramatic finishes. But nothing defines Jimmie Johnson’s time in the No. 48 better than what happened from 2006 through 2010.
Five seasons. Five championships.
Johnson and Knaus didn’t simply have a dominant season and repeat it once. They survived different competitors, different circumstances and five separate championship battles without surrendering the Cup.
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The run culminated in 2010 when Johnson erased Hamlin’s points advantage in the finale to capture No. 5.
That stretch changed the way an entire generation viewed the No. 48. It went from a car number to the number everyone else was trying to beat.
Johnson eventually added championships Nos. 6 and 7, but those five consecutive titles remain the achievement that may never be replicated.
And Johnson isn’t quite finished with the number.
He is scheduled to reunite with the No. 48 for his final Daytona 500 start in 2027, bringing one of NASCAR’s most successful driver-number pairings back together one last time.
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