MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Where does the time go?
By the time you read this column, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will have run his final NASCAR race; Clint Bowyer, Jason Line and Jeg Coughlin will have retired; and World of Outlaws sprint car champion Daryn Pittman will have stepped away from full-time racing.
Meanwhile, other drivers who began their careers “only yesterday,” including Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Matt Kenseth, are trying to figure out what the future holds for them behind the wheel of a race car.
Few outside of the off-road world knew anything about Johnson when he entered the ASA ACDelco Challenge Series as a rookie in 1998 and finished fourth in the standings. Johnson won twice and finished third in the standings the following season and quickly made the move to the NACAR Xfinity Series with Herzog Motorsports.
After two seasons where he finished 10th and eighth in the standings and won a single race, Johnson got the call to drive a fourth NASCAR Cup Series car for Hendrick Motorsports beginning in 2002.
Most of the racing world was shocked at the hiring, but Johnson would have the last laugh.
Now, after 19 full seasons in the Cup Series, Johnson leaves NASCAR as one of only three drivers to win seven series championships and his 83 victories rank sixth on the list of all-time Cup Series winners.
Interestingly, the 45-year-old Californian will continue racing, running a limited schedule of NTT IndyCar Series races for Chip Ganassi Racing for at least the next two years.
Bowyer also caught racing’s “talent scouts” by surprise, rising from the dirt tracks of the Midwest to make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in 2005 and run his first full season the following year.
A consistent performer through 15 Cup Series seasons, the Kansas native won 10 races on the circuit and was one of the most popular drivers because of his down-to-earth personality and his sense of humor.
Bowyer, 41, will move to the FOX broadcast booth next season where he’ll define the term “color commentator.”
Starting his sprint car racing career as a teenager in his native Oklahoma, Pittman ran his first season with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series in 1999. He won his first feature with the series the following year.
Pittman landed with Kasey Kahne Racing and won eight races en route to the World of Outlaws title in 2013. The following season, he won 14 main events racing with the Greatest Show on Dirt.
During the summer stretch drive of this pandemic-plagued season, Pittman decided he would step away from the cockpit at the end of this year to focus on business ventures. The 42-year-old driver has won 86 World of Outlaws races, including one this season.
Line, 51, and Coughlin, 50, left the sport simultaneously after long careers in NHRA drag racing.
Coughlin earned five Pro Stock championships and won 65 races. Line, who will continue as an engine builder for KB Racing, was no slouch. He won 51 Pro Stock national events and three series championships.
Line was the NHRA rookie of the year in 2004 and Coughlin, who won the NHRA Super Gas title in 1992, earned his first Pro Stock crown in 2000. Coughlin made his Pro Stock debut in 1997 when he became the first driver to win in four NHRA classes in a single season.
Meanwhile, Indy car racing legends Castroneves and Kanaan are each looking to land rides to take another crack at winning the Indianapolis 500.
Kanaan, who turns 46 in December, made his first Indy car start with Tasman Motorsports in 1998. He won the Indy 500 for KV Racing in 2013.
Castroneves made his Indy car debut with Bettenhausen Racing in 1998. He joined Team Penske in 2000 and won his first of three Indianapolis 500s the following year. Castroneves, who has raced full time in IMSA the past three seasons, is 45 years old.
Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR Cup Series champion, appears to be finished as a full-time racer. Kenseth made his Cup Series debut in 1998, subbing for Bill Elliott and finishing sixth at Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway. The 48-year-old Wisconsin native had been out of racing for more than a year when he got the call to replace Kyle Larson with Chip Ganassi Racing earlier this season.
Kenseth has won 39 Cup Series races.
Time flies.