Jimmie Johnson one victory away from tying Dale Earnhardt's 76-career win mark
Jimmie Johnson's quest to tie the late Dale Earnhardt with seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships may be over for this season, but "Six-Time" still has the opportunity this year to match another special mark set by "The Intimidator."
By scoring the late-race victory last weekend over Brad Keselowski at Texas Motor Speedway, Johnson earned his 75th career Sprint Cup win. One more win would put the Hendrick Motorsports driver in a tie on the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup win list with Earnhardt, a member of the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
"It would be huge. Hard to even put it into words," Johnson said of potentially matching Earnhardt's 76 career wins. "I came into this sport hoping to win a race. To have 75 of them is mind-blowing. If I'm able to tie Senior, it's something I would be just extremely proud of."
If Johnson is able to earn his 76th career victory this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, it would be at the same track his teammate and mentor, Jeff Gordon, matched Earnhardt's wins mark in 2007.
Since entering the Sprint Cup Series scene as a relative unknown in 2001, Johnson has built his legacy in NASCAR history.
As a rookie in 2002, the El Cajon, California native earned the pole for his first Daytona 500 and scored three victories, the first coming at Auto Club Speedway in his home state. Since that first three-win season, Johnson has gone on to win at least two races each year, earning a career-high 10 victories in 2007.
This season, Johnson has five wins -- including last weekend's race at Texas -- but was eliminated from championship contention in the Challenger Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
To see how special it is to match Earnhardt's 76-win mark, watch Jeff Gordon's reaction to the accomplishment with this video:
