Jimmie Johnson reveals his 2025 NASCAR Cup Series plan following Phoenix race

Jimmie Johnson revealed he would return to racing as a NASCAR Cup Series driver permanently in the 2025 season. Carvana is likely to continue sponsoring him as well.

Johnson retired as a full-time driver, with Hendrick Motorsports, at the end of the 2020 season. After a three-year absence from the grid, he returned on a part-time schedule in the 2023 season with Legacy Motor Club. He continued the trend this season and participated in nine races, including the season-opener Daytona 500 and the final race at Phoenix.

Discussing his prospects for the 2025 season, he revealed that he would be returning to the grid once again, however, the races he shall participate in are yet to be decided. He later added that he is in talks with Carvana as his sponsor.

"Yep. I'll definitely be in the car. I just don't know how many," Johnson said.

"Still to be determined" [the races he would take part in]. "Talking with Carvana now. Looks like we'll have at least a couple races with them and we should have that out here pretty soon."

Johnson finished 26th in Phoenix, which was also his best finish in the races he had this season. Meanwhile, Joey Logano clinched his third NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

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"Extremely impressive": Jimmie Johnson on winning a championship in the playoff format

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson mentioned that winning a title in the playoff elimination format can be difficult. This is because the smallest mistakes can put a driver out of contention no matter how competitive they were throughout the season. This happened with Kyle Larson who, despite winning multiple races in the Regular season could not make it to the Championship 4 after the Martinsville race.

However, Joey Logano managed to win his third championship, although far from Johnson's record, but almost halfway there. When asked about his win, Johnson said:

"It's impressive in this format," Jimmie Johnson said. "It is so tough to make the playoffs and to go rounds and put yourself in positions so hats off to him and that team. It's just extremely impressive."

Jimmie Johnson further mentioned that Logano's performance has been in the top tier. Moreover, the Team Penske Fords, who have been very strong at Phoenix in the previous seasons, clinching titles since 2022, didn’t disappoint Logano in his recent fight.

"He's in that highest percentile of talent and guys that do this on a regular basis. We see it year-in and year-out his abilities his drive his focus his performance. And then a lot of it has to do with timing and timing of your manufacturer timing of your team A track that's strong for you and we certainly know this track has been strong for Penske and Ford over the last couple of years."

Joey Logano won his first championship in 2018, followed by his success in 2022. This is his third title, having won all with Team Penske.