Jimmie Johnson, who retired from full-time competition as a NASCAR Cup Series driver at the end of the 2020 season, was named the 2020 winner of the Myers Brothers Award on Tuesday. The award, presented yearly by the National Motorsports Press Association since 1958, recognizes contributions to stock car racing.
“What an honor! The Myers Brothers have been such a big part of this sport,” Johnson said. “ Every year as I sat through the luncheon at the banquet, I was always so proud of the winners of this award, and to be the recipient of the 2020 award truly humbles me. I’m so proud and thankful and appreciate those who voted. What a great surprise.”
Johnson is a seven-time champion in NASCAR’s top series, matching the record held by NASCAR Hall of Fame members Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Johnson is the sole holder of the record for most-consecutive Cup Series championships with five, those titles coming between 2006 and 2010. His other two championships came in 2013 and 2016.
Johnson also has 83 Cup Series wins, tying him for sixth on the all-time wins list with another NASCAR Hall of Famer, Cale Yarborough.
“I think the thing about Jimmie through all that, he’s the same Jimmie Johnson,” Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said. “Never a cross word with him. Never asked him to do anything that he didn’t do. He’s just a guy, never hear him say anything about anybody else. He’s as close to perfect as you can get to be a competitor that can do what he can do on the race track. Just a super individual.”
All 686 of Johnson’s career-starts in the Cup Series came from behind the wheel of the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He contested three races for HMS in 2001 before going full-time in NASCAR’s top series in 2002.
Previous winners of the award include Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Petty, Junior Johnson, and the Wood brothers, among others.
