Johnson was born on September 17, 1975 in El Cajon, California, the son of Catherine Ellen “Cathy” (née Dunnill) and Gary Ernest Johnson. He has two younger brothers, Jarit and Jessie. Both have made professional off-road racing starts in the TORC: The Off-Road Championship. Johnson attended Granite Hills High School, while he raced motorcycles during the weekends. He was a varsity water polo player, diver, and swimmer, and graduated in 1993. The number 48 is retired from all sports teams uniforms at his school and Johnson was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Johnson lives in Charlotte, North Carolina like many other NASCAR drivers. He is married to Chandra Janway, the two having known each other since 2002. They have two daughters, Genevieve and Lydia.

Johnson started racing motorcycles in 1980 when he was four. Three years later, he won the 60cc class championship, despite having an injured knee. Afterward, he moved to the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group (MTEG) Stadium Racing Series where he won several more awards. In 1993, Johnson was given the opportunity to drive for Herb Fishel. He refused the deal and continued racing buggies and trucks in off-road stadium and desert races. He also reported for ESPN in the Short Course Off-Road Drivers Association (SODA). Three years later, Johnson drove for Herzog Motorsports in the off-road truck series in 1996. By 1997, Johnson had progressed to SODA’s Class 8; Class 8 is short-course off-road racing’s class of two-wheel-drive Trophy Trucks which generate about 800 horsepower. He battled Scott Taylor and Brendan Gaughan for the championship. That year, Johnson won both races at Lake Geneva Raceway’s first race weekend in May. He also won the season’s third event at Antigo before finishing second to Gaughan at Antigo’s second race. Johnson returned to Lake Geneva in July, winning the Saturday race and finished second on the following day. Taylor ended up winning the championship with Gaughan second and Johnson third.

Returning to Daytona for the Coke Zero 400, Johnson led 94 laps and held off Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick on a green-white-checker finish to win his fourth race of the year. In winning the race, Johnson became the first driver since Bobby Allison in 1982 to sweep both Daytona races in a season. This was a significant improvement in Johnson’s runs on the restrictor plate tracks, as he had been crashed out of the running at both Daytona races in 2012, had an engine failure early while leading at Talladega in the spring and was part of a crash on the last lap in the fall. Also, he was one of only three drivers to sweep the top ten, the other two drivers being Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Johnson began racing full-time in the Winston Cup Series during the 2002 season. He earned his first career pole position for the Daytona 500, becoming the third rookie to do so (the first were Loy Allen Jr. in 1994 and Mike Skinner in 1997). In his 13th career start, Johnson scored his first career win in the NAPA Auto Parts 500 at Auto Club Speedway. Johnson became the first rookie driver to lead the point standings and to win twice at the same track during a season, by sweeping both races at Dover. In the Coca-Cola 600, Johnson led 263 laps before he got a penalty for overshooting his pit box. He recorded four pole positions and three wins (tying the rookie record set by Tony Stewart in 1999), as well as six top fives and twenty-one top ten finishes. He finished fifth in the final point standings. However, despite the strong season, Ryan Newman won rookie of the year honors over Johnson.

In SCORE, he won races and had a few memorable finishes, like that in the 1995 Baja 1000, after leading over 900 miles, he fell asleep behind the wheel and woke up to find himself going off course. His Trophy Truck, Butch (the paint scheme of which was used for a throwback for Johnson’s 48 car in the 2019 Southern 500, and the car that was used by Larry Ragland in wins such as the 1991 Baja 1000), was wrecked.

In 1997, he began racing on asphalt ovals when he ran three races in the American Speed Association (ASA), making his debut at Hawkeye Downs Speedway. Driving for Herzog Motorsports’ stock car program, he won the ASA Pat Schauer Memorial Rookie title in 1998. One year later, he had two wins and finished third in the standings. Johnson finished second in the two races at Fairgrounds Speedway he participated in over those two years.

Johnson made his NASCAR Busch Series (now NASCAR Xfinity Series) debut at the 1998 Indianapolis Raceway Park event, where he finished 25th for ST Motorsports. He continued his limited slate in 1999 with Herzog Motorsports before moving to a full-time schedule in 2000. At Watkins Glen International, he had a spectacular accident on lap 46 when his brakes failed entering the first turn. He had to swerve quickly to the right to avoid the No. 86 of Dennis Demers, but went into the grass on the inside of turn one, then went back across the track, caught some air on the gravel trap before finally crashing head-on into the Styrofoam barriers at the far end of the turn while still more than 150+ MPH. He eventually climbed out of the car unscathed and raised his fists in the air like he had won the race. Johnson noted he was “so happy to be alive and OK. The next couple of days I was really sore.” Otherwise, in a rather uneventful season which featured one DNQ at Daytona and six top-10s, he finished tenth in the point standings.

In 2000, People recognized Johnson as one of their “Men in the Fast Lane”.

In 2001, he recorded one win at Chicagoland Speedway, and finished eighth in the point standings, his win at Chicagoland would be his only throughout his career at the track. During the year, he joined Hendrick Motorsports for a four-race schedule in the Winston Cup Series, making his series debut in the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The opportunity was made available when he connected with Hendrick driver Jeff Gordon during the 2000 Busch season; with Herzog facing shutdown due to sponsorship issues, Johnson approached Gordon and was informed of the team’s intention to field a fourth car for him.

Johnson formally moved to Hendrick in 2002, driving the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet.

Johnson’s Speedweeks did not go smoothly, wrecking in each of his three races. At the Advance Auto Parts Clash, he was wrecked on the last lap by Kyle Larson; this was the seventh year in a row he failed to finish the Clash. Johnson qualified third for the 2018 Daytona 500, but had to go to a backup car after wrecking in his Duel. On lap 59 of the Daytona 500, he got caught up in a wreck started by Ryan Blaney, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., which also involved his teammate William Byron, Erik Jones, Daniel Suárez, Trevor Bayne, and Ty Dillon and ended up 38th. Since then, Johnson struggled throughout the 2018 season with only two top-fives and eight top-10 finishes by the time he barely made the Playoffs for the 15th season in a row. Johnson’s only great run off the season came at the Charlotte Roval race where he ran in the Top 10 for most of the day and battled Martin Truex Jr. for the win on the final lap, but he locked his brakes on turn 17 and spun out of control, taking Truex out with him in the process while Blaney passed them to win the race. Johnson finished eighth, and as a result of a three-way tie with 0 points, he was eliminated in the Round of 16. Johnson would go on to score only one more top-ten finish afterwards and wound up a then career-worst 14th in the final point standings since running full-time in 2002, winless for the first time in his illustrious career along with equaling a career-low 11 top-ten finishes for the second season in a row.

Johnson first raced in the Race of Champions in Europe in 2002. He was eliminated in the first runoff by then world rally champion Marcus Grönholm of Finland but he and Jeff Gordon and Colin Edwards racing as Team USA won the teams’ championship. He returned to the event two years later but lost the quarter finals 0–2 to Mattias Ekström of Sweden who was DTM German Touring Car champion that year. Johnson entered the 2006 Race of Champions but did not start due to injury received just days before the race. He still attended the event to cheer for teammate Travis Pastrana. In the 2007 event Johnson was eliminated before the quarter-finals by F1 driver Sébastien Bourdais of France.

During 2003, Johnson finished ninth on the all-time list for consecutive weeks ranked in the top ten in points with 69. He won three races (Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and both New Hampshire races), two poles (at Kansas Speedway and Pocono Raceway), fourteen top fives, and twenty top ten finishes, including a second-place finish at Rockingham after leading 78 laps. He also was able to win the All-Star race for the first time, as well as finishing second with just 90 points behind Matt Kenseth and 207 ahead of his future teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

In 2004, Johnson started slowly at Rockingham Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway with results of 41st and 16th, after a top ten finish in the Daytona 500. However, he quickly was able to rebound winning the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway. Subsequent victories in the Coca-Cola 600, the Pocono 500, and the Pennsylvania 500 came in the middle of the season, seeing Johnson sweep the Pocono races. However, finishes of 37th and 32nd at Talladega Superspeedway and Kansas moved him toward the bottom of the point standings. Afterward, he was able to win the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The second victory of the 2004 Chase for the Nextel Cup, at the Subway 500 at Martinsville on October 24, 2004, was marred by tragedy. Owner Rick Hendrick’s son Ricky, twin nieces, brother, and chief engine builder Randy Dorton as well as Joe Turner, Scott Lathram were killed in an airplane crash en route to the race. All eight passengers and both pilots died in the incident, and Johnson was told after completion of the race. Johnson had a total of eight wins, 20 top five and 23 top ten finishes. At the end of the season, Johnson finished second in the point standings.

In 2004, he started racing in Grand-Am with the 24 Hours of Daytona, where he finished eighth. He also entered the event one year later, which his team, Howard-Boss Motorsports, finished second. Two years later, he entered two events, which were both held at Daytona International Speedway. During the races, his team finished 9th and 19th. In 2008, Johnson moved to Bob Stallings Racing with Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty to race in the 2008 Rolex 24 at Daytona, where the team finished second. One year later, he returned with GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing for his fifth Rolex 24 appearance. During the race, his team finished seventh. He returned to the team in 2010, to race in the Rolex 24 and Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen. During the Rolex 24 at Daytona his team finished 21st, while at Watkins Glen the team finished sixth. He returned to the Rolex 24, in 2011 where his team finished 15th.

Johnson was close friends with NASCAR competitor Blaise Alexander. Following Alexander’s death during a racing incident, Johnson’s car has had a flame decal with Alexander’s initials inside of it on every car. In 2004, following the plane crash that killed the son of Rick Hendrick, Ricky, along with nine others, the tail number of the Hendrick plane that crashed was added alongside Alexander’s initials.

In 2005, Johnson won at Las Vegas, Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway, and then again at Lowe’s. In total, Johnson had four consecutive wins at his sponsor (Lowe’s) sponsored track in Charlotte, North Carolina. He won the Coca-Cola 600 that year, which broke the record for the most amount of yellow flags in a Cup Series race, by beating Bobby Labonte by .027 seconds. Johnson had a chance to win the championship coming into the November 20 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but finished 5th in points after crashing at the midway point of the event with a tire problem. He scored 13 top-fives, 22 top-10 finishes, and one pole position.

Johnson made an appearance as himself in the 2005 film Herbie: Fully Loaded, commenting on Herbie’s sunroof as unusual for a stock car to have, and his car is also briefly seen from Herbie’s POV.

Johnson starred in an episode of the television series Las Vegas in 2005.

In 2006, Johnson began the season by winning the Daytona 500. The Daytona 500 also marked his first race with Earl Barban as the spotter, who would end up winning five championships with Johnson and the No. 48 team. He finished second in the next race at California Speedway and won the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas by passing Matt Kenseth on the last lap. Johnson won his third race of the season in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega, followed by two more victories at Indianapolis and Martinsville. One highlight of the season was when he saved the car from slamming into the wall when he spun out during qualifications at the first Dover race. Throughout the season, he became the only modern era driver to win at least three races in each of his first five seasons. He started the chase with unfortunate mishaps in the first four races; a DNF at New Hampshire, a pitting mistake at Dover, a penalty at Kansas (he led the most laps in the race), and, while trying to make a pass for first at Talladega, getting clipped and spinning out. He and the team kept their hopes up and rallied with 5 straight top 2 finishes including a win at Martinsville to come back from 8th in the points standings to take the championship. At the end of the season, he recorded one pole, 13 top fives, 24 top tens, and his first championship title (this was also the first in his NASCAR career). In December, Johnson won the 2006 Driver of the Year Award.

The Jimmie Johnson Foundation was launched by Johnson and his wife, Chandra, in 2006. The foundation helps children, families, and communities in need. In 2007, Johnson opened Jimmie Johnson’s Victory Lanes in Randleman, North Carolina, which is a four-lane bowling alley for campers at Pattie and Kyle Petty’s Victory Junction Gang Camp. The foundation supports several charities, including Habitat for Humanity, Hendrick Marrow Program, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Victory Junction. Every year, it holds a golf tournament in San Diego, which raises money for K-12 public education. Since the beginning, the tournament has raised a total of $8 million to help fund several projects. During 2009 and 2010, the foundation awarded $1.5 million for the Education Champions Grants program. The money is given to public schools in California, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. It helps fund basic needs, such as technology, outdoor classrooms, playground construction, and reading programs. The foundation has also assisted the American Red Cross with disaster relief efforts.

During the 2007 season, Johnson continued on a streak and recorded 10 wins, four poles, 20 top fives, and again 24 top ten finishes. Those 10 wins included sweeping both races at Richmond, Atlanta, and Martinsville. He also won at Las Vegas, Auto Club, Texas, and Phoenix. Afterwards, he won his second consecutive championship title and was named the 2007 Driver of the Year. Johnson also had the best average finish in the Chase with 5.0. At the end of the season, he had a total of 33 career wins, placing him 18th on the all-time wins list.

In December 2007, Johnson commenced a program of exercise sessions and a run schedule supervised by John Sitaras, in order to balance his strength. Sitaras’ initial assessment found that half of his body was much tighter, having acclimated to offsetting the g-force load from turning left while driving. In two years, Johnson’s body fat percentage dropped from 20% to 8% (visible also in the change of the shape of his face), while his strength and stamina greatly improved. Johnson later became the first racing driver to be named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year (in 2009).

After the 2008 season, Johnson became the second driver to win three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championships, the first being Cale Yarborough. During the season, he won seven races (including a sweep at Phoenix), a career high of six poles, 15 top fives, and 22 top tens. In five of those seven wins, he started from the pole. He became the only driver to record three wins in each of their first seven seasons. In 2008 Jimmie Johnson also raced in his first ever truck series race, the O’Reilly 200 at Bristol, where he led 28 laps before spinning out on lap 101. That weekend was the first time he had ever sat in a racing truck. In the Chase for the Championship, he recorded 14 wins, eight more than any other driver. One of those included Phoenix in which he won on low fuel and high tire wear after crew chief Chad Knaus decided to stay out late in the race. He also was named the 2008 Driver of the Year and won an ESPY as the Best Driver. After the season, he also moved to third on the active winners list.

In the 2009 season, Johnson recorded his fourth consecutive championship, becoming the only driver to win four back-to-back season titles. Throughout this season, he won seven races (including a third consecutive Checker Auto Parts 500 and both Dover races), four poles, 16 top fives, and 24 top ten finishes. Johnson now became the only driver to win at least three races in each of his first eight seasons, as well as the only driver to qualify for the Chase for the Championship every year since 2004. During the season, he moved up one spot up to second on the active winners list and went to 13th on the all-time wins list. After the season concluded, he won an ESPY for the second consecutive year, and won the Driver of the Year award for the third time, tying Jeff Gordon, Mario Andretti, and Darrell Waltrip as the only three time drivers to win the award.

Johnson has won the Driver of the Year Award five times (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013). In 2009, he became the first racing driver to win the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year Award in the United States.

During 2010, Johnson won his fifth consecutive championship, becoming the third driver who made up points to win the title since 1975. During the season, he scored two poles, 17 top fives, 23 top tens and six victories. He also remained the only driver to qualify for the Chase every year since its inception in 2004. He became the 12th driver to win 50+ NASCAR races when he won at Bristol in March, and went up to 10th on the all-time wins list. His wins in 2010 included Auto Club, Las Vegas, where he passed Jeff Gordon with 16 laps to go for the lead, Bristol, Sonoma, his first and only road course win, New Hampshire, and Dover. At New Hampshire, with eight laps remaining, Kurt Busch, who was running second, bumped Johnson to become the leader, but Johnson returned the favor a couple laps later to the lead the final two laps. Johnson said, “Kurt knocked me out of the way. At that point, I thought, I don’t care if I win or finish. I’m going to run into him one way or the other … I tried once and moved him. (I thought) I’ve got to hit him harder. The second time I did and moved him out of the way.”

Johnson starred in an episode of the HBO reality television series 24/7, titled “Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona”. Cameras followed him from January 2010 to the 52nd Daytona 500 held on February 14, 2010.

Johnson is one of the 12 playable NASCAR drivers in the 2010 racing video game Gran Turismo 5. His 2011 car was later added to the game in the Spec II update of the game, with his 2013 car also being featured in the 2013 sequel Gran Turismo 6.

In 2011, Johnson began the season with a fourth-place finish in the Budweiser Shootout, after starting from the 23rd position. One week later in the 2011 Daytona 500, he started 23rd, but finished 27th after being involved in a crash on lap 29. During the Subway Fresh Fit 500, he managed a third-place finish. Following a 16th-place finish after the Kobalt Tools 400 he collected two consecutive top-five finishes.

Statistically, Johnson’s 2011 season was one of his worst performances to date, even though he finished sixth in the points. He only won two races during the season. The first was the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, where Johnson started on the outside pole, and tandem-drafted with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for the entire race. On the last lap, with Johnson in front, he and Earnhardt, Jr. were in fifth and sixth off of turn 4, behind two other pairs of cars – their Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin, and the Richard Childress drafting pair of Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick. In the tri-oval, Earnhardt, Jr. gave Johnson enough of a push to nip Bowyer at the finish line by 0.002 seconds. This was the closest recorded finish in Talladega history, and tied the 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 for closest margin of victory in NASCAR history. After finishing in the first 15 positions in the next four races, Johnson failed to finish the Coca-Cola 600 after his engine failed. Three weeks later, in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, Johnson spun off turn two, flattening multiple tires, and breaking the sway bar which prompted him to a finish of 27th. During the Toyota/Save Mart 350, Johnson finished seventh after starting 12th on the grid. The finish moved Johnson to third in the Drivers’ standings.

Johnson is featured in the 2011 racing video game Jimmie Johnson’s Anything with an Engine.

Johnson began the 2012 season with a 14th-place finish in the Budweiser Shootout after crashing on lap 74. During the Daytona 500, Johnson was involved in a crash on lap 2 when he turned into the wall after contact from Elliott Sadler, then was t-boned by David Ragan, also collecting Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch and Trevor Bayne. Damage to the car was severe, prompting him to retire and finish 42nd. Afterward, he finished fourth and second in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 and Kobalt Tools 400. While at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500, Johnson finished in the ninth position, moving him up to 11th in the Drivers’ Standings. Next, Johnson finished tenth in the Auto Club 400, despite having an oil leak, but the rain saved Johnson from a low finish. He went on to finish twelfth during the spring event at Martinsville after being involved in a crash on the first green-white-checker attempt. In the following event, the Samsung Mobile 500, Johnson finished second after leading much of the race before he was passed by Greg Biffle. Afterward, he recorded a third-place finish in the STP 400 at Kansas on April 22, 2012, and a sixth-place finish in the Capital City 400 at Richmond one week later. On May 6, 2012, Johnson started 19th in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega, but finished 35th after suffering a broken oil pump belt on lap 62.

In 2012, Johnson was featured in a NASCAR segment of Top Gear along with NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Kyle Petty.

In 2013, Johnson began his season with a 14th-place finish in the 2013 Sprint Unlimited when he crashed on lap 14 along with Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, and Denny Hamlin. Afterward, he placed fourth in the first Budweiser Duel, resulting in a ninth-place starting position in the 2013 Daytona 500. In the Daytona 500, Johnson started well, assuming the lead from Jeff Gordon on lap 32 and leading a handful of laps before falling back to the middle of the pack. Over the last few laps, Johnson was racing alongside Brad Keselowski for the lead until a caution came out for debris. Johnson took the advantage of leading on the last restart. With five laps to go, Johnson led a lane with Greg Biffle and Danica Patrick. He then held off a last lap charge from Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Mark Martin to win his second Daytona 500. This was Johnson’s first Daytona 500 win with Knaus, as he won the 2006 race with Darian Grubb as Knaus was serving a five-race suspension. It was also the first time since his 2006 win that he finished better than 27th in the Daytona 500, after a streak of six years where he had never finished better than 27th because of crashes and mechanical failures.

In the 2013 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Johnson won his record fourth All-Star race after a fast pit stop allowed him to start the final 10-lap sprint in second, and later passed Kasey Kahne for the victory. One week later, Johnson finished 22nd after spinning sideways late in the race. At Dover, Johnson led 143 laps, but finished 17th when he jumped Juan Pablo Montoya on the last restart causing NASCAR to issue him a penalty. He was able to redeem himself for this mistake the following week at Pocono by earning the pole position, leading the most laps, and winning his third race of the season, which increased his point lead to 51 points over Edwards. This also snapped a nine-year winless streak for Johnson at Pocono since sweeping both of the track’s 2004 NASCAR Cup Series races. At the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan, Johnson closed in on Greg Biffle for the lead with less than ten laps left, but suffered a flat tire with less than five laps to go. Johnson would finish the race in 28th, his worst finish of the season to that point. Johnson then finished ninth at Sonoma. At Kentucky, Johnson started third. He had the dominant car of the race, leading 182 of 267 laps. However, on a restart on lap 246, Johnson was slow to get up to speed and was subsequently touched and spun by Joey Logano, costing Johnson a shot at the win and giving the race to Matt Kenseth. Johnson was able to charge through the field after the caution and restart to salvage a ninth-place finish.

Johnson appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show during its tenth season in 2013. Fresh off his second Daytona 500 victory, Johnson challenged host Ellen DeGeneres to a go-kart race.

On November 19, 2013, Johnson became the first professional athlete to co-host ESPN’s flagship news show, SportsCenter.

Statistically, 2014 was one of Johnson’s worst seasons to date. He started the season on an up-and-down note, but went winless through the first 11 races of the 2014 season (his best finish was 2nd at Martinsville). Skepticism began to arise, as he had never gone more than 12 races into a season without a win, and hadn’t gone that long since the first few years of his Cup career. However, Johnson won the Coca-Cola 600, his first win in the race since 2005. Afterward, he went on to win at Dover the following week, making it the 13th time he had back-to-back wins.

In 2014, Johnson joined the Ban Bossy campaign, as a spokesperson advocating leadership in young girls.

In 2015, Johnson appeared on the series Repeat After Me and voiced a lobster named Jimmie on the animated kids show Bubble Guppies.

In 2016, Johnson appeared in Blaze and the Monster Machines with fellow NASCAR drivers Chase Elliott, Kasey Kahne and Danica Patrick.

The rest of the season didn’t go smoothly for Johnson. On June 11, 2017, during the Axalta presents the Pocono 400, Johnson’s brakes failed causing him and Jamie McMurray to crash hard, causing McMurray’s car to burst into flames. Johnson was uninjured in the accident. He has not won a race since.

On March 14, 2018, Lowe’s announced they would no longer sponsor the No. 48 car at the conclusion of the 2018 season; Ally Financial assumed primary sponsorship of the team in 2019 on a two-year deal. In October, it was announced that Johnson and his long-time crew chief Knaus would part ways at the end of the season, ending a 17-year partnership, the longest in NASCAR history. Johnson was paired with JR Motorsports crew chief Kevin Meendering in the 2019 season.

On November 26, 2018, Johnson participated in a motorsports cultural exchange with two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso at Bahrain International Circuit, where both drivers compared their respective race cars.

In 2018, Johnson received the fourth-annual Byrnsie Award, named after the late Fox NASCAR broadcaster Steve Byrnes, during FS1’s RaceDay prior to the running of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

The 2019 season started on a positive note for Johnson, as he won the 2019 Advance Auto Parts Clash after contact between him and Paul Menard sent Menard spinning while battling for the lead and triggering “The Big One” on lap 55 right before the rain arrived. It was also the first race with new sponsor Ally Financial and crew chief Meendering. He followed it up by finishing 8th in the first duel race. In the Daytona 500, Johnson ran up front most of the race, but when he came to pit road with around 40 to go, B. J. McLeod and Cody Ware’s cars spun behind him and hit him in the left rear. The contact ripped off the left rear quarter-panel. He recovered to finish 9th after being 2 laps down. The next race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jimmie finished 24th, two laps down. He followed up by finishing 19th. He followed up that performance with a ninth-place finish. On March 29 in O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 qualifying at Texas, Johnson got his first pole since 2016 at Texas and scored his first top-five finish since the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 two days later. At the Coca-Cola 600, Johnson ran well, and ended up finishing 8th place. At Chicagoland speedway, Johnson started 4th and took the lead on lap 7 from Austin Dillon. He went on to finish fourth place followed by a 3rd-place result at the rain-shortened Coke Zero Sugar 400 a week later, his best finishes of the season.

On July 29, 2019, following a string of disappointing finishes during the season, Hendrick Motorsports announced that race engineer Cliff Daniels would replace Meendering as the crew chief of the No. 48. At Watkins Glen, Johnson finished 19th after being spun out by Ryan Blaney, leading to an argument between the two after the race. The animosity between them lasted until Michigan a week later.

In September 2019, Johnson missed the playoffs cut for the first time in his NASCAR career after finishing 35th in the Brickyard 400 due to contact with Kurt Busch that sent his car crashing hard into the wall.

On October 4, 2019, Ally extended its sponsorship of the No. 48 for three more years through the 2023 season.

On November 20, 2019, Johnson announced that the 2020 Cup season would be his last full-time season of racing, although he did not rule out a part-time schedule after that. The 2020 season started with the Daytona 500 qualifying, he finished 4th for a second year in a row. Later that day, he entered the 2020 Busch Clash as the defending champion. He started 16th and finished 11th after a tire spun on the first restart in overtime. Next race was the 2020 Bluegreen Vacations Duels. He started and finished 2nd behind team-mate William Byron in Duel 2. In his last Daytona 500, he started 6th and finished 35th after Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski triggered “The Big One”. Next week in Las Vegas, he finished 1st in the final practice. He started 18th and finished 5th in the race. At his home track Auto Club, he qualified 2nd, losing the pole position to Clint Bowyer by 0.007 seconds. In the race, his wife and children waved the green flag at the start of the race. There was a four wide salute before the race to honor him. For most of the event, he was in the Top 10 and led 10 laps; he finished 7th.

Johnson is a triathlete, regularly participating in triathlons and long-distance running; the Jimmie Johnson Foundation’s Wellness Challenge also hosts triathlons. In 2019, he competed in the Boston Marathon, finishing with a time of 3:09:07 and 4,155th overall (3,746th among males and 641st in the Male 40–44 class).

Up until 2019, Johnson was the only driver to have qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs every single year since its inception in 2004. He also holds the record for the most consecutive and total playoffs appearances, with 15.

On July 3, two days before the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, Johnson announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing him to miss the race and Justin Allgaier to take over the No. 48. This snapped a 663-race streak in which Johnson started a Cup event. Johnson was cleared to return to racing on July 8, 2020 after testing negative twice, and he received a waiver that allowed him to remain playoff eligible should he qualify. His first race back was the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky, a track at which he had never won before. With 23 laps to go, he was coming off of the fastest three laps of the race and a strong run from ninth to third before taking the inside on a restart and being nipped by Brad Keselowski in the left rear, spinning out. He finished the race in 18th. The next week at Texas, Johnson was again one of the fastest cars, putting up a top ten lap before getting loose and hitting the wall in stage 2. On top of that, his crew committed a penalty for too many crew members over the wall. He finished 26th and only two points above the playoff cutoff in the standings. Johnson’s misfortunes continued at Kansas when he was collected in a third-stage crash while running in the top ten, followed by a first-stage spin at New Hampshire while fighting for a top-five spot.

In 2020, Johnson participated in a test with IndyCar Series team Chip Ganassi Racing. He initially had a test scheduled in March with Arrow McLaren SP at Barber Motorsports Park before it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; a second attempt with Chip Ganassi Racing on the Indianapolis road course in July was postponed when he tested positive for the virus. The CGR test finally took place on July 28; it was overseen by CGR owner Chip Ganassi and five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (who is, along with Johnson, considered to be one of the best in their respective series) to discuss the car. Johnson said that driving an IndyCar was a “childhood dream” of his.

On September 9, 2020, Johnson announced that he would join Chip Ganassi Racing on a part-time basis in 2021 and 2022 to drive the road and street courses on the IndyCar circuit. The deal leaves open the possibility of running select NASCAR Cup Series events in conjunction, as Ganassi currently fields two cars in NASCAR and could add a part-time car for Johnson, staying under the four-car maximum for Cup teams.

Johnson won a Cup Series race at every track on the 2020 schedule except at Chicagoland Speedway (where he won his first NASCAR race, in the Busch Series), Kentucky Speedway, Watkins Glen International, The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Daytona International Speedway Road Course.