NASCAR Bristol recap: 100 career wins is becoming a reality for Jimmie Johnson

No one will ever come close to matching Richard Petty’s hallowed mark of 200 premier division wins. Without 50-plus Cup Series races a year on the calendar and the significantly heightened level of competition, it’s a record that will stand the test of time.

And even though it is more attainable, David Pearson’s tally of 105 wins is also likely out of reach.

But could a driver ever reach a victory total that hits triple-digits? Say someone who’s unequivocally one of NASCAR’s greatest, keeps himself in excellent shape (which should aid in staving off the usual mid-40s decline that afflicts other drivers), and is also with a first-class organization where he’s paired with an equally superlative crew chief?

If that driver is Jimmie Johnson, then the answer to above question is a definitive yes.

On Monday, Johnson visited victory lane for the 82nd time of his certain first-ballot Hall of Fame career, winning the rain-delayed Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The triumph leaves the seven-time series champion just one win behind Cale Yarborough for sixth on the all-time list, a mere three wins from moving to fourth overall.

That Johnson is on the cusp of tying Yarborough carries added significance. As a kid growing up in Southern California, Johnson didn’t have much familiarity with NASCAR, then primarily a regional sport based in the southeast. Yet he knew Yarborough and that he was sponsored by fast-food hamburger chain.

“To be 7 or 8 years old, whatever I was, traveling around the country racing dirt bikes and walking into my first Hardee’s, I thought it was a race shop for Cale Yarborough and then I realized it was a hamburger stand,” Johnson said. “I didn’t even really pay attention to NASCAR. I had no idea what it was.”

And now Johnson is all but certain to leapfrog Yarborough’s win total in the very near future.

“It’s mind-blowing,” Johnson said. “I cannot believe that we’re sitting here with 82 wins — that is such a big number.”

The really mind-blowing number is 100, an amount Johnson could conceivably reach. At the age of 41 he still has a few prime years remaining, and because of his ardent and intense workout regime — he’s completed an Olympic-length triathlon — there’s every reason to believe his window of on-track superiority is longer than others.

Entering his 16th season, Johnson averaged 5.3 wins a year. Through eight races this season he already has a pair of victories and conventional wisdom strongly suggests he’ll win a few more times in the remaining 28 races. Three more years of similar performance and the century mark is very much in play.

“It just seems too far out there that I don’t think that the 100 is achievable,” Johnson said. “I hope I’m wrong. I really do. I would love to clearly do that.

“But again, I’ve always felt that that’s just such a big number, and with as competitive as our sport is, the new twist with stage racing and what it’s done to our series, that’s going to be a hard number to get to.”

Johnson’s skepticism in joining Petty and Pearson as members of the 100-win club is understandable. During Jeff Gordon’s heyday it seemed inevitable he would not only join the exclusive club, but also one day surpass Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s record seven championships.

Except neither happened. After scoring his fourth title in seven years in 2001, Gordon would never capture another championship. Nor would he continue to win at the torrid pace that once saw him at a 31 percent clip over a four-year span.

This, too, may happen to Johnson. No driver can outrace Father Time forever. There’s always some budding superstar poised to ascend to the top. Just as Gordon unseated Earnhardt, and Johnson unseated Gordon. In this instance that very well could be 2012 series champ Brad Keselowski, or 2015 champ Kyle Busch, each of whom are in their young 30s. Or 24-year-old prodigy Kyle Larson, who may only have two wins to his name, but whose talent is such he’s often heralded as “The next Jeff Gordon.”

It’s also likely Johnson proves to be an exception, like when he rolled off a record five consecutive championships despite racing in the most competitive era in the sport’s history.

“I don’t see why not,” said Chad Knaus, who’s been Johnson’s crew chief for the entirety of his career. “From what I’ve seen out of this team and what I’ve seen out of the ability of Hendrick Motorsports and Jimmie, I don’t think there’s really too much that can’t be reached.”

That statement is the personification of why, Petty’s 200 wins notwithstanding, no record is truly unattainable for Johnson, Knaus, and the No. 48 team. Time and time again, they’ve demonstrated the ability to do things few thought possible.

Winning 100 races would only be further evidence of that unmistakable truth.