Dynasties are nothing new to sports. Everyone knows about the New England Patriots and the Golden State Warriors runs that shaped their sports landscapes forever. NASCAR dynasties are no different, with Richard Petty in the 60s, Dale Earnhardt in the late 80s-early 90s, and Jeff Gordon in the late 90s. However, one dynasty that people still talk about to this day is NASCAR’s most recent. The Jimmie Johnson Dynasty. From 2006-2018, the No. 48 team had the NASCAR Cup Series at their fingertips and took full advantage. So, let’s dive into the No. 48 Dynasty, NASCAR’s last dynasty.
Typically, with a dynasty, there is a beginning, middle, and end. This is also true with the No. 48 team. What’s crazy is that the beginning was so dominant that it’s considered to be the prime years of the No. 48 dynasty. From 2006-2010, there was only one champion: Jimmie Johnson. After two runner-up points finishes in 2003 and 2004, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus broke out in 2006 to win his first championship with five wins and 24 top-10s. The team took that title run and built on it to win the title for the next four years in a row. Johnson’s five straight championships are a NASCAR record that still holds to this day. He is the last driver to win back-to-back championships in the Cup Series, and no one has come close since then. His stats during those five years are listed below.
| Year | Wins | Top-5s | Top-10s | Laps Led | Average Finish |
| 2006 | 5 | 13 | 22 | 854 | 9.7 |
| 2007 | 10 | 20 | 24 | 1,290 | 10.8 |
| 2008 | 7 | 15 | 22 | 1,959 | 10.5 |
| 2009 | 7 | 16 | 24 | 2,238 | 11.1 |
| 2010 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 1,315 | 12.2 |
During this five-year span, Johnson averaged seven wins, 16.2 top-fives, 23 top-10s, 1,531.2 laps led, and a 10.86 average finish. Those stats alone would be championship-worthy for one season. To average that in the span of five years is unheard of in today’s NASCAR. To think, this was just the start of JJ’s run to NASCAR immorality. What better way to begin a dynasty than with Johnson’s run from 2006-2010?
Johnson’s run was finally ended in 2011 when Tony Stewart won the title in a tie-breaker with Carl Edwards. 2011 marked the first time Johnson finished outside the top five in points, finishing sixth in the standings. He still won twice and led over 1,100 laps during that season. 2012 looked to be Johnson’s sixth championship, but DNFs at both Phoenix and Homestead derailed him to a third-place points finish. He won five races and led over 1,700 laps in 2012 but lost out to Brad Keselowski for the championship.
2013 was a new era for NASCAR. It was the first year of the Generation 6 car, replacing the Car of Tomorrow that ran from 2007-2012. Despite this, it was a return to the top for JJ and the No. 48 team. Johnson put together one of his best seasons in 2013 to beat out Matt Kenseth for the championship. His 2013 stats are shown below.
| Year | Wins | Top-5s | Top-10s | Laps Led | Average Finish |
| 2013 | 6 | 16 | 24 | 1,985 | 10.7 |
2014 was a weird year for the, at the time, six-time champion. He wouldn’t find victory lane until the Coca-Cola 600, the 12th race of the season. While he did win four races, he had career lows in top-10s (20) and average finish (15.3). This culminated in his exit in the Round of 12 and for the first time, a finish outside the top 10 in points, finishing 11th. If a bad season for JJ included four wins and 20 top-10s, that shows the standard the team had set. But were the cracks starting to form for the No. 48 team?
Following a disappointing 2014 season, the No. 48 team needed a comeback. 2015 looked to be just that, with five wins and an increase in top-fives and top-10s. Despite leading only 558 laps (his worst since 2005), he was still a favorite for the title before mechanical issues knocked him out in the Round of 16. Back-to-back disappointing years made fans wonder if the No. 48 dynasty was coming to an end?
Come 2016, the team needed a bounce back. After two disappointing years, they needed to get back on course. So did they? The simple answer is yes but with some quotations. Johnson won two of the first five races of the year before going quiet for the remainder of the regular season. Then, the No. 48 team turned on the jets, winning three races in the Chase, including the season finale at Homestead, to win their record-tying seventh Cup Series championship. Rick Allen said it best. “We may never see this again in our lifetime.”
So why the quotations? 2016 marked the first time Johnson had fewer than 20 top-10s in a season (16). And that win at Homestead happened because fellow Championship 4 drivers Carl Edwards and Joey Logano came together on the second-to-last restart, opening the door for JJ to win the Cup. It is considered by many to be the weakest of his seven championships. Regardless, JJ came out on top.
2017 was poised to be another typical Jimmie Johnson year. But it was in reality that the downfall became public. Despite making the Round of 8, Johnson posted career lows in top-fives (4), top-10s (11), laps led (217), and average finish (16.8). Sophomore driver Chase Elliott looked more consistent that season than Johnson despite the latter winning three races. Little did anyone know, those would be the final wins of the seven-time champions’ career.
2018 marked the end of the dynasty. Johnson made the playoffs but was bounced in the first round and once again set career lows. He finished the year with two top-fives, 11 top-10s, only 40 laps led, and, for the first time, failed to win a race. He finished 14th in the standings, his lowest at the time. After 2018, Johnson and Knaus were split after 17 years of working together. Knaus went to the No. 24 team, while Johnson initially got Kevin Meendering before Cliff Daniels replaced him mid-year.
From 2006-2018, Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, and the No. 48 team were near unstoppable. They won seven of the 13 championships and 65 races. This was against legends such as Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, and Tony Stewart, just to name a few. With today’s playoff format and elimination rounds, the chance of someone replicating this run again is slim to none. It was a time unlike any other and still remains to this day, NASCAR’s last dynasty.
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Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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