“Maniac” Jimmie Johnson Warned Against Tarnishing His Legacy By Kyle Larson’s Ex-Teammate But Bubba Wallace Insider Defends the Hendrick Motorsports Legend

Following the news of NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson’s return to NASCAR as a team owner and a driver, spotter and podcaster, Brett Griffin spoke his mind about Johnson’s return. While the news of having any NASCAR legend return to the sport is amazing in itself, sometimes it can go severely wrong and tarnish their reputation. In the midst of all this, Griffin also gave the example of what happened to Terry Labonte on his NASCAR return.

Brett Griffin mentioned, “I am surprised he wants to run the Daytona 500.” Kyle Larson’s former teammate, Jamie McMurray then said, “Me too.” Bubba Wallace’s Spotter Freddie Kraft disagreed with both of them and said, “Why? This maniac just ran the Indy 500!”

Later Griffin stated, “I got two things on that. ‘A’ enjoy your life. You’ve already accomplished all the things, but ‘B’, don’t tarnish your legacy. Because your legacy in NASCAR in my mind, is one of the top three drivers ever, if not the best driver ever, ever, to win the Championships in the eras and the manner in which he won them.”

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“So when I come back and go out and I don’t mean any disrespect, why come back and go out like Terry Labonte? Who I also had on a pedestal.“

Johnson holds a record number of seven championships, tied with Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, to his name during his first stint in NASCAR. However, since then Johnson has been participating in several other forms of motorsports, including IndyCar. Griffin’s concern was, now that Johnson plans on returning to the sport where he was the most successful. There might be a chance that things may go south as competing after returning from a retirement isn’t going to be an easy task.

What happened to Terry Labonte?

Terry Labonte is a two-time Cup Series Champion, who had retired from full-time racing for several years and only participated in part-time racing till calling quits after his 890th race.

During the 2004 season, which was his final full-time season, Labonte seemed to be struggling a lot with his races, unable to bring in any wins or even race at the top of the field. He understood his prime was over and was soon replaced by a young Kyle Busch.

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Labonte later stated that he would be retiring from full-time racing and spent the next few years across various teams in a part-time capacity. However, in his part-time racing era, Labonte usually finished in the bottom ranks, rarely making it into the top 20s.

Fans would hope that the next chapter in Jimmie Johnson’s career would be as glittering as his first gig!