Jimmie Johnson vs. Jeff Gordon, part 1: Martinsville Speedway, 2007 | 40 wins in 40 days

Editor’s note: This is the 19th in a 40-part series highlighting 40 of the greatest wins in the history of Hendrick Motorsports to finish its 40th anniversary season. A new installment will be released each day from Nov. 22, 2024 through New Year’s Eve. Votes were taken from Hendrick Motorsports employees as well as representatives of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Racing Insights with all unanimous selections being ushered in automatically. The remaining wins were deliberated and decided upon by a small panel.

CONCORD, N.C. - Over the course of his illustrious career, Jimmie Johnson picked up nine victories at Martinsville Speedway. 

Heading into the spring race in 2007, he'd already won there twice including the last time the NASCAR Cup Series visited the Virginia short track in the fall of 2006. 

And yet, contrary to what one may think when looking at statistics, it wasn't exactly a place Johnson immediately felt at home. To hear him tell it, success at, "The Paperclip", was a process. 

“It took me a while to figure out how to drive that place,” Johnson admitted in an inverview with HendrickMotorsports.com. “Martinsville and Indianapolis were the two tracks I really struggled with early in my career. But I finally got it and once that happened, I was able to lean on the depth that Hendrick Motorsports had for that race track and the power under the hood and all the stuff that’s always made the organization so successful there.” 

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To his point, crew chief Chad Knaus, now the vice president of competition at Hendrick Motorsports, said he and the team took extra care to maximize speed in race cars before visiting Martinsville. 

“Jimmie is an amazing race car driver and Martinsville was one of those tracks where we knew we needed to make sure we brought the very best race car we could because he needed a little bit of help,” Knaus said. “And once he got it figured out, the pairing between the race cars we were able to put together that were just a level up from the rest of the competition and Jimmie coming into his own as a driver, it just took us to the next level."

Johnson never had to look too far to find a barometer when it came to his development there. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, who also accumulated nine victories in his career at Martinsville, was integral in getting bringing Johnson to the Cup Series. Once there, Gordon was quick to offer advice to Johnson, who came along much more quickly than either could've have anticipated. 

“I started off with Jeff and I think he was thinking, ‘It’s going to take him some time,’ and I definitely thought it would take time before I’d be threatening him for wins and championships," Johnson said. “The arc of all that was so quick, and he was so willing to mentor me. He was at a perfect moment in time in his career to be that giving to a young, developing driver. Our friendship and camaraderie, the relationship we had and still have was a big reason for him to be able to let his guard down that far."

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With the way Johnson exploded onto the scene, stealing a little of Gordon's thunder along the way, perhaps Gordon's guard was let too far down. Johnson won three races in his rookie season in 2002, won three straight Coca-Cola 600s from 2003-2005 and by the time he claimed a DAYTONA 500 and a Brickyard 400 en route to the first of seven championships in 2006, he'd established himself as the driver to beat in NASCAR. It was a title Gordon had held throughout the mid and late 1990s and into the 2000s and had seemed poised to keep for the foreseeable future. 

But for Johnson, besting the Cup Series field across the span of a 36-race season was one thing. Outdueling his friend and teacher in a head's up scenario at one of Gordon's best tracks? Well, that was quite another. 

That was the exact opportunity that presented itself on April 1, 2007. That's right, April Fool's Day, but with Gordon breathing down his neck and pounding his rear bumper, all on fresher tires over a final 50-lap sprint, there was no trickery Johnson could rely on. 

It was race car. It was skill. And as it turned out, a little setup help from the 24 team. 

The spring Martinsville race in 2007 was the second event featuring the "Car of Tomorrow", a new chassis that would be used part time that season and full time in 2008. Gordon and his team seemed to have a handle on it right away as he finished third in the season's first event with the new model at Bristol Motor Speedway. Johnson finished 16th in that race. 

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That weekend at Martinsville, the chasm between them looked even deeper leading up to the main event. Johnson qualified 20th and was dead last in final practice. Gordon, meanwhile, earned the third starting position. 

After some adjustments with a little help from Gordon's crew chief at the time, Steve Letarte, Johnson fired off with much better speed than he'd shown the day prior. The green flag started a slow, methodical march up the leaderboard. He was up to 15th after 50 laps and had advanced to 11th by lap 82. By the time a caution waved on lap 145, he was seventh. 

By that point, a few cars had separated themselves in terms of contending for the win. Dale Earnhardt Jr. would lead a race-high 137 laps, Denny Hamlin was next with 125 and Gordon paced 92 circuits. 

But between caution flags, mishaps for other teams and a little strategy, Johnson clawed into second place after a restart with 191 laps to go and remained there when a red flag was displayed for rain 45 laps later. Then, it was decision time for Knaus. 

Once cars were fired back up, many decided to stay out on older tires that had long since cooled thanks to the break. However, Knaus brought Johnson down pit road for fresh rubber and the car's last tank of gas, a decision that would prove pivotal just 20 laps later when the caution waved again. 

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Johnson, who'd restarted 16th on the prior restart, moved up to second as the cars that had stayed out on the first cycle needed to pit. Then-Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Busch had found his way out front but Johnson's tires were fresher than his. On lap 113, he assumed the lead. It would be the last lead change of the race. 

However, there was nothing easy about the final sprint to the end. 

Gordon, who'd had arguably the best long run car all day, finally got by Hamlin for second place with 53 laps to go and, with 20-lap better tires, quickly closed to the back bumper of Johnson, setting up one of the best short-track duels, certainly in company history and likely in recent memory for the sport. 

For the better part of the remainder of the race, save for a few more caution laps after a JJ Yeley crash, Gordon hounded, pounded and beat on Johnson's rear bumper. Several times - with 28 laps to go, with nine laps to go and on the final lap - Gordon got a quarter panel to the inside where Johnson left room. But the outside lane carried just enough momentum to hold on. 

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In the final corner, Gordon wedged underneath Johnson one more time and the two made contact several times in the drag race back to the line. It was Johnson still out front by a little more than a nose when the checkered flag fell. 

By 2007, Johnson had already won a championship, which would be the first of five in a row. He'd won at Martinsville. He'd won all four crown jewel races (DAYTONA 500, Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400, Southern 500). 

And yet, that win, not just for Johnson but for the entire 48 team, served as further vindication of their place atop the sport. 

“That’s one of my favorite wins, quite honestly,” Knaus admitted. “It was one of the coolest ones. Just to be able to beat Jeff Gordon, who is arguably the best to have ever raced there at that track, to really kick off an amazing streak of races there was a lot of fun. I really felt like we had reached legitimacy at that point. When you beat Jeff Gordon at Martinsville, you’ve notched it up. That gave us a lot of momentum and that carried us for a couple more years.”

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It wasn't hardly the first or the last showdown between the two. Eleven times in their careers, Johnson and Gordon finished first and second with Gordon prevailing in seven of those. And while Johnson beamed in his postrace interview that day, Gordon was understandably not as exuberant. 

And that's how a large portion of the 2000s went. Sometimes it was Johnson, sometimes it was Gordon. But on that day, at a track that helped define both of their careers as well as Hendrick Motorsports' 40 years of existence, Johnson prevailed. 

And it's one, he'll never forget. 

“It was super competitive,” Johnson said. "There were some moments between us there (in the 2000s) where maybe it started to go too far. But I think the respect we’ve both always had for each other would only let it go so far and of course; Mr. H would never let it go too far either.”