USA Today Sports (Matthew O)

In a twist that some might find interesting, it was revealed earlier this week that Jimmie Johnson turned down a lifetime contract from Hendrick Motorsports. According to a recent article by USA Today, Johnson was offered the same lifetime deal that Jeff Gordon has back in 2009. However, Johnson declined the lifetime contract in favoring of signing an extension that lasted the same length as the contract between HMS and crew chief Chad Knaus.

The contracts of both Johnson and Knaus will be up at the end of the 2015 NASCAR season. Not only will those two deals be up but the current agreement between HMS and Lowes is also set to expire at the end of the 2015 season.

At the time of this writing there currently is not a new deal in place between HMS and Johnson or Knaus. At the time of this writing there also isn’t a new deal in place betwwen HMS and Lowes to keep the home improvement chain on as the primary sponsor for the No. 48 team.

Despite all of the uncertainty, Johnson doesn’t seem to be worried. Johnson recently spoke with USA Today about his future and how his talks towards a new contract are progressing with Rick Hendrick and Team Hendrick.

Rick (Hendrick) likes to get things signed up and done well in advance, so there definitely have been conversations. We’re kind of going down the road to get that all buttoned up and put together. But I’m home. I’m not going anywhere.

Despite Johnson being positive, his fans should not exhale until he signs on the dotted line. It’s hard to even fathom Johnson racing for another team but one has to remember that he had the opportunity to sign the lifetime deal with HMS and decided against it. The 2009 offer came when Johnson had already won three NASCAR titles in a row and he was working on his fourth.

As a three-time NASCAR champion it made sense that Johnson would want to keep himself tied to Knaus. After signing the extension and not the lifetime deal; Johnson and Knaus would go onto win three more NASCAR championships together. Given the duos success it’s just as hard to imagine them not working together as it is to imagine Johnson racing with another team.

Safe money should be on Johnson and Knaus remaining where they are now with Lowes coming back into the mix as well. If it was my money on the line, I would also bet that once Johnson or Knaus decide to hang them up, the other one will follow suit. I think the only real question left to ask is whether or not they will finish their careers with seven or more titles. together.