In NASCAR Cup Series competition the #48 car has started 1,555 races with 75 drivers and has 86 wins, 39 poles, 388 top 5s, 736 top 10s, and 314 DNFs. The average finishing position for car #48 is 14.29

Chevrolet: 1141 races

Dodge: 182 races

Ford: 148 races

Pontiac: 65 races

Mercury: 38 races

Buick: 22 races

Oldsmobile: 15 races

Plymouth: 13 races

Hudson: 7 races

Chrysler: 3 races

Studebaker: 2 races

Kaiser: 1 race

Lincoln: 1 race

From 1966-1993 James Hylton was synonymous with #48. Hylton truly has one of most astonishing careers in NASCAR History. He has 2 Cup series wins in 602 races, 583 of which were in the #48 car. Hylton was remarkably consistent; in his 27 year Cup career exactly 50% of the races he started ended in a top 10 finish. Because of this, he finished second in the point standings 3 times: 1966, 1967, and 1971.

Hylton’s last Cup series start came in 1993, but that wasn’t the end of his career. Hylton would continue drive his #48 in ARCA for another 20 years and even made occasional starts in the XFINITY Series. In 2006 he became the oldest driver to start a ‘top level’ NASCAR event at age 72, but he would break his own record again in 2011 at age 77. He even attempted to start the 2007 and 2009 Daytona 500 , but he was forced to enter #58 because some punk kid had taken his number.

In 2013 James Hylton retired as a driver, but continued to field his #48 in the ARCA series as an owner. Tragically, Hylton and his son “Tweet” Hylton were killed in an automobile accident in April 2018, as they drove the team hauler back from Talladega Super Speedway. James Hylton was 83 years old.

Seven Time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson has made 651 starts in his #48 Lowes Chevy with 83 wins. Jimmie made his first start in 2001 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. It did not go well .

Johnson started racing in Winston Cup full time in 2002, and in his 13th career start, Johnson scored his first career win in the NAPA Auto Parts 500 at his home track of Auto Club Speedway. Johnson became the first rookie driver to lead the point standings, and the first rookie to win twice at the same track during a season, by sweeping both Dover races. He recorded four pole positions and three wins, tying Tony Stewart’s rookie season win record. However, Johnson would lose the Rookie of the Year honors to Ryan Newman who was more consistent, though had less wins.

Johnson has driven to 83 wins since 2002 (tied for 6th All Time with Cale Yarborough), and in 2016 he tied Dale Earnhardt Sr. & Richard Petty as a 7 time winner of the Cup Series Championship, adding to his collection from 2006-2010 & 2013.

Jimmie has run almost every race with his trusty crew chief Chad Knaus , but Jimmie has also worked with Darian Grubb and Steve Letarte during the few times that Knaus has been suspended for rules violations. The most notable of these occasions came when Jimmie won the 2006 Daytona 500 with Grubb.

Jimmie has officially started every single Cup race of his career in the #48, the only exception is the 2011 All Star Race when he drove #5 as part of a promotion for Lowe’s.

2018 would be a year of change for Johnson. He failed to win a race for the first time in his full-time Cup series career. He came close at the inaugural “Roval” race, but a last corner spin would see him finish 8th and eliminated from the championship playoffs. Additionally, near the end of the season it was announced that Chad Knaus would be leaving team #48 to work with young William Byron for the 2019 season and that longtime sponsor Lowe’s would not return.

Following the conclusion of the 2018 season Johnson participated in a motorsports cultural exchange with two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso at Bahrain International Circuit, where both drivers compared their respective race cars.

The 2019 season started on a positive note for Johnson, as he won the 2019 Advance Auto Parts Clash after contact between him and Paul Menard sent Menard spinning while battling for the lead and triggering “The Big One” on lap 55 right before the rain arrived. It was also the first race with new sponsor Ally Financial and crew chief Kevin Meendering. Unfortunately, it would be one of the few highlights of the season.

On July 29, 2019, following a string of disappointing finishes during the season, Hendrick Motorsports announced that race engineer Cliff Daniels would replace Meendering as the crew chief of the No. 48. The team showed marginal improvement, but still failed to make the top 16 in points for the Playoffs, the first time ever that Johnson would not be a participant in the post season. Johnson would go on to score 4 more top 10 finishes in the playoffs, but wound up finishing a career-worst 18th place in the final standings and going winless for the second straight season.

On November 20, 2019, Johnson announced that the 2020 Cup season would be his last full-time season of racing.

G.C. Spencer was most well known for driving #49, but he also made 96 starts in #48 from 1960-1963.

Starting in 1982 James Hylton began piloting his #48 car part time, and used many other drivers to run the remaining races. Canadian driver Trevor Boys has the most starts driving Hylton’s 48 car with 53 between 1983 & 1984

Other notable names in #48. Lennie Pond, 11 starts Greg Sacks, 9 starts Slick Johnson, 7 starts Tiny Lund, 5 starts Jim Paschal, 4 starts Joe Weatherly, 2 starts Harry Gant, 1 race Fireball Roberts, 1 race Hershel McGriff, 1 race Morgan Shepherd, 1 race Bill Norton, 1 start, 1 win

In the XFINITY Series, Brad Keselowski drove #48 in 1 race at Homestead, FL in 2013. Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano would also make starts in the car that year.

In 2016 & 2017 Brennan Poole drove the #48 for Chip Ganassi Racing. In the spring Talladega Race, Poole appeared to have won his first race, but an untimely caution would ultimately cost him the win.