followed it up by finishing eighth in the first duel race. In the Daytona 500, Johnson ran up front most of the race, but when he came to pit road with around 40 to go, B. J. McLeod and Cody Ware's cars spun behind him and hit him in the left rear. The contact ripped off the left rear quarter-panel. He recovered to finish ninth after being two laps down. In the next race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jimmie finished 24th, two laps down. He followed up by finishing 19th. He followed up that performance with a ninth-place finish. On March 29 in O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 qualifying at Texas, Johnson got his first pole since 2016 at Texas and scored his first Top 5 finish since the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 two days later. At the Coca-Cola 600, Johnson ran well and ended up finishing eighth. At Chicagoland Speedway, Johnson started fourth and took the lead on lap 7 from Austin Dillon. He went on to finish fourth followed by a third-place finish at the rain-shortened Coke Zero Sugar 400 a week later, his best finishes 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. At Watkins Glen, Johnson finished 19th after being spun out by Ryan Blaney, leading to an argument between the two after the race. The animosity between them lasted until Michigan a week later. In September 2019, Johnson missed the playoffs cut for the first time in his NASCAR career after finishing 35th in the Brickyard 400 due to contact with Kurt Busch and William Byron that sent his car crashing hard into the wall. Johnson scored four more Top 10 finishes in the playoffs and wound up finishing a career-worst 18th place in the final standings, going winless for the second straight season. Many crashes throughout the season brought down his otherwise promising year. On October 4, 2019, Ally extended its sponsorship of the No. 48 for three more years through the 2023 season. 2020: Final full-time season On November 20, 2019, Johnson announced that the 2020 Cup season would be his last full-time season of racing, although he did not rule out a part-time schedule after that. The 2020 season started with the Daytona 500 qualifying, he finished