a driveline, leading him to finish 36 laps down in 41st place. At the fall race at Texas Johnson won, passing Brad Keselowski with 4 laps to go. This marked his fourth consecutive win in the fall race, and third consecutive win on that track, having also won the spring race. That victory also marked the 75th of his NASCAR Cup Series career, putting him one race win short of tying Dale Earnhardt's career wins. Also in the process, he snapped a 20-race-winless-streak. Johnson finished fifth at Phoenix, and for the third year in a row, he finished ninth at Homestead. Also in the process, he edged out Ryan Newman by one point to finish 10th in the final standings. With the retirement of his teammate and mentor, Jeff Gordon, Johnson assumed the active wins record with 75. 2016: The seventh title Johnson began the 2016 season with a 16th-place finish at the Daytona 500. In the next race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he won his first race of the season and the 76th of his career, tying Dale Earnhardt for seventh on the all-time wins list. Johnson finished third and eleventh in the next two events of the season at Las Vegas and Phoenix. His second victory of the season came in the fifth race, the Auto Club 400, where Johnson passed Harvick in an overtime finish. It was also the first time since 2011 that he finished in the Top 5 at the Auto Club Speedway. In the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Johnson recorded a ninth-place finish after moving through the field after qualifying 24th. One week later, Johnson finished fourth in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway despite suffering minor damage during a 13-car accident that occurred within 50 laps of the finish. In the Food City 500 at Bristol, Johnson finished 23rd after making an unscheduled pit stop due to a loose lug nut on lap 300. At Richmond, he led 44 laps early in the race and finished third. At Talladega, Johnson was spun by Paul Menard and got involved in a multi-car accident with 28 laps to go, finishing 22nd. Johnson's streak of misfortune continued through the next several months, crashing out at Dover, Pocono, Daytona, Kentucky and at Watkins Glen, where he finished last for the first time in his career. His Top 10 finishes during the period came only