In NASCAR Cup Series competition the #48 car has started 1,703 races with 77 drivers and has 91 wins, 42 poles, 410 top 5s, and 787 top 10s.
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 made 686 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 drove 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 ran 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 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. Despite several opportunities, Johnson would not find victory lane in 2020. At Darlington, the first race back after the delay forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson was leading in the final lap of the first stage when he lost control of his car and crashed after contact with Chris Buescher who was a lap down at the time. It marked his 100th race in a row without a win. At the Coca-Cola 600 he finished second, but was disqualified after his car failed post-race technical inspection.
On July 3, two days before the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, Johnson announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing him to miss the race and Justin Allgaier to take over the No. 48. This snapped a 663-race streak in which Johnson started a Cup event. Allgaier would be involved in an accident on pit road, completing only 17 laps.
A few weeks later at Texas, Johnson seemed to have the fastest car on the track early in the race. He would finish 12 laps down in 26th place after wrecking early in the race. Prior to the Go Bowling 235 at the Daytona road course, the No. 48 team changed the Ally paint scheme from black to white, which Johnson branded as a “rAlly” livery in an effort to “reset” his luck. Johnson, who had experience at the road course via the 24 Hours of Daytona, finished fourth in a run that he described as “what we needed”.
After a fierce battle with William Byron and Matt DiBenedetto for the final playoff spots, Johnson would miss the playoff field by 6 points. He ended his final season with ten top-ten finishes, the lowest of his career. Jimmie’s Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman took over the #48 Ally Chevy for the 2021 season, while Johnson continued to drive his #48 in the NTT IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Following Johnson’s retirement, Alex Bowman took over the Ally #48 beginning with the 2021 season. He immediately he won the pole for the Daytona 500. In 36 races, Bowman scored 4 wins- double his win total from his days in the #88 car. Bowman made it to the round of 12 in the playoffs before being eliminated.
Bowman started out the 2022 season by qualifying 2nd for the Daytona 500 to his teammate Kyle Larson. Bowman has never qualified worse than 2nd for the Daytona 500 when driving a Hendrick Car. He won the 3rd race of the year at Las Vegas and nearly won again at CotA before being knocked out of the way in the final turns by Ross Chastain. While Bowman’s Vegas win would qualify him for the playoffs, a rear-impact crash at Texas would sideline him for most of the playoff season with concussion symptoms. In his absence, Noah Gragson filled in for 5 races behind the wheel of car 48.
Bowman returned in 2023, but was again sidelined for 3 races due to breaking his T3 vertebrae in a sprint car race. He was temporarily replaced by Josh Berry. Upon returning, Bowman lacked consistent speed and failed to make the Playoffs. Bowman has stared 100 races in car #48 with 5 wins. He will return in 2024.
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