Why a NASCAR legend is doing Indycar
Jimmie Johnson is one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time and has decided to take on Indycar. He tells us why
Approaching his Indycar debut at 45 years old, Jimmie Johnson is an old rookie, but he’s not just any old rookie. In a NASCAR Cup career that spanned 20 years and
686 races, he won seven championships and took 83 race victories. Now, with Chip Ganassi Racing, he’s about to embark on an Indycar career of currently indeterminate length.
The active Scott Dixon and retired Dario Franchitti, with 10 Indycar championships between them, will respond favourably to tutoring this 21st-century legend because they know that Johnson hasn’t just turned to open-wheel racing as a passing whim, something to occupy himself now his NASCAR days are over. He was always into this form of racing. His original hero was four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears, and racing Indycars was his ambition when he was a pre-teen growing up in Southern California, attending the Grand Prix of Long Beach, and watching all the Indycar races on TV with his grandfather.
Recalling his attendance of the 2004 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix with fellow NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon, as guests of Juan Pablo Montoya and the Williams F1 team, Johnson principally recalls“the pageantry of open-wheel racing”. But it was the December 2018 carswap with Fernando Alonso in Bahrain that fanned the smouldering interest into a flame of desire. Alonso drove a NASCAR, Johnson piloted that year’s Mclaren F1 car and found the experience
“unlike any other I’ve had”.
“It was,‘holy crap! I want to do more of this’,”he remarks.“i wasn’t sure it was going to come together and a lot had to happen between then and now, but that was when I got really serious about open-wheel.”
Initially, it seemed that Mclaren was the team most likely to present Johnson with his first Indycar opportunity, for a test with the Arrow
Mclaren SP team was planned for Barber Motorsports Park last April. This fell victim to the upheavals caused by COVID-19 but, as Johnson puts it,“zak Brown [Mclaren CEO] and Fernando really created that opportunity with the Mclaren F1 car, and Zak believed in me and was crucial in getting that test date that unfortunately never happened.
“But I really wanted to try an Indycar, know what it’s about and get a sense of how far off I might be. After Zak’s plan fell through, I tried to keep the ball moving. Chip Ganassi Racing was another team I’d been chatting with, and one day Chip simply said to me,‘look, just come out and drive it, see what you think’, and that really was the right approach. It was basically, if I liked it, and the team saw some hope in me, then
OK, let’s look into how we can go forward together.”
A day’s testing on the Indianapolis road course in July last year was enough to convince Johnson he liked it, and yes, the team saw hope. In October, Ganassi and Johnson announced their deal with title sponsor Carvana to run all of Indycar’s road and street course rounds in 2021 – a total of 13 races. Former series champion and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan will drive the #48 Dallara-honda in the four oval races.
It was a huge leap of faith considering the Ganassi/johnson combo had just that one day of testing together. Since then, Johnson has tested his Indycar at Barber, Laguna Seca, Sebring and Laguna Seca again (and flogged around in a Formula 3 car), and progress has been noteworthy. At Barber last autumn, he was 3.7 seconds off the pace. At Laguna
Seca last week, he was 1.6s off, but his ideal lap – ie putting all his best sectors together – was just 0.7s from Dixon’s, according to managing director Mike Hull. Impressive and encouraging, although modesty and realism keep Johnson’s feet on the ground.
“Based on lap time deltas with the fastest laps from my team-mates
[Dixon, Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson], I’ve covered about 60 per cent of the deficit,”he says.“i feel like the last 20 per cent will be the hardest to get, and that’s where years of experience – which I don’t have! – will come into play. But I’ve taken big chunks out of the gap as I’ve become more comfortable in the car, reacting instinctively and not thinking as much. I’m still going to be racing a lot of tracks I don’t know, but at least I’m acclimating to the car.
“I’ve gained a little everywhere. At straightforward sixth-gear-downto-first-gear tight turns, I seem to be close to the top guys. High-speed stuff like Turn 6 at Laguna, I’m line for line with my team-mates. I lose time in middle-speed corners where there’s a lot more lateral capability in the car than my senses tell me is there. I overslow the car, braking or staying off the throttle too long, so that’s where I’m trying to rewire.”
Discovering what is and isn’t possible in an Indycar is a tough task, even for those groomed in junior open-wheel categories. For a driver who has spent two decades in cars with more power than grip, that lurchingly inform drivers in advance if they’re about to break away, finding the limit of adhesion on fat, wide Firestones in each corner of a flat, downforceequipped single-seater is daunting. There’s so much less‘feel’.
“Trying to pick up cues on when to get back to the gas exiting slowspeed corners, I’ve found myself backward quite a few times,”chuckles Johnson.“you’ve got to be so ahead of an Indycar – anticipating, not just reacting. And it’s so stiff. In NASCAR, there’s much more suspension to absorb chassis rake and roll and twist; in an Indycar, it stays flat, so you’re driving off the tyre sidewall, and it’s either going to hook up, or it’s gone.”
That said, Johnson has refined his senses as he’s gotten quicker, and gotten quicker as he’s refined his senses – and so continues to edge towards the edge. For example, when he leaves the pits during a test session he can feel the extra grip from a fresh set of Firestones and also detect the car’s lazier responses from a full tank of fuel,“but
I’m not kidding myself that I’m at the limit.
“I lay down a lap and feel I’m driving the car the fastest it’s ever been – and then come in and see the lap times, and think,‘oh, guess not! There’s more to come’. But honestly, that’s fun: it makes me really uncomfortable but in a good way, where I’m constantly challenging myself. I’ll think,‘ok, only half the amount of brake this time… but will it stick?’and then it does – and I can feel there’s more potential beyond that. I think,‘you’re kidding me!’then next time, I get further into that area, reduce the braking even more. That’s fun.”
So it’s clear that it may be a while before Dixon, Palou and Ericsson are looking at Johnson’s traces for tips. But Johnson can gauge the progress of his adaptation in how his feedback corresponds with that of his teammates.“we had an engineering call recapping our recent Laguna Seca test, and the changes that Scott, Marcus and Alex were talking about, I had the same feedback, so that’s a sign that I’m feeling the right things,” he says.“granted, I was seven tenths off Scott’s times – that guy’s special – but I was really encouraged by that call.”
Johnson admits that being a newbie aged 45 is an odd feeling –
“You just don’t expect at this point in life to have to go back to basics!”– but he doesn’t feel overawed by his environs, nor a direct comparison
“I’VE BEEN RUNNING A FORMULA 3 CAR ALONGSIDE 15-YEAR-OLDS. THAT FEELS A BIT BIZARRE”
with one of Indycar’s greats.
“I’ve been with the VRD [Velocity Racing Development] team, running a Formula 3 car alongside 15-year-olds, kids with their whole careers ahead of them who dream of being professional race car drivers. There I am, going back to ground zero, learning all over again, and that feels a bit bizarre.
“But once I get close enough, the resources I have around me at Ganassi – people like Scott and Dario – are going to be priceless.
So no, I don’t feel intimidated by having those guys there, just excited to have vastly experienced people around me.”
Fitness-wise, age hasn’t been a factor, because Johnson – trim and still race sharp – has taken careful note of advice from Jim Leo of the renowned Pitfit organisation and has had suitable training equipment delivered to his home. With the physical demands figured out, adapting to his new venture is thereafter just a mental issue, says Johnson.
“We’re seeing athletes in all sports extend their careers staying healthy and disciplined,”he asserts.“right now, I don’t know how competitive I’ll be, but we’re all learning from watching Tom Brady in NFL, Scott Dixon in Indycar, myself in NASCAR, that desire and determination are the foundation of success. And people can still have the required desire and determination in their forties and onward, in any walk of life. They’re the defining factors, not age itself, and that’s a secret that fortysomethings are currently unlocking across a range of sports.”
If anyone can do that, even in an utterly different branch of his chosen sport, it’s Jimmie Johnson. Watch and enjoy, folks.