Johnson plans Indycar campaign

Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson is planning a move to Indycar for 2021 and 2022 with Chip Ganassi Racing on the series’ road and street circuits.

Johnson has signed an agreement with the team to “officially explore the possibility” of the programme. The 45-year-old grew up with fellow Californian and Indycar legend Rick Mears as his hero, and drove a Mclaren Formula 1 car as part of a ride swap with Fernando Alonso at the end of 2018. Johnson was due to pilot an Arrow Mclaren SP Dallara-chevrolet

Indycar at Barber Motorsports Park in a test in April this year, before it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A test was then scheduled with the Honda-powered Ganassi team, only for Johnson to test positive for coronavirus less than a week before the planned outing. It was rescheduled, and Johnson (above, with Scott Dixon) turned over 100 laps of the Indianapolis road course in late July.

In announcing the partnership with Ganassi and the quest for funding, Johnson stated: “When I tested Chip’s Indycar earlier in the year, it only lit the fire more. Scott [Dixon] was just incredible to work with and in a short time I found out very quickly why Chip and his teams have won 12 Indycar championships. I wanted to publicly show the alignment with Chip Ganassi Racing to kick the sponsorship programme into high gear. The goal is to run the full road and street programme.”

Ganassi added: “The goal right now is for us to run Jimmie in an Indycar for at least the next couple of seasons, and we want to show people we’re serious about the programme. We felt it was important to start putting the financial building blocks in place to make this a reality.”