Marathon man

Jimmie Johnson finished one race before he even grabbed the wheel of his Chevy.

Johnson, a noted fitness freak, ran the Daytona Beach Half Marathon hours before he qualified for the Daytona 500. Johnson posted a photo on his Instagram story of a 6:51 a.m. warmup. His bib matched his No. 48 car number and he finished 39th among the field of nearly 900 athletes with a time of 1:33:53.7.

“I started off a slower than I wanted to, but at the end I had a little more kick left and was able to chew away at the time and get it back down,” Johnson said. “It was a fun day. I’m sore as hell right now.”

The 44-year-old Johnson ran the Boston Marathon last year and wants to run the New York Marathon and Chicago Marathon as part of his fitness goals as he scales back his racing commitments after this season.

“I’ve always wanted to go over and ride before or after different stages of the Tour de France and go up some of those massive climbs,” Johnson said. “I’ll also have a little wine when I’m over there.”

Johnson heads into his 19th and final full season in stock car racing but has refused to rule out racing another Daytona 500.

“I don’t know where ‘21 and beyond will take me.

If I can find a 10 to 15-race schedule, pick some of my favorite tracks, try some new cars, some new countries to race in,” that would be ideal, Johnson said.

John Hunter Nemechek also attempted the half marathon but didn’t fare nearly as well. He ended up limping to the finish.

“I was blowing steam, I was blowing water, that’s for sure,” Nemechek said. “I definitely wasn’t prepared for it, but I went out there and tried it. That’s all you can do: push your body to the absolute limit and try and go some more.”