Kyle Larson answered a fairly routine question near the end of his Sunday night news conference following his first Brickyard 400 victory. His response was intriguing and unexpected.
In your opinion, who drove the fastest automobile today? Did you?
The second driver he cited has only finished in the top-20 five times in 2024, and has not done any better than sixth, despite the fact that he likely possessed one of the two fastest cars.
The best thing that came out of a challenging weekend for Legacy Motor Club—which at moments had so much promise but delivered two crashed cars and finishes of 28th, 29th, and 33rd—may have been that Larson mentioned John Hunter Nemechek at that very moment.
Compared to the weekends at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that driver-owner Jimmie Johnson is accustomed to, this is a long cry. After his IndyCar stint, Johnson returned to full-time racing in less than two years, but even now, he is still adjusting to the new expectations and the amount of time it takes to establish his own reputation after 19 full-time seasons, 83 NASCAR Cup wins, seven championships, and 12 “crown jewel” victories.
On Sunday, July 21, 2024, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, during driver introductions, driver Jimmie Johnson (84), of the NASCAR Cup Series, takes a lap around the course.
Johnson said to IndyStar during an exclusive sit-down this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, “I did not expect it would be this tough.” It is a difficult sport, but we are on the path because we have a fantastic long-term goal and have committed heavily to it.
“However, I felt that we were almost at the bottom last year, and then we descended a little further and discovered a deeper bottom. We are making progress and putting the parts in place, but there is still a lot of work involved. I do believe we are climbing our way out presently.
A promising start: IMS surpasses 70,000 supporters for the Brickyard 400 oval comeback.
Johnson reconciles his racing objectives with Legacy Motor Club’s advancement.
After abandoning his two-year IndyCar campaign in the fall of 2022, Johnson invested in Petty GMS Racing in the weeks and months that followed to start his next chapter in racing. After two months, the squad declared a complete rebranding, doing away with the well-known “Petty” moniker and introducing a novel, unconventional moniker and brand for a team going through change. Johnson persevered with his part-time racing schedule despite his expanded obligations, which included four races in 2023 and nine this year.
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With the No. 84, Johnson can fulfill his desire to compete in “marquee events” that ignite his competitive fire. Additionally, the team’s few main sponsors get to showcase their products on the vehicle of one of NASCAR’s finest drivers. During his days as a full-time driver, Johnson’s vision at his longstanding Hendrick Motorsports home was quite limited. Now, he says he is starting to realize how difficult it can be to balance the demands of an entire organization. While he essentially has complete control over creating his own racing schedule—which this year was designed to focus on strong results on intermediate ovals after prioritizing road and street courses in 2023—determining how to best position his one and only racing endeavors and the team for success—as well as when to prioritize what—has presented a new trial-and-error challenge.
“My goal is to compete, but I do not want the third vehicle to hinder the other two.” The money we make will allow us to use the third vehicle to train new drivers and create fresh setup concepts, but running a car for nine races requires a fairly large staff, which is inefficient for just nine races, the driver stated. We are attempting to strike a balance because, if it comes down to three or four races, you will not need that crew, but then you will be competing with the Nos. 42 and 43 cars.
The No. 48 (at Hendrick) was a team I played on once, and there were really only 15 of us. The team as a whole was obviously much larger, but we were a lot smaller, more agile group, and our crew chief, Chad Knaus, was so adept at taking initiative, making adjustments, and shifting things around that I became accustomed to the mindset that “Man, you can just make anything happen,” which is simply not how things actually work.
“It feels so wonderful,” Kyle Larson exclaims after winning the Brickyard 400 with Hendrick Motorsports following a wild May.
Jimmie Johnson, 84, a driver for the NASCAR Cup Series, sits in his car during the Brickyard 400 qualifying session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 20, 2024.
In their first year as teammates, Erik Jones, a full-time employee who has driven for Legacy Motor Club for four years, and Nemechek showed promise, and the three of them, along with Johnson, appeared poised to finish what may have been their best weekend together to date on Sunday. Nemechek made it to the final qualifying session, where he led 16 laps, started from 10th position, and finished fifth in Stage 2 while staying comfortably close to the front for the most of the race.
With 50 laps remaining, Johnson’s day came to an abrupt end due to an unintentional restart accident, leaving him in his starting position despite having started from the 33rd position and progressed up to the top 15. Nemechek had fallen back to 26th after his last pit stop, but he had climbed to 15th at the beginning of the race’s first overtime restart. However, Daniel Hemric spun him around from behind, sending him spinning through Turn 1 as part of a five-car pileup that left him in 29th place. Jones had a very quiet day, finishing in 28th place after starting in 29th.
This was Johnson’s first race on the IMS oval since his difficult first Indianapolis 500 start, which resulted in a crash on the backstretch with only a few laps remaining. Johnson’s Brickyard 400 comeback was his first in a Cup vehicle since 2019. He was unable to race in his retirement campaign because he tested positive for COVID-19 less than four months into the pandemic.
Even after two years since his return, Johnson said he still feels like he is getting up to speed in a sport where practices typically last only 20 minutes on the weekends.
“Knowing the car, the track, and the little aspects from a driver’s perspective was so comforting at Hendrick,” he remarked. Now that the race is almost over, I realize that is what I am supposed to accomplish. There are fears associated with that, but at this point in my journey, where I am enjoying major events and working to expand our race team, I simply need to keep reminding myself of the goal.
“Of course, my mindset immediately returns to “I am here to win” as I put on my helmet. Though I would really really like to, I must remind myself to have reasonable expectations for the work we are doing.
Johnson regrets leaving NASCAR full-time sooner and misses IndyCar.
He claimed that the expectations were comparable to his two seasons and 29-race IndyCar career, during which he finished outside the top-20 more often than inside it despite recording two top-6 results in Year 2. Johnson admits that, looking back, he wishes he had taken the risk sooner and quit full-time NASCAR competition before 2020, when his career came to an end after three seasons without a win.
Johnson remarked of his IndyCar days, “I really do miss it.” “I think I ought to have switched a few years ago. I have always held the opinion that you need five years—five years is the sweet spot—to truly comprehend a particular car.
“From Year 1 to Year 2, I made amazing progress, and I performed well on a number of the ovals, but I just could not give it any more, especially at that level of devotion. Once more, it seemed like “work.”
Why Jimmie Johnson, the greatest driver of his time in NASCAR, had difficulties in IndyCar
Sunday, July 21, 2024, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, drivers Jimmie Johnson (84), left, and Corey LaJoie (7) converse as they make their way to the pagoda before of the Brickyard 400.
Johnson, who turns 49 in September, responded that he is “had some options” since his one start with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2022, while he did not entirely reject the idea, when asked if he would consider making a comeback to the Indianapolis 500.
“I am not sure. I am not sure,” Johnson responded. Prior to flying to Charlotte to compete in the Coke 600 this year, Johnson spent a portion of the afternoon working as a TV personality for NBC. On the day of the race, Sunday, I was thinking to myself, “(Expletive), I need to be out there.”
It remains inside. If the proper occasion arose, I would like to take it, but first I need to acquire the permission of my three domestic women.”
Having patience in a world full of difficulties and change
The largest shift over the past two years may have been the addition of time with the three of them—his wife Chandra, kids Genevieve and Lydia. According to Johnson, on Mondays, his regular off day, he would frequently find himself alone at home while his girls were in school and his wife was running her art gallery. This was during his NASCAR days. He would seldom get substantial portions with any of them after a day in the shop on Tuesday, many sponsor appearances on Wednesday, and Thursday-night flights abroad for race weekends before returning late on Sunday.
In an effort to give his daughters a new experience and a change of scenery, the Johnson family traveled to England in August of last year with the intention of staying for just a year. Now, that one year has grown into two. These days, Johnson works seven or ten days a month at Legacy’s race shop, either as a driver or owner, and then spends the remainder of the month with his girls and wife.
This improved work-life balance has energized the driver, who took home his maiden Cup victory in just his 13th start and started on pole for his Daytona 500 debut, for his upcoming career, which has the potential to further redefine his own history.
“The most challenging aspect is merely taking a broad view of management and understanding the annual cycles.” This is all about the people you have, just like anything else, and good people are frequently under contract,” he remarked. “You need to be very patient and well-prepared because you might have to wait for someone for a year or three at the most.
“I just did not realize there was a dance to it all.”
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