By Roy J. Akers- Jimmie Johnson is making a rare NASCAR start after retiring from the sport in 2020. Johnson raced in Indy Car for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2022 and 2023 and was asked about Kyle Larson’s attempt to drive a one-off at this year’s NTT Indy Car Indianapolis 500. Johnson is now the co-owner of the Legacy Sports Toyota team which he and partners bought from Richard Petty Motorsports. I and other reporters at Texas Motor Speedway asked the following questions after Larson appeared at Indy to practice this week.
JIMMIE JOHNSON, No. 84 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Did you give any of Kyle Larson’s INDYCAR testing or give any advice on it?
“I didn’t watch, but I checked in on social media and saw that he had a good day. Certainly, excited for him. I didn’t talk to him before or after that specific test, but before Phoenix – maybe after Phoenix – I talked with him, just checking in to see what he thinks on the car and the experience. Looks like he’s off to a good start.”
What do you think will be his biggest challenge?
Jimmie Johnson-“Getting back and forth. The stress and time commitment. I was really surprised how much time is required to get through the month of May – which is just a couple of weeks of May at the track in Indy itself. Thankfully, the NASCAR schedule is much more relaxed – I guess he has a weekend of racing before as well. I think travel and being able to spend the time that he would want in Indy – that is going to be compromised a bit. It depends on weather in Indy. If it’s dry and he can get all of the laps that he intends to get, I think that will help him tremendously. If it is wet, and he’s got some conflicts and can’t get on track because of some NASCAR schedule, that track time starts to shrink, and that’s really what it is about – is getting reps in the very unique situations that you see in the race. Practice – I personally didn’t see the aero situations, and the traffic situations that came up during the race, and that is where I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked.”
Is there any way to describe the difficulty level of what Kyle Larson is trying to do?
“I can only speak from the experience that I’ve had. Practice, qualifying – you can get your arms around that and safely find the edge, but when it comes to race time, and you are dealing with guys that drive those cars day-in and day-out and know how to just dance on that edge – it’s tough, and the cars are in a much bigger aero disadvantage deeper in practice. Unfortunately, we lost some track position trying to short pit, and trying to gain track position in the race and we never got it back, and I ran back in the 20s, and you just can’t go anywhere from back there. If you are able to maintain track position and keep him up front – I think he will have a really good day. I think Kurt’s (Busch) experience really showed that. If you keep clean air on the car, I think it helps the lack of experience that a stock car driver would have going in. Thankfully, you do get a fair number of laps with the open test session and the way the two weeks unfold. You do get a lot of laps, and in that environment with some air on the car – you can get a sense for it, but come race day, man, you don’t want to put it in the fence. By the way, that wall hurts in an INDYCAR – there really are consequences for your mistakes made in an INDYCAR.”
Kyle Larson will drive in the Indy 500 on May 26th and then drive in NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day May 26th.