{"id":45503,"date":"2024-04-13T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T18:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=45503"},"modified":"2024-04-13T14:15:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T19:15:29","slug":"seven-time-champion-johnson-back-on-track-at-tms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/13\/seven-time-champion-johnson-back-on-track-at-tms\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven-time champion Johnson back on track at TMS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike Haag, Raceday San Antonio<\/em><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH \u2013 He\u2019s back!<\/p>\n

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Jimmie Johnson is back racing this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #84 Club Wyndham Chevrolet, looks on in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on March 24, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The 48-year old Johnson will be making his second start of the season in the No. 84 Advent Health Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club.<\/p>\n

Johnson, who has not raced since competing at the Daytona 500 in February where he started 23rd and finished 28th, is racing on a part-time basis in 2024. In addition to racing at Texas, Johnson will also race at Dover Motor Speedway (April 28), Kansas Speedway (May 5 and Sept. 29), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 21), Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 26), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 20) and Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 10).<\/p>\n

Johnson has a storied history of great success at TMS. He leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins with seven victories (2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 sweep and 2017) in 35 starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny now, the way the place drives, just have a lot of anxiety about turns one and two,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIn the previous configuration, that was really the most fun you could have on a mile-and-a-half was turns one and two. Bummed that it\u2019s still not there, but it is the same for everybody \u2013 it is what it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe track, where I\u2019ve had my most success, is a track that you could run from line to wall. The bumps were in the worst place possible, but that was great and that created mistakes for the drivers and technical challenge for the teams, and I thought it made it where you really had to race the racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #84 Carvana Toyota, and JJ Yeley, driver of the #44 100 Coconut Water Chevrolet, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Bluegreen Vacations Duel #1 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

During the 30-minute morning practice session on Saturday, Johnson only completed nine laps. He got loose and hit the wall in the first turn and damaged the race car. Not only did the incident force him to skip the rest of the practice session, but he also missed qualifying while his crew made repairs to the car. He was 34th after the practice session with a best lap time of 29.204, 184.906 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bit different \u2013 there is no doubt,\u201d Johnson said while comparing the track\u2019s current configuration to the track he raced on prior to his retirement of full-time racing. \u201cI felt like we did a nice job trying to get me ready in the simulator. Unfortunately, I just got a little loose in turn one \u2013 I caught it \u2013 but it is such a narrow lane, that once I caught the car I was in the wall, and I was kind of along with the ride then. We\u2019ve got the car in the garage area \u2013 there is no doubt the AdventHealth Toyota won\u2019t make qualifying, but it\u2019s unclear if it\u2019s a back-up car or just fixing the body and the right rear corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, who will start 37th on the grid for Sunday\u2019s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 race, said he is still trying to get used to the NASCAR Next Gen car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found last year with the limited races that I\u2019ve run is really, really different,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI think the first 80 percent is normal, maybe 90 percent. But that last little bit and where you run the car \u2013 I spent a lifetime running a car off the right rear. This car you just cannot do that. From the aero platform, the tire and I believe the side wall stiffness of the tire, you can\u2019t slip and slide this car around like I like to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson added, \u201cOf course, I want to run as well as I can. I want to run all the laps. I want to help our company grow and really work through this first quarter, first half of the season with our change to Toyota. There is just a lot of new things that we trying to get our arms around. We\u2019ve had some speed at times, but consistently having the speed is a big objective for us right now, and I hope that my participation this weekend helps us take a step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media Center Interview<\/h3>\n

Jimmie Johnson (No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota) – <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Jimmie Johnson is back racing this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[919,63,16,21],"class_list":["post-45503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-texas-motor-speedway","tag-autotrader-echopark-automotive-400","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-nascar","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1475986377-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-bPV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45506,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45503\/revisions\/45506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}