YouTube download / Jimmie Johnson video / Jimmie Johnson announces he's going to IndyCar Racing next year.
By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Two-time Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson is leaving NASCAR, but not the sport of racing.
Indeed, the seven-time record tying NASCAR Cup champion announced in November that the 2020 Cup season would be his last full-time season of racing.
But that announcement was short-lived. Yes, he's leaving NASCAR at the end of this current season, but he's got big plans for another type of racing where the cars go even faster: Johnson is taking his talents to Indianapolis and IndyCar.
Johnson has landed a two-year IndyCar deal to race in the NTT IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing.
The 45-year-old Johnson, once a protege of Jeff Gordon who introduced him to NASCAR, will participate in at least 15 IndyCar races per season, including the most prestigious race, the Indianapolis 500.
"When I tested Chip’s Indy car (back in July) earlier in the year, it only lit the fire more," Johnson said. "I found that I wanted to do it more than ever before. 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."
"When I tested Chip’s Indy car (back in July) earlier in the year, it only lit the fire more," Johnson said. "I found that I wanted to do it more than ever before. 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."
Johnson continued in making his announcement last week: "As part of a natural progression, I wanted to publicly show the alignment with Chip Ganassi Racing to kick the sponsorship program into high gear. The goal is to run the full road and street program and today is a very important first step in accomplishing that goal."
The next step is sponsorship, but Johnson has been a superstar with great name recognition and a winning record for two decades in NASCAR, which should translate to sponsorship in IndyCar where he'll compete against the likes of Takuma Sato, this year's Indy 500 winner and a two-time winner of the premier race overall. And tough as nails, Alexander Rossi, who won the Indy 500 in 2016, as a rookie.
IndyCar features other top flight racers, though none as seasoned as 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon, who also has the most wins of any active NTT IndyCar series driver - 46 - which ranks third all-time. And he's won five IndyCar championships (2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018), the most of any active driver.
And Dixon, too, drives for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Chip Ganassi, Team Owner, Chip Ganassi Racing said pairing Johnson and Dixon is quite an opportunity.
"They are truly in rarefied air and I think everyone knows by now that ‘I like winners’. The goal right now is for us to run Jimmie in an Indy car for at least the next couple of seasons, and we want to show people we’re serious about the program. We felt it was important to get the partnership done and start putting the financial building blocks in place to make this a reality. Jimmie’s record speaks for itself and we feel a championship-level driver of his caliber can only make our team better.”
Dixon and Jonson have a combined for a dozen racing season championships and 133 total wins. No two drivers in NASCAR or IndyCar comes close to matching those totals.
Dixon’s five championships are second all-time in the IndyCar Series to AJ Foyt’s seven and his 50 career wins are third all-time behind only Mario Andretti (52) and AJ Foyt (67).
Johnson's seven NASCAR championships ties him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. Johnson is 10th all-time in NASCAR series race wins with 83.
Henry Frederick is publisher of Headline Surfer, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet launched 12 years ago that serves greater Daytona Beach, Sanford & Orlando, Florida via HeadlineSurfer.com. Frederick has amassed more than a hundred journalism industry awards in print & online -- more than all other members of the working press combined in Central Florida since the mid-1990s. He earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism with academic honors from Full Sail University in 2019. Having witnessed the execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Florida's death chamber and other high profile cases, Frederick has appeared on national crime documentary programs on Discovery ID and Reelz for his investigative reporting and cops & courts breaking news stories.