The nerves hit Jimmie Johnson as he stood on the starting grid in front of the Rolex 24 in Daytona.
The seven-time NASCAR champion begins a new chapter of his career – 45 years old – in unknown racing cars. He plans to start the most prestigious sports car race in America for his Action Express team, and Johnson has just one goal for his first series in the Cadillac.
“Definitely did not want to break the toy in the first few hours,” Johnson said after driving around Daytona International Speedway for about 70 minutes on Saturday.
He gives the no. 48 to teammate Simon Pagenaud and turned to Kamui Kobayashi, the two-time winner of the Rolex 24, for an animated debrief.
Johnson, a little over two months away as the most dominant NASCAR driver of the past two decades, has ‘jumped into the deep end of the pool with weights on my ankles’ as he moves into new formulas of racing. This Rolex 24 is the eighth of his career, but for the first time in a decade, and it’s a warm – up for his move to IndyCar, where he’s going to be a rookie in a field half his age.
His career change has made for a busy off-season of Tests with some of the top executives in the world, and the demands have sparked a spark at Johnson. He has been unbeaten in the last three seasons of his NASCAR Cup career.
“I know the world I’m stepping into, and I know where I’ve walked away from and the comfort I had there, and I’m very aware of how uncomfortable I’m going to enter this new arena, and it makes me feel alive,” Johnson said. said. ‘I’m so excited to be uncomfortable and so excited to learn something new, so excited to drive these cars and really become a driver and have a lot of new experiences in life.
“It makes me feel more alive than I’ve had in a while.”
The Rolex started with a healthy field of 50 cars, a strong setback after a low 38 entries last season. Daytona officials said field attendance would be limited for the event, but that they did not disclose a capacity number. Campers were only allowed in garages, with tents prohibited and masks required on the property.
Alegra Motorsports announced right before the race that driver Michael de Quesada tested positive for COVID-19 and left the highway to isolate him. He was replaced in the Mercedes in the GT Daytona class by Mike Skeen.
Otherwise, the event continued according to schedule. Amidst the bullying of fans visiting the manufacturers’ exhibits, the Ferris wheel was in full swing and many of the best road riders in the world were keen on the endurance that was two-hour-the-clock version.
Johnson retained the Cadillac in his first round, and the Action Express entry, which was hosted in part by Hendrick Motorsports and sponsored by Ally, has a good chance of overall victory. His team will have to participate in the full-time Action Express entry, which brought in reigning NASCAR champion Chase Elliott for his debut with sports cars.
Hendrick sent a handful of his employees to Daytona, including Chad Knaus, former Johnson crew chief, and Jeff Gordon, who was part of the Rolex team for Wayne Taylor Racing in 2017. Johnson climbs to the top of the den after his ride to chat with Elliott and Gordon.
Elliott looks discouraged after his first run in his first sports car race. He said he was “terrible”, “far off pace” and “did not do a good job at all.”
“I have to act for these guys next time,” he said, adding that he hit the curb early in his career. “I was a little worried that I was damaging the bottom. Definitely can not do such things. ‘
His number 31 action-expression entry slipped to last in his class after the driver switch between Elliott and Mike Conway. But the Cadillacs seem to have an edge, according to Acura factory manager Dane Cameron. The Acura program has two DPi entries, both new to the top IMSA series.
These include Wayne Taylor Racing, who has returned to Daytona as the winner of the past two Rolex 24s, as well as three of the past four that have won from Gordon. But the team switched from Cadillac to Acura during the off-season and is still adjusting. The transition was facilitated by drivers Ricky Taylor, Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi, who have all managed the Acura for Team Penske for the past three years.
But the Cadillacs – there are four in the DPi class with seven cars – have so far been leaders of the series. The action-expression entry with Elliott in the series started from the pole after winning last weekend’s qualifying race, and Chip Ganassi Racing showed no signs of rust after a year out of the series.
The Ganassi entry was a little over two hours into the race behind the opening Renger van der Zande, who along with Kobayashi won two with WTR. Both want to become the first rider to win three consecutive Rolex watches.
Ganassi, who has won eight Rolex victories, also uses reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Kevin Magnussen, who have moved to sports cars after seven seasons in Formula One.
While Dixon, in turn, waited in the car, he was amazed at the work Johnson had been doing for the past two months. Dixon and Johnson will be Ganassi teammates in IndyCar.
“I think a lot of people, what they see, especially in our team, is just his work ethic and he fine-tunes everything,” Dixon said. “He’s trying to get on track just as fast as possible. That should probably be the biggest task for anyone ever trying to get off the other side of motorsport.”
Johnson admitted that he is an old dog trying to learn new tricks.
“It was nice to challenge myself behind the wheel in a whole new way,” Johnson said. “These cars with a very low power, it’s just a lot of fun, number one, and just a big challenge to rewire all the things I learned from driving the heavy sedans.”