IndyCar: Jimmie Johnson makes fascinating NASCAR comparison

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson made an interesting comparison after his first IndyCar street race in St. Petersburg, Florida.

After winning a record-tying seven NASCAR Cup Series championships and 83 races, Jimmie Johnson retired from stock car racing after the 2020 season and made the move to IndyCar as the road and street course driver of Chip Ganassi Racing’s #48 Honda.

He made his series debut at the road course of Barber Motorsports Park two Sundays ago and finished in 19th place following a spin before making his first ever street course start on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida this past Sunday afternoon and finishing in 22nd after two separate incidents.

Johnson will be the first to admit that there is a massive learning curve when trying to compete with some of the best open-wheel drivers in the world after two decades of dominance in stock cars.

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The 45-year-old El Cajon, California native has said time and time again that he isn’t doing this for any other reason than the fact that it is something that he has always wanted to do.

He doesn’t care what anybody believes he has to gain or lose by making this switch, and it doesn’t matter to him that he has potentially set himself up for some embarrassing moments, much like the three separate on-track incidents he has already had through just two starts.

In fact, he is responsible for three of the last four caution flags. But the “rookie” is here to learn, not as a post-NASCAR publicity stunt, and it’s a process that takes time.

Especially in his first street course race, Johnson was expected to struggle, and he did. He brought out the first two caution flags — giving him three in a row going back to the Barber race — and finished five laps off the lead lap in the 100-lap event.

But even Johnson wasn’t quite expecting what was coming in that race.

The NASCAR legend went onto CBS Sports Network’s The Jim Rome Show earlier this week to discuss his first two open-wheel races, and he opened up about the challenges of that experience.

“The street course is also much rougher than I anticipated as you go through all of the transitions from the city roads, manhole covers that are on the city streets, the surface changes — it’s quite a violent experience, but at a really high rate of speed,” Johnson said.

“I was quite impressed. … These IndyCar drivers deserve a lot of credit for making it look so easy. They make it look effortless, but it is so more technical and physical than I first expected.”

He also made quite an interesting comparison to the St. Petersburg street race — a comparison that, while it highlights one key similarity, illustrates just how different IndyCar and NASCAR truly are from one another.

“I can only equate it to maybe Bristol in the NASCAR series, where you’re just in such a tight, confined space at a high rate of speed that your eyes really have a hard time adjusting to it,” he added.

The Cup Series races on several road courses, but not yet on any street courses. Bristol Motor Speedway is, of course, the high-banked short oval where the series races twice each year.

For 500 quick laps around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) “Last Great Colosseum” in Bristol, Tennessee, drivers barely ever have any time during which they aren’t turning the wheel just so they can manage to stay away from the wall.

Now try that strategy for 14 turns a total of 100 times on the bumpy city streets in a completely different style of a car you’ve only ever sat in seven or eight times prior to the main event, and you’ll see why Johnson struggled.

“I’ve had two challenging races to get started, but lessons learned, and nothing that I’m embarrassed or ashamed of,” he said. “I’m out there on the ragged edge trying to race with the best guys in the business, learn new cars, new tracks, and make the most of it.”

Be sure to listen to the full interview here.

Johnson is set to make his third career IndyCar start in the GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday, May 15. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET. Before then, Tony Kanaan is set to drive the #48 Honda in the two races at the Texas Motor Speedway oval this weekend.