Nerves hit Jimmie Johnson while he was on the starting grid before the Rolex 24 in Daytona.
The seven-time NASCAR champion begins a new chapter in his career, at age 45, in unknown race cars. He was given the tab to start America’s most prestigious sports car race for his Action Express team and Johnson only had one goal for his first stage in the Cadillac.
“I certainly didn’t want to break the toy in the first few hours,” Johnson said after driving about 70 minutes Saturday around Daytona International Speedway.
He handed the number 48 to his teammate Simon Pagenaud and then headed to Kamui Kobayashi, the two-time winner of the Rolex 24, for an animated debrief.
Johnson, just over two months eliminated as the most dominant NASCAR driver of the past two decades, has “jumped to the deep end of the pool with weight on his ankles” as he transits to new racing formulas. This Rolex 24 is the eighth of his career, but the first in a decade, and is a warm-up for his move to IndyCar, where he will be new to a field full of mid-age drivers.
His career change has led to a very busy test season along with some of the best drivers in the world, and the demands have ignited a spark in Johnson. He was undefeated in the last three seasons of his NASCAR Cup career.
“I know the world I’m stepping into and I know what I stepped away from and the comfort I had in it, and I’m very aware of how uncomfortable I’m going to be in this new scenario, and it makes me feel alive,” Johnson said. “I’m so excited to be uncomfortable and so excited to learn something new, so excited to drive these cars and to grow as a driver and have a lot of new experiences in life.
“It makes me feel more alive than I have in a long time.”
The Rolex started with a healthy 50-car field, a strong rebound after 38 innings with a low number of events last season. Daytona officials said attendance inside the camp would be limited for the event, but did not release any numbers. Campers were only allowed in motorhomes, with tents prohibited and masks mandatory.
Alegra Motorsports announced just before the start of the race that driver Michael de Quesada tested positive for COVID-19 and had left the road to self-isolate. He was replaced in the Mercedes that competed in the GT Daytona class by Mike Skeen.
Otherwise, the event continued as planned. Halfway through it boiled with fans visiting the manufacturers ’screens, the ferris wheel was up and running and many of the world’s best road racing riders were looking forward to the endurance event twice a day.
Johnson took over in his first stage driving the Cadillac, and the entry of Express Express, partly with Hendrick Motorsports and sponsored by Ally, has a solid chance of winning the overall. His team will have to contend with the full-time entry of Action Express, which brought in current NASCAR champion Chase Elliott for his sports car debut.
Hendrick sent a handful of his employees to Daytona, including former Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus and Jeff Gordon, who was part of the 2017 Rolex winning team for Wayne Taylor Racing. Johnson climbed into the chest after his drive to chat with Elliott and Gordon.
Elliott looked discouraged after his first race in his first sports car race. He said it was “terrible”, “far from the pace” and “didn’t do anything right”.
“I need to reinforce them for these guys next trip,” he said, adding that he touched the sidewalk early in his career. “I was a little worried I damaged the bottom. I definitely can’t be doing things like that.”
His 31st entry on Express Express had dropped to last in his class after the change of pilot between Elliott and Mike Conway. But the Cadillacs seemed to have advantages, at least according to Acura factory driver Dane Cameron. The Acura program has two DPi inputs, both new to the major IMSA series.
This includes Wayne Taylor Racing, who returned to Daytona as the winner of the last two Rolex 24s, as well as three of the last four who won Gordon’s victory. But the team switched from Cadillac to Acura during the offseason and is still adapting to the play. The transition has been facilitated by drivers Ricky Taylor, Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi, who drove the Acura for the past three years for Team Penske.
But the Cadillacs – there are four in the DPi class of seven cars – have so far been leaders in the group. Action Express’s entry with Elliott into the lineup began from the pole after winning last weekend’s qualifying race, and Chip Ganassi Racing has shown no signs of rust after a year out of the series.
Ganassi’s entry was the overall leader of the race just over two hours into the race behind starter Renger van der Zande, who along with Kobayashi won two in a row with WTR. Both are looking to become the first driver to win three consecutive Rolex watches.
Ganassi, who has eight Rolex victories, also uses reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Kevin Magnussen, who moved into sports cars after seven seasons in Formula One.
As Dixon waited his turn in the car, he marveled at the work Johnson has done over the past two months. Dixon and Johnson will be Ganassi’s teammates at IndyCar.
“I think a lot of people, what they see, especially on our team, is just their work ethic and it takes away everything,” Dixon said. “Just try to catch up as quickly as possible. It should probably be the biggest task for anyone who has tried to go from the opposite polar ends of the engine.”
Johnson acknowledged that he is an old dog trying to learn new tricks.
“It’s been fun to challenge myself behind the wheel in a whole new way,” Johnson said. “These cars with a lot of downforce are a lot of fun, it’s number one and it’s a huge challenge to reconnect all the things I’ve learned by learning heavy sedans.”