Jimmie Johnson longed for decades to race at Road America, all while he was winning seven titles in a series that didn’t race at the 4-mile circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Then, in an ironic twist, the NASCAR Cup Series and Johnson both put the track on their 2021 schedules. Just not in the same spot.
Now an IndyCar rookie, the 45-year-old Johnson showed up on Father’s Day weekend, 14 days and one holiday ahead of his stock car friends. The NASCAR Cup Seris will race in the Jockey Made in America 250 on Sunday, the Fourth of July.
Although he hasn’t been around Road America in a Cup car, 19-plus seasons in the series gave Johnson perspective to contrast the driving style needed for two substantially different cars on the 14-turn course.
“In NASCAR you’d want to be the first one on the gas to make the straightaway as long as possible,” Johnson said on IndyCar weekend. “Cup cars really never hit terminal velocity. The time gain compounds (over) the whole straightaway.
“These Indy cars have so much drag, once you get in fifth gear, they all go the same speed. It happens pretty quick. So your time in these cars is made on the brakes, especially the later portion of the braking zone.
“And sure, in a NASCAR vehicle that’s an area of priority in qualifying. But with steel brakes and the weight of the car, you can’t attack that area. So (NASCAR teams) never exploit that area, (they) don’t work in that area very much. And that is everything over here.”
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Although Johnson lived in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, and raced out of Sussex, Wisconsin, for a time during his development, he’d never been to Road America with a race vehicle before an early June IndyCar test. He was on the grounds as a television analyst for a 1995 off-road race at the facility and said he did sneak onto the big track in a rental car. At that point he was hoping to go from off-road racing to Indy cars the way fellow Californians Rick and Roger Mears had, but the opportunity came to race in NASCAR instead.
Johnson didn’t regret his decision to leave NASCAR, and he didn’t have any serious thoughts about running Road America in a stock car as he concentrates on learning Indy cars and sports cars. But he does admit to feeling a tinge of envy when he looks at what’s happening in the Cup Series and with his old team.
“The Hendrick cars are on point this year, so I’m like, I wish that would have been a year earlier,” said Johnson, who won 83 Cup races for Hendrick Motorsports but none after 2017. “Looking at the schedule and knowing they have 26 single-day shows, six road courses, one dirt race, I was like, darn, I wish I had a chance at that schedule.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jimmie Johnson discusses Road America in a NASCAR Cup car vs. IndyCar