Nerves hit Jimmie Johnson as he sat on the starting grid ahead of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Seven-time NASCAR champion begins a new chapter in his career – at the age of 45 – in unknown race cars. He went on to start the most prestigious sports car race in America for his Action Express team, and Johnson had only one goal for his first stage in Cadillac.
“He certainly didn’t want to break the toy in the first two hours,” Johnson said after driving about 70 minutes around Daytona International Speedway on Saturday.
He handed his number 48 to teammate Simon Pagenaud and then headed to Kamui Kobayashi, the two-time Rolex 24 winner, for an animated summary.
Johnson, a little more than two months away as the most dominant NASCAR driver in two decades, “jumped to the deep end of the ankle-weight pool” as he switched to new racing formulas. This Rolex 24 is the eighth of its career, but the first in a decade, and is a warm-up for its move to IndyCar, where it will be a debutant in a field full of middle-aged drivers.
His career change led to a busy test season with some of the best drivers in the world, and the demands sparked a spark in Johnson. He has been without a win in the last three seasons of his NASCAR Cup career.
“I know the world I walk in and I know why I left and the comfort I had there and I am very aware of how uncomfortable I will be to step into this new arena and it makes me feel alive,” he said. Johnson said, “I’m so excited to be uncomfortable and so excited to learn something new, so excited to drive these cars and really grow as a driver and have a lot of new experiences in life.
“It makes me feel more alive than I’ve had in quite some time.”
Rolex started with a healthy field of 50 cars, a strong comeback after a low number of events 38 entries last season. Daytona officials said attendance will be limited for the event, but did not release a capacity number. Cars were allowed only in motor homes, with forbidden tents and necessary masks on the property.
Alegra Motorsports announced just before the start of the race that the driver Michael de Quesada gave positive results to COVID-19 and that he left the highway to isolate himself. He was replaced at Mercedes competing in the GT Daytona class by Mike Skeen.
Otherwise, the event continued as scheduled. Halfway through, with fans visiting the manufacturers’ posters, the Ferris wheel was up and running and many of the best road racing in the world were eager for the endurance event twice a day.
Johnson held on to him in his first stage driving a Cadillac, and the entry into Action Express, partly organized with Hendrick Motorsports and sponsored by Ally, has a solid chance of overall victory. His team will have to face full entry into Action Express, which brought in NASCAR champion Chase Elliott for his sports car debut.
Hendrick sent a handful of employees to Daytona, including former Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus and Jeff Gordon, who was part of the winning Rolex team in 2017 for Wayne Taylor Racing. Johnson climbed to the top of the box after trying to talk to both Elliott and Gordon.
Elliott looked discouraged after his first race in his first sports car race. He said he was “terrible”, “out of rhythm” and “didn’t do a good job at all”.
“I have to step up for these guys in the next game,” he said, adding that he hit the curb at the start of his run. “I was a little worried that I had damaged it underneath. I certainly can’t do such things. “
His entry no. 31 in Action Express had slipped to the last class, after the change of driver between Elliott and Mike Conway. But Cadillacs seemed to have an advantage, at least according to Acura factory driver Dane Cameron. The Acura program has two DPi inputs, both new for the top IMSA series.
These include Wayne Taylor Racing, who returned to Daytona as the winner of the last two Rolex 24s, as well as three of the last four dating back to Gordon’s win. But the team switched from Cadillac to Acura out of season and is still adapting to the move. The transition was made easier by drivers Ricky Taylor, Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi, who have been driving Acura for the past three years for Team Penske.
But the Cadillacs – there are four in the DPi class with seven cars – have so far been leaders in the package. The entry into Action Express with Elliott in line started from the pole after winning the qualifying race last weekend, and Chip Ganassi Racing showed no signs of rust after a year out of the series.
Entering Ganassi 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 current IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Kevin Magnussen, who moved to sports cars after seven seasons in Formula One.
While Dixon waited his turn in the car, he was amazed at the work Johnson had done over the past two months. Dixon and Johnson will be Ganassi’s teammates in IndyCar.
“I think a lot of people, what I see, especially in our team, is just his work ethic and he erases everything,” Dixon said. “Just try to get up to speed as fast as possible. This must be probably the biggest task for anyone who has ever tried to go from the opposite polar ends of motor sport.”
Johnson admitted that he is an old dog trying to learn new tricks.
“It was fun really challenging me in a whole new way,” Johnson said. “These low-power cars are just a lot of fun, number one and just a massive challenge to reconfirm all the things we’ve learned from driving heavy sedans.”