Jimmie Johnson’s journey didn’t end when he hung up his full-time NASCAR helmet in 2020. The seven-time champ took a bold leap into ownership, joining Legacy Motor Club in late 2022 as it rebranded from Petty GMS Motorsports. By January 2025, he’d upped the ante, becoming majority owner after Knighthead Capital Management grabbed a minority stake, while Maury Gallagher stepped back to an ambassador role alongside Richard Petty.

Now based in Charlotte, Johnson’s balancing occasional Cup starts, like the Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600, with the high-stakes grind of running a team, overseeing everything from sponsorships to performance. It’s a gamble that mirrors the pressure-packed mindset that defined his racing career, and he’s not shying away from it. Recently, Johnson got real about how embracing pressure and learning from failure fueled his legendary run.

Johnson’s pressure-fueled mindset

On the latest Never Settle episode, Jimmie Johnson peeled back the curtain on the mental game that made him a NASCAR titan. “And my mistakes shaped me and it’s so funny. I was playing in a Pro-Am quite a whole years ago and I’m walking the golf course with Barbara Tella, one of the most well-known sport psychologist and she asked me what shaped my process and I mentioned failures,” he shared.

Early in his career, Johnson wasn’t an instant star. Testing crashes in 2001 at Hendrick Motorsports had skeptics questioning his potential. Jeff Gordon, his car co-owner, had to defend him after a wreck at Watkins Glen, but those failures lit a fire. From motocross spills in the 1990s to a rocky 2002 rookie season, Johnson leaned into mistakes, using them to sharpen his edge. That grit carried him to 83 Cup wins and seven titles, proving failure was his greatest teacher.

He dug deeper, “She listened. She then suggested that I might not be as free as I could be and experience as much success with that mindset and I appreciated his perspective, but I just knew myself. The times that I relaxed and thought ‘Oh man I got this. I’m good ‘. I always screwed up and I had to get almost mad and I almost required this outside pressure to stay on me to hold me accountable to do my best. I didn’t like it. I wasn’t comfortable, I didn’t like anything about it, but I achieved more in those moments.”

That’s the Jimmie Johnson fans know as “Superman.” His five straight championships from 2006 to 2010 were masterclasses in thriving under pressure. Take 2010, when he trailed Denny Hamlin entering the Homestead finale but delivered a clutch drive to seal the title.

Even setbacks, like his late crash while leading at Charlotte in 2005, fueled comebacks. Unlike sports psychologists pushing relaxation, Johnson needed that chip on his shoulder, that external heat, to unlock his best. It’s why he shone in high-stakes Chase races, turning pressure into precision.

Now, as he gambles on Legacy’s future, that same mindset drives his ownership push, navigating lawsuits and expansion plans with the same intensity that won him seven crowns. Off the track, Johnson’s facing a different kind of pressure, saying goodbye to his daughter Genevieve, or Evie

Johnson’s emotional goodbye to Genevieve

“I started getting teary-eyed as we’re moving Evie in … I was just running through her as a little girl running the house … I’m thinking I’m not going to lay there in bed and hear her footsteps anymore,” he confessed.

At 15, born in 2010, Evie’s move to boarding school hit hard, especially for a dad whose racing kept him away from home. Empty nest syndrome, felt by 45% of parents per a 2018 study, stung deeper than expected; those memories of her footsteps echoed the quiet moments he held dear.

He reflected on the mix of pride and pain, “I was running through those with a fair amount of joy, but just not believing the moment … and then Shanny and I did a really nice job networking around with the other parents … we’ve stayed in contact.”

Johnson and his wife Chandra, nicknamed Shanny, leaned on other parents to cope, a move research backs as a stress-buster for major milestones. Since stepping back from full-time racing in 2020, Johnson’s made family his focus, and bonding with other parents helped him navigate Evie’s departure.

As he pushes Legacy Motor Club toward a third charter amid a messy lawsuit with Rick Ware Racing, Johnson’s balancing the high-stakes gamble of ownership with the heartfelt challenge of letting his daughter spread her wings, proving he’s as human as he is legendary.