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Jimmie Johnson Entertaining the Idea of Running in the 2022 Indianapolis 500

Published 09/30/2021, 10:02 AM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

NASCAR living legend Jimmie Johnson has just completed his maiden IndyCar season. Once all the races concluded, he ended the year in 26th place with a best finish of 17th at Laguna Seca and Long Beach. Now, he already has a contract for the 2022 season with Chip Ganassi Racing. However, the seven-time Cup Series champion has some interesting plans on the horizon.

According to some reports, the ex-NASCAR driver is hugely interested in racing in the Indianapolis 500. Although his current contract stipulates that he runs only at road courses, there may be room for negotiation. As per Johnson’s word, the situation is looking fairly positive for him.

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The 46-year-old believes that his sponsor, Carvana, will be more than happy to sponsor him. However, he did confess that this is far from being a done deal, as the kinks are still being worked out. For the moment, his 2022 schedule only includes the road course races.

How is Jimmie Johnson going about achieving his dream?

Last month, the #48 driver took his first step towards his Indy 500 goal. To be precise, he completed a successful test at the Texas Motor Speedway, his first run on an oval in IndyCar.

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USA Today via Reuters

Jimmie Johnson said, “I’m definitely a step closer. I think that there are more conversations to be had with family, team and sponsors, at least another test session ahead of me before I can really make a decision. Driving the car only piqued my interest more. There are a couple layers to it.

“From a team standpoint, I was pretty clear that I just wanted to do road and street courses. Car, crew, how does that all work out, and how do we pull that off from a team standpoint.”

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Once again, he insisted that Carvana are willing to act as his sponsor. Despite this, Johnson acknowledged that he does not want to jump the gun. Instead, he will take things slowly and see how things play out from there.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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