Jimmie Johnson returns to NASCAR as part-owner, driver

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Jimmie Johnson’s NASCAR retirement and IndyCar experiment lasted all of two seasons.

The seven-time NASCAR champion is returning in 2023 to the sequence that made him a worldwide motorsports star because the part-owner of Petty GMS. He’ll additionally enter about 5 Cup races.

Johnson informed The Related Press that his first race would be the season-opening Daytona 500, the place he is a two-time winner.

“I’ve had a watchful eye on the possession half and what’s occurring with NASCAR, and the chance that I’ve right here, the enterprise construction and the mannequin with NASCAR charters is simply so totally different from than the rest in motorsports,” Johnson informed the AP. “I wish to be a part of it. We definitely watched Michael Jordan be a part of, what the Trackhouse Racing of us have accomplished, and there is all these rumors of people that wish to get into the game.

“I am honored and grateful that I will be a part of it.”

His automobile quantity and sponsors — and perhaps even the present Petty GMS identify — are all a piece in progress for Johnson, who turned 47 in September.

On his bucket checklist are the Coca-Cola 600, a race he is gained 4 occasions, and he’d love if NASCAR made him eligible for the 2023 All-Star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina.

Johnson additionally mentioned he nonetheless desires to do “The Double” of the Indianapolis 500 and Coke 600 on the identical day, however he is on maintain as Chip Ganassi shapes the group Johnson left after two seasons. However, even when an Indy 500 experience materializes, the All-Star race would battle with Indy 500 qualifying.

Johnson made his Indy 500 debut in Might and though he proved first rate on the IndyCar ovals — he skipped them his first season — the highway and avenue programs had been a wrestle and admitted to being burned out on the finish of the total season. He mentioned he’d step again from full-time racing and was eyeing a bucket checklist of about 10 occasions, most probably together with the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a NASCAR consultant.

When he got here to that late-September determination to step away, Johnson insisted he had no concept what he wished to do subsequent.

It took about six weeks for Johnson to get again into NASCAR by conversations initiated by the administration agency shared by Johnson and Erik Jones, the Petty GMS driver he simply inherited.

Johnson mentioned he had no talks with Hendrick Motorsports about possession alternatives because the GMS deal got here collectively out of the blue. He informed the AP alerted Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon of his plans. Johnson drove 20 years for Hendrick and gained 83 Cup races within the No. 48 Chevrolet.

His seven championships ties him with Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt, each Corridor of Famers.

Johnson made the announcement with GMS founder Maury Gallagher on Friday at Phoenix Raceway, the place he retired from NASCAR after the 2020 season finale. The Hendrick Motorsports torch was handed that day when Chase Elliott gained the Cup title — Johnson completed fifth, better of the non-title contenders — and Johnson started chasing his IndyCar dream.

He additionally put collectively an IMSA sports activities automobile endurance program with each Hendrick, Motion Specific Racing owned by NASCAR chairman Jim France, and Cadillac.

Now he desires a much bigger piece of the motion and will get it with Petty GMS, an upstart two-car staff funded by Gallagher, chairman of Allegiant Air, and fronted by Petty.

Jones in September gave “The King” his two hundredth win within the famed No. 43 automobile, and earlier than this deal was struck, the staff had already determined to dump Ty Dillon for firebrand Noah Gragson subsequent season.

The pace through which the deal was accomplished was astonishing to each Gallagher and Johnson, and Gallagher informed the AP that Johnson, like Brad Keselowski at RFK Racing, financially bought his stake within the staff and will not be a figurehead.

“Jimmie is only a great man and in my older age, I worth relationships as a lot as something,” Gallagher informed the AP. “I am extra of a background man. I need Jimmie and Richard to be the faces of the group, assistance on the economics and the operations is only a massive bonus.”

GMS has in a couple of decade has grown from a Truck Collection staff right into a first-year Cup group that acquired Richard Petty Motorsports and its 85-year-old Corridor of Fame namesake. Though Jones has been aggressive and gained at Darlington, it did not qualify for the playoffs and Gallagher mentioned GMS has been overshadowed by Justin Marks, who in his second season as proprietor of Trackhouse Racing has driver Ross Chastain in Sunday’s championship race.