They always say that NASCAR is about family. Jimmie Johnson and the Johnson family are taking things a step further this weekend.
Gary Johnson, the father of the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion driver, is listed on the team roster for the No. 84 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team and will serve as an additional spotter for his son this weekend in the NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The elder Johnson, 71, will join his son’s primary spotter Earl Barban in calling the race on Sunday.
This will not mark the first time that Johnson’s father has teamed with Barban atop the spotter’s stand. The duo worked together with Johnson in the 2022 Indianapolis 500, a race where Johnson led two laps and performed admirably before a crash in the closing laps ended his day and resulted in a 28th-place finish.
Gary Johnson will assist Barban and his son with his view from the Turn 3 side of the track, according to a race preview release from the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team.
Jimmie Johnson, 48, will contest his sixth race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. While the legendary racer’s best finish in his part-time campaign is just 28th, which he achieved in the season-opening Daytona 500, and again at Dover Motor Speedway, the cagey veteran has started working his way up the speed charts further and further in practice sessions leading into the race.
The entirety of Johnson’s full-time NASCAR Cup Series career was contested in the fourth, fifth, and sixth-generation NASCAR race cars. Johnson moved to a part-time NTT IndyCar Schedule in 2021 and went full-time in IndyCar in 2022 as the NASCAR Cup Series rolled out the new Next Gen car.
It’s been a learning experience so far, but Johnson has been improving behind the wheel in his limited action for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, a team he co-owns with Maury Gallagher.
This weekend could be when Johnson finally flashes signs of his old self in a NASCAR Cup Series race. The 83-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner has four career wins in the Brickyard 400, second only to Jeff Gordon (five).
The NASCAR Cup Series hasn’t contested a race on the 2.5-mile oval layout of Indianapolis Motor Speedway since the 2020 season, which could help Johnson gain a leg-up on some of his competition.
