Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway was the latest stop in a challenging four-day weekend for seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson. It began with practice and qualifying on Friday and continued with tech issues that moved him from 10th to the rear for the start of the 400-lap race on the ¾-mile, D-shaped, paved track.
The Hendrick Motorsports star hopes for a relatively light Sunday, including flying northward for Monday’s iconic Boston Marathon. It’ll be the first 26.2-mile race for the 43-year-old driver, well known for his relentless pursuit of physical fitness. He’d like to complete the 123rd annual event from Hopkinton to Boston in fewer than three hours. He qualified for the race with a “sponsor’s exemption” from Gatorade.
Johnson has been training since January, mixing long-distance bicycle rides and daily training runs with his NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series obligations. He recently admitted he doesn’t have the “slightest clue” if he can finish in less than three hours. But he also said he probably wouldn’t have worked this hard – getting up before dawn for training runs – if his goal was, say, a more-realistic fewer than four hours.
“The only thing that makes me not hit snooze is, ‘Oh, damn, I said I wanted to run three hours,’’’ Johnson recently told reporters. “That’s just me being me. I know this about myself: I have to set those lofty goals. I love the challenge… the suffering… the pain. I enjoy that stuff (but) don’t know why. But I can say if there’s a pain scale of my bicycling experiences and running experiences, running (800 miles in training) exceeds all cycling issues.”
Things aren’t as upbeat on the NASCAR side. His recent on- and off-track woes have been well-documented since midway through the 2017 season. The most recent of his 83 Cup Series victories – most among active drivers – came at Dover, DE. in May of that year. His 68-race losing streak – including finishing 12th on Saturday night in Richmond – is by far the longest of his 19-year career. At least he has something to occupy his mind while he and new crew chief Kevin Meendering try to return their No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro to the glory days when it was a legitimate contender virtually every weekend.
In the meantime, Johnson’s ongoing marathon training prep included a four-mile “low-heartrate” run on Friday, nothing marathon-related on a rainy Saturday, and two more training runs on Sunday. And after that? “Let it rip on Monday,” he said, grinning.
Like everyone at the track, Johnson sweated out Richmond’s dicey weekend forecast. The last thing he needed was the race to be delayed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon. Regardless of how relatively easy 400 laps might be at Richmond, Johnson didn’t relish the idea of 400 laps on Sunday and 26.2 miles on Monday.
“Then I decided, ‘To hell with it,’” he said, “because I can’t control it.’’ (He thought), ‘If I have a car race on Sunday and a marathon on Monday, it’s just going to be a better story.’ I love to be prepared and ready for anything and everything I do. I’m ready.”
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