{"id":27586,"date":"2020-12-10T07:36:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T12:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=27586"},"modified":"2020-12-10T07:36:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T12:36:58","slug":"jimmie-johnson-on-daytona-road-course-preparing-for-rolex-24-at-daytona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2020\/12\/jimmie-johnson-on-daytona-road-course-preparing-for-rolex-24-at-daytona\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmie Johnson on DAYTONA Road Course, Preparing for Rolex 24 At DAYTONA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joined by Teammates Pagenaud and Rockenfeller, Rolex 24 Within Grasp<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By IMSA Wire Service<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 9, 2020) \u2013  <\/strong>A Two-time DAYTONA 500 Champion and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, along with an Indy 500 winner and a Rolex 24 At DAYTONA and 24 Hour of Le Mans champion, took their seats in the Daytona International Speedway media center Wednesday morning, ready to address a robust lineup of international media in a virtual news conference during a break in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Jimmie Johnson, Simon Pagenaud and Mike Rockenfeller were full of smiles (behind masks, of course) and optimism as they answered questions about next month\u2019s 59th Rolex 24 (Jan. 30-31), where they will team with yet another international star, two-time defending Rolex 24 winner Kamui Kobayashi, in the No. 48 Action Express Racing\/Ally Cadillac DPi-V.R.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson, who retired from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition in November, will be making his eighth Rolex 24 start and first since 2011. He conceded Wednesday that part of his decision to step away from full-time racing was to take advantage of opportunities to compete in other disciplines. A chance just like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a while,\u2019\u2019 Johnson said of getting behind the wheel of a sleek IMSA prototype. \u201cThe car has evolved I think two generations since my last race in the Rolex 24. And I think we\u2019re 8-10 seconds faster with this DPi configuration than what I did in the GRAND-AM car. So (a) very fun car to drive, lots of downforce, lots of speed. The Action Express guys have the car running really nice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a great day (testing) yesterday and super quick, so it\u2019s just a really neat opportunity for me to still have an association with Ally. Mr. (Rick) Hendrick will be involved to a certain degree. To drive for Action, to have this opportunity to compete with Kamui, with Simon and with Mike, it\u2019s just such a unique opportunity and one I\u2019m really proud to be a part of,\u2019\u2019 added Johnson, whose best Rolex 24 finish is runner-up on two occasions (2005 and 2008), added the two-time DAYTONA 500 winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be Pagenaud\u2019s seventh Rolex 24 start. The 2019 Indy 500 champion moves from the Team Penske Acura program the last three years to the Action Express Cadillac. Rockenfeller won the 2010 Rolex 24 driving for Action Express. Kobayashi \u2013 who was not at the test and unavailable for the news conference \u2013 drove to victory the past two years at the Rolex 24 in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing a race car with other champions in this legendary event is something the drivers agreed was essentially auto racing nirvana. The four come from varied backgrounds, but they share a common goal \u2013 to earn a new Rolex watch and stand atop the Daytona podium on Jan. 31 having bettered the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always looked up to Jimmie,\u2019\u2019 said Pagenaud, who is close friends with Johnson\u2019s younger brother Jessie. \u201cWhen I came to the U.S., he became the legend that he is and for me, I didn\u2019t know much about oval racing \u2013 and Jimmie and I actually talked about this \u2013 he throughout the years made some special moves on ovals and inspired myself from his performance. He is the king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou look at what the king does and you try to emulate that yourself,\u201d added Pagenaud, who was wearing the Action Express firesuit from when he drove for the team at Daytona in 2016. \u201cIt\u2019s been very, very enjoyable to get to know him as a human being as well. We have very similar personalities and I think it\u2019s going to be great chemistry on the team. And Rocky (Rockenfeller), we have friends in common so we spend time together often. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really think we will have a fantastic time. We have a similar desire and I think (we are) at very similar times in our career on the team. Everybody seems to be very much on the same page.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this week\u2019s test marked the first time Johnson and Rockenfeller met, the German sports car champion noted that the two share a positive experience. Johnson sent well wishes after Rockenfeller\u2019s frightening 2011 accident at Le Mans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously, Jimmie, I didn\u2019t know in person, but he was one of the few drivers back in 2011 that took the time to write me an email in his busy schedule when I had this accident, even without knowing me, and that meant a lot to me back in the day, I have to say,\u2019\u2019 Rockenfeller said. \u201cI never expected we would race together in a car, so that\u2019s great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I think the cool thing about our lineup is definitely there is no ego because everyone wants to do their best,\u2019\u2019 Rockenfeller added. \u201cWe all love racing and driving cars, but we love even more winning and that\u2019s why we are here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson said he was the first piece of the driver puzzle as the team was assembled. He was impressed by the deliberate way in which Action Express worked to fill out the lineup with other champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI watched them take their time and be very methodical about how we\u2019d all fit together,\u2019\u2019 Johnson said. \u201cAnd of course, you have to meet all these criteria to be on the short list, but long story short, they were very intentional about us four together, and I think that\u2019s why we feel the possibility is here and that we do truly have an opportunity to compete for the win.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The No. 48 Cadillac and the rest of the Rolex 24 At Daytona entries will return for the traditional Roar Before the Rolex 24 test session Jan. 22-24 that includes a new feature \u2013 the Motul Pole Award 100 qualifying race. Results from that race will set the starting grid for the Rolex 24 the following week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For information on the Rolex 24, log onto www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com<\/a> or by calling 1-800-PITSTOP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joined by Teammates Pagenaud and Rockenfeller, Rolex 24 Within Grasp By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 9, 2020) \u2013  A Two-time DAYTONA 500 Champion and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, along with an Indy 500 winner and a Rolex 24 At DAYTONA and 24 Hour of Le Mans champion, took their seats in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-road-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27587,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27586\/revisions\/27587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}