Jimmie Johnson will join former F1 drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button at COTA on March 26. Legacy Motor Club announced Tuesday that Johnson will race at COTA and at the Coke 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The co-owner of Legacy Motor Club raced in this year’s Daytona 500 where he finished 31st after being swept up in a late race crash. He had previously announced he will race in the Chicago Street Course in July.
While he’s never raced at COTA, a track that was added to the NASCAR schedule in 2021 a year after he retired, he has won a total of eight races at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway. Wyndham resorts will sponsor the effort through its Club Wyndham brand.
“COTA has been on my racing ‘bucket list’ for a very long time,” said Johnson. “But my timing was off by a year or so. I was hoping it was going to be on the INDYCAR schedule – and it wasn’t – and then they added it to the NASCAR schedule after I left. I’m excited to finally be able to check this one off the list and thankful to Club Wyndham for making it happen. From everything I’ve heard, NASCAR drivers have had a lot of fun racing at COTA, so to say I’m looking forward to it is an understatement.”
Four of Johnson’s Charlotte wins were in the 600-mile event on Memorial Day Weekend.
“The Coke 600 is one of those premiere races on the schedule,” said Johnson. “For fans, it’s truly one of the greatest days in motorsports with Monaco (Formula 1), INDYCAR’s Indianapolis 500, and then NASCAR’s longest race that starts in the afternoon and ends at night. Last year I lived out another ‘bucket list’ item and was able to race in the Indy 500. I’m looking forward to driving this NextGen car at Charlotte and putting on a great show for Club Wyndham.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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