Colton Herta made one of the all-time best saves and then went on to win on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. A few NASCAR drivers tried their best Herta impression. Acura continued its Mid-Ohio dominance. The Bathurst 12 Hour was back. McLaren is joining Formula E. Andretti Autosport has a new partner in Porsche. Chip Ganassi Racing has a new development driver for IndyCar that will likely never drive an IndyCar for that team. There were some surprise Road to Indy winners in Indianapolis. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
What if Jimmie Johnson Wins the Indianapolis 500?
Like it or not, the most eyes will be on Jimmie Johnson from now until the checkered flag waves at the end of the 106th Indianapolis 500.
The seven-time NASCAR champion will be competing in the biggest oval race for the first time in his career, and after all his oval success in NASCAR, expectations and curiosity are high for his maiden Indianapolis 500 start.
Johnson's oval experience towers over the combined oval experience of the rest of the IndyCar grid, and though Johnson is still relatively new to the car, the belief is he will have an upper hand compared to most of the competitors. Before practice even begins, Johnson is in the top-tier group of hopefuls. He is mentioned in the same breath as Scott Dixon, Hélio Castroneves, Álex Palou, Patricio O'Ward, Josef Newgarden, Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi as a potential winner, a gathering and an accomplishment Johnson has not been close to sniffing since he joined IndyCar at the start of the 2021 season.
His first oval start was encouraging. Though he started 18th, Johnson made moves throughout the race, kept the car going straight and finished sixth in Texas, but he was challenging for a top five finish. Johnson's testing pace at Indianapolis in April were also good, ending up eighth on the combined results with his fastest lap average 227.900 mph, by far the fastest rookie.
After being out of his element in 16 road/street course starts, Johnson is back on his own playground when it comes to ovals. It is a little different, but it fits how Johnson ticks after over 20 years in stock car racing. It is faster and there might be a greater number of adjustments to the car, but Johnson knows how an oval works. He doesn't have to search out a braking point or learn to trust the downforce levels going through a corner. This is his bread and butter.
A Johnson victory would be one of the most historic things ever accomplished in motorsports. Johnson would become the third driver with an Indianapolis 500 victory and a Daytona 500 victory. The other two drivers? Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt. Is that list good enough for you? Foyt was the second of the two to win both, winning the 1972 Daytona 500. It has been 50 years since it happened. Johnson would become the first NASCAR Cup Series champion to win the Indianapolis 500.
A few have Cup champions tried. Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Tony Stewart made four Indianapolis 500 starts before becoming a Cup champion, Kurt Busch's lone Indianapolis 500 start was a decade after his lone Cup title. Johnson could separate him from the rest of the group in a highly coveted way.
To do something only Andretti and Foyt have done before and to become the first to win two highly regarded prizes, Johnson would further cement his status as one of the best drivers to ever hit the track, but after his first year in an IndyCar and his oval results this year it must be asked, would an Indianapolis 500 victory mean Johnson is a great driver or a great oval driver?
Johnson has had the stuffing kicked out of him on road and street courses in an IndyCar, regularly starting outside the top twenty and finishing off the lead lap. One Indianapolis 500 victories does not mean we can ignore his results on the other two-thirds of the schedule. Andretti and Foyt won everywhere. They won on ovals and road courses. Andretti won in Formula One. Foyt won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona. It is difficult to say Johnson is better than those two when he has trouble beating Dalton Kellett and Tatiana Calderón on the racetrack.
The 21st century is a different era for motorsports. Cross-pollination is unheard of when in the 1960s and 1970s it was common for a driver to dabble in open-wheel racing, stock car racing, sports car racing and so on. Johnson's career was highly specialized driving in NASCAR. He went out and made a few sports car starts, but his open-wheel experience did not come until he was already 45 years old. The muscle memory developed in a stock car is almost permanent for Johnson, and in turn that makes it more challenging for him to find the limits in an IndyCar. He is trying his best and deserves credit for getting out of his comfort zone, but we don't decide who are among the all-time greats based on effort and taking chances. We decide it on results.
There is nothing wrong with acknowledging Johnson as a great oval driver, and he would deserve the adoration should he win the Indianapolis 500. Many from NASCAR could have taken this shot years before Johnson and perhaps made a name for themselves. Outside of Kurt Busch, none have attempted the Indianapolis 500. Johnson now has a chance to write his own piece of history and set the standard for every driver that is to follow.
But we cannot forget the entirety of Johnson's career. It would be easy to overlook the 24th-place finishes at Barber Motorsports Park and Belle Isle if Johnson won the Indianapolis 500, but that would be a disservice to entire IndyCar grid, undermine the series and frankly be unfair to Johnson himself. Part of Johnson's legacy should be this struggle. This chance is something most would not attempt. Johnson went from being one of the best ever in NASCAR to fighting to prove himself in IndyCar. Pride would prevent many from starting over and running at the back. Johnson has swallowed that and followed a dream to race in IndyCar.
There are many other questions and identity crises we could tackle about a hypothetical Jimmie Johnson Indianapolis 500 victory, but should it happen we should take a moment to appreciate that we got to see it. A year after Hélio Castroneves won his fourth Indianapolis 500, Johnson winning the Indianapolis 500 would create a special period in the history of this race, something akin to the 1960s when the likes of Parnelli Jones, A.J. Foyt, Jim Clark and Graham Hill all won in a four-year period soon to be followed by another Foyt victory, Bobby Unser's first and Mario Andretti's only.
For all the hand-wringing and insufferable commentary that could come from a Johnson victory, we must remember how special it would be and how it would stay with us for the rest of our lives.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Colton Herta, but did you know...
The #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG of Jules Gounon, Kenny Habul, Luca Stolz and Martin Konrad won the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Enea Bastianini won MotoGP's French Grand Prix, his second victory of the season. Augusto Fernández won the Moto2 race, his first victory since Misano 2019. Jaume Masià won the Moto3 race, his second victory of the season. Mattia Casadei and Dominique Aegerter split the MotoE races.
Danial Frost and Linus Lundqvist split the Indy Lights races on the IMS road course. Salvador de Alba, Reece Gold and Louie Foster split the Indy Pro 2000 races. Alex Quinn swept the U.S. F2000 races on his debut weekend.
Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries split the Formula E races from Berlin.
The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque won the IMSA race from Mid-Ohio, the second consecutive victory for the team and Acura's fifth consecutive Mid-Ohio victory. The #81 DragonSpeed Oreca-Gibson of Juan Pablo Montoya and Henrik Hedman won in LMP2. The #54 CORE Autosport Ligier-Nissan of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett won in LMP3. The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley won in GTD after the #70 Inception Racing McLaren of Jordan Pepper and Brandon Iribe was disqualified after failing post-race inspection for being underweight.
The #9 Prema Racing Oreca-Gibson of Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Delétraz and Ferdinand Habsburg won the 4 Hours of Imola. The #3 United Autosports Ligier-Nissan of Kay van Berlo and Andrew Bentley won in LMP3. The #69 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Marin of Ahmad Al Harthy, Sam De Haan and Marco Sørensen won in GTE.
Kurt Busch won the NASCAR Cup race from Kansas. Zane Smith won the Truck race, his third victory of the season.
The #32 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts and the #89 AKKodis ASP Team Mercedes-AMG of Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy split the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup races from Magny-Cours.
Coming Up This Weekend
Indianapolis 500 time trials.
Formula One will be in Barcelona.
NASCAR has its all-star weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters has its first race in Germany, Lausitzring specifically.
Super Formula has its fourth race of the season at Autopolis.
World Superbike makes its first visit to Portugal and will run at Estoril.
The World Rally Championship will also be in Portugal.
Supercars race at Winton.
GT World Challenge America is at NOLA Motorsports Park after a late rescheduling.
