CONCORD, N.C. – Hendrick Motorsports has named Blake Harris as the crew chief for Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
In 2022, the 35-year-old Harris has led driver Michael McDowell to a career-best season with 12 top-10 finishes in 32 Cup Series starts to date. He will complete his first year as a crew chief with the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team before joining Hendrick Motorsports in mid-November.
“Blake brings a tremendous amount of talent to our organization,” said Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports. “In our conversations, it quickly became clear that he’s an excellent culture fit and believes in the way we approach competing and winning. He and Alex have already developed a relationship, so we’re excited to see how they grow together. Greg has assembled a winning team, and we believe Blake is the perfect person to continue that work.”
A native of Maypearl, Texas, Harris began driving race cars at age 11 and moved to North Carolina immediately after high school to pursue a career in NASCAR. At just 18 years old, he joined Evernham Motorsports (later Richard Petty Motorsports) in 2006, working in both the engine and chassis departments.
In 2010, Harris transitioned to Furniture Row Racing, where he became the car chief for drivers Kurt Busch (2013) and Martin Truex Jr. (2014-2018). He was an integral part of Furniture Row’s 2017 championship season when the No. 78 team won eight races and led 2,253 laps. In 2019, Harris followed Truex to Joe Gibbs Racing, where he served as car chief for the No. 19 team before accepting the crew chief role at Front Row Motorsports for 2022.
“The opportunity to work with a winning driver like Alex, an engaged sponsor like Ally and a championship team like Hendrick Motorsports is huge,” said Harris, who as a car chief won 29 races and made five Championship 4 playoff appearances. “When I moved to North Carolina in 2005, my goal was to become a crew chief for a top-caliber organization that could win races and compete for titles. I’m grateful for the chance to fulfill that dream and look forward to building something special with the No. 48 team.”
Bowman, 29, has driven for Hendrick Motorsports full-time since 2018, earning a playoff berth in each of his five seasons. The Tucson, Arizona, native, who is currently recovering from a concussion, has won seven races over the past four years, including five victories in the last two.
“I’m pumped about the chance to work with Blake,” Bowman said. “He’s a great fit for me, for our No. 48 group and for the way Hendrick Motorsports operates week in and week out. With Blake and everyone who supports this Ally Racing team, I know we can build on what Greg started and take this to the next level.”
Christopher Bell’s electric, walk-off win at the Charlotte Roval injected a ton of momentum in the garage at Joe Gibbs Racing. With Bell and Denny Hamlin still contending for a championship, make your picks for how JGR will perform in Sunday’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — including Xfinity Series selections.
Editor’s note: Tune in live or set your DVRs for Episode 7 tonight at 10 ET on USA Network. The previous six episodes are currently available for streaming on Peacock.
Episode seven of USA Network’s unscripted series “Race for the Championship” airs tonight at 10 ET, and the seventh of 10 episodes provides exclusive looks and sounds surrounding a couple of drivers who are in the thick of the NASCAR Playoffs hunt — and notably, one who removed himself from the postseason picture.
23XI driver Kurt Busch is in the spotlight this week as he recovers from a wreck at Pocono Raceway that left him with lingering concussion-like symptoms. Go behind the scenes with Busch during his workouts, and with 23XI as they announced to the shop that Busch has withdrawn his request for a medical waiver for the postseason, knowing he wouldn’t be ready for the opener at Darlington.
Each episode throughout the series will feature multiple drivers and their lives and stories away from the track. In addition to Busch, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney are highlighted tonight as the series focuses on both their stories off the track and on it as the Cup Series concludes its regular season at Daytona International Speedway.
Blaney’s pressure-filled day at Daytona has never felt more tense, with behind the scenes video and audio on his push for the final postseason spot.
NBC Universal previously announced that the entire season so far of Race for the Championship will be available on Peacock starting Oct. 7. Episodes 7-10 of Race for the Championship will still debut on USA Network before being available on Peacock the next day.
So after watching tonight’s Episode 7, be sure to stream previous episodes or any you may have missed on Peacock.
Allgaier is in his seventh season with the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned team, collecting 16 of his 19 career victories in the Xfinity Series during that span — a figure that tops the organization’s all-time win list.
JRM also announced that BRANDT Professional Agriculture will return as a primary sponsor for 20 races next year. BRANDT first teamed up with Allgaier 11 years ago, and that relationship continued when the driver joined JR Motorsports in 2016.
Allgaier, 36, ranks fourth among the eight title-eligible drivers remaining in this year’s Xfinity Series Playoffs. He added three wins (Darlington, Nashville, New Hampshire) to his career total earlier this year, and made his 400th Xfinity start earlier this month at Talladega Superspeedway.
When the face of NASCAR’s most significant safety revolution speaks, ears perk.
Mike Helton – NASCAR’s president from 2000 until a promotion to become vice chairman of the sport in 2015 – joined Corey LaJoie’s “Stacking Pennies” to discuss myriad key topics currently encapsulating the premier stock-car racing entity. Helton, who still commands respect in the garage and everywhere he goes, leaned into the conversation surrounding safety that has peaked in recent weeks — and also told a good Dale Earnhardt story or two.
“I’ve got a lot of faith in the current leadership of the sport, but particularly in the leadership around competition and the leadership around doing everything we can every day to make the sport safer,” Helton told LaJoie during their recording of the podcast episode. “And it is a lot safer today, but this still is a very dangerous sport.”
Safety has been at the forefront of most discussions throughout the NASCAR garage in recent weeks as Alex Bowman was sidelined with a concussion after a rear-impact crash on Sept. 25 at Texas Motor Speedway. Bowman became the second driver to miss races this season due to concussion-like symptoms, joining 2004 champion Kurt Busch.
On Oct. 9, NASCAR leadership met with all Cup Series drivers at Charlotte Motor Speedway for 75 minutes to discuss the ongoing work behind the scenes. The weeks leading up to the meeting were dotted by competitors voicing their concerns through media outlets. Helton, charged with overseeing the sport’s safety revolution after tragic accidents at the turn of the millennium, understands the current driver corps’ outspoken nature.
“We’ve always had personalities in the sport,” Helton said. “Sometimes, it’s different, but we have got some strong personalities. And we listen to everybody. Every stakeholder in this sport we have an open-door policy for. Most of that works. Every now and then, you get, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work. So they feel the best way to communicate their issues is not directly with us but through the media or through digital and social, which is kind of a modern version of the consumption of all of our sport, on and off the race track.”
Helton also noted that some of the criticism that seeps through the airwaves and digital screens lacks the full context necessary to produce fruitful discussions.
“I think it’s unfair to us knowing that we’re working on all these things, and we’ll be glad to communicate with the ones that want to do it their way,” Helton said. “And if [they are] sincere and they’re factual about what they say, that’s one thing. But when they say only part of it and not all the facts along with it, I just don’t feel that’s fair for the league, and it’s unfortunate.”
The NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, opened in 2003 with a focus on establishing higher safety standards throughout the sport. That remains a key priority nearly 20 years later as cars and equipment continue to develop.
“A perfect storm is going to happen, or just an accident at a race track can still happen, and it’s still a very dangerous sport,” Helton said. “So that topic of safety is chased every day, eight, 10 hours a day at the R&D Center. … And sometimes the answers are easy. Sometimes, the answers aren’t easy to find. But you constantly chase that topic. And so when the topic of safe race car comes up in a NASCAR race, and people say these cars aren’t safe, I know that NASCAR is not going to put an unsafe car on the race track. Now it may have different characteristics. It may act differently. And if it does, then that is something that we need to correct, and we’re going to work with the garage area and figure out how to do that.”
Helton also highlighted several other topics during the nearly 50-minute discussion, including:
• How Dale Earnhardt would get his point across to NASCAR officials (“He would eat our lunch”);
• The difference in communication styles with Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon in the late 90s (“You felt better when you walked away with Jeff. When Dale left, you’re feeling like you got beat with a baseball bat”);
• The growth and development of — and the importance of bridging the gap with — Ben Kennedy;
• Why he keeps the really good “called to the hauler” stories to himself;
• And what it means to be honored with the 2023 Landmark Award for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
After 32 races, the NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Las Vegas with just eight drivers left contending for the 2022 championship.
Sunday’s South Point 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway makes the opening race of the Round of 8 with all sights ahead on the title.
A busy round awaits. Prepare for the penultimate postseason round with all the info you need here:
Teams will be broken into Groups A and B for 20 minutes of practice (12:05 p.m. ET, NBC Sports App; USA Network at 12:30 p.m.) for each group, respectively. Following practice, the series will roll into two rounds of single-car, single-lap qualifying set to begin at 12:50 p.m. to set the starting lineup.
With the postseason underway, playoff drivers and teams will be ordered by their previous race metrics and assigned to Group A or B by the usual odd/even metric procedures. Playoff teams will be the final cars to qualify in their respective groups.
Each driver will post one lap during their time trial. The fastest five drivers from each group will advance to the final round of qualifying, where those 10 drivers will set one more circuit to fight for the Busch Light Pole Award. The driver who sets the quickest lap in the session will start first on Sunday.
— The 2022 Round of 8 field is the youngest in playoff history while also combining for the fewest wins of all postseason fields.
— Joey Logano (2018) and Chase Elliott (2020) are the only remaining past champions in the playoffs. They have the two worst average finishes in playoff races among the eight remaining drivers in the 2022 postseason at 15.8 and 17.0, respectively, but rank first and second in points after the reset due to playoff points.
— Nineteen different drivers have won this year, tied for the most all time.
— The last nine races have each been won by different drivers — Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell.
— Denny Hamlin (610) and Joey Logano (503) have more Cup starts than the four drivers making their first Round of 8 appearances combined (Christopher Bell, William Byron, Ross Chastain and Chase Briscoe with a combined 495).
— William Byron won the last race at two of the three tracks in the Round of 8 (Martinsville Speedway in April and Homestead-Miami Speedway in February 2021).
Source: Racing Insights
GOODYEAR TIRES
Cup teams return to Las Vegas with a different tire than what they utilized in March, but that doesn’t mean they are unfamiliar with this tire compound. Goodyear will provide the same tire setup that was used at recent mile-and-a-half facilities, Kansas Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.
Air pressure became a key topic of discussion after numerous issues in the Sept. 25 race at Texas, but Goodyear notes discussions with teams and manufacturers in the weeks since have produced fruitful feedback.
“This has been an exciting year of change for NASCAR as we all work with the Next Gen car,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “We understood very early on the balance of this car was directed much more to the rear than previous, and as setups have continued to evolve over the season, the benefits of maximizing the effectiveness of the rear diffuser have become apparent, particularly on the speedways.
“These setups, obviously, can have a significant impact on tires, so integrating the latest information from the teams and OEMs into our predictive simulations is critical. Those simulations enable us to provide the teams with the key tire information each week to make informed decisions and responsibly get maximum performance out of the tires at Las Vegas this week and moving forward.”
Scott Miller, NASCAR Senior VP of Competition, said in a Wednesday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that no resin or traction compound would be applied to the asphalt surface. “We haven’t gone the track-treatment route at all at Las Vegas over the years, and it’s provided some great racing,” Miller said. “So no, that’s business as usual.”
LAS VEGAS HISTORY
— Construction of Las Vegas Motor Speedway was completed in June 1996 on a 1,600-acre site near Nellis Air Force Base that holds rich racing history, dating back to a drag strip built in 1958. The site currently houses the 1.5-mile speedway, an industrial park, a drag strip, a 1/2-mile dirt track, a 3/8-mile paved oval and two road courses.
— The track’s original layout featured 12-degree banking in the corners, 3 degrees of banking on the backstretch and 9 degrees on the frontstretch. But a reconfiguration in 2006 changed the racing significantly, the result of 20-degree banking in the corners and 9-degree banking on each of the straightaways.
— Sunday marks the 30th race at Las Vegas.
— Bruton Smith launched a multimillion-dollar renovation project at the beginning of 2006 to include the Neon Garage, track changes, relocated pit road and a state-of-the-art media center. The centerpiece of the project was the new garage area for the Cup teams and an interactive fan area. The two-level, four-building garage area encompasses 32,000 square feet. A 52,000-square-foot roof deck allows fans to look directly down into the individual garage stalls. Windows on the lower level allow fans to watch the teams work. In addition to the close proximity, the Neon Garage has concession stands and an entertainment area.
— Christopher Bell won the pole at Vegas in the spring race, his first of four poles so far in 2022. Bell advances to the Round of 8 with a walk-off win last week at the Charlotte Roval.
— Each of the last six Vegas races have been won by different drivers, but Chevrolet has won three of the last four.
— The average green-flag stretch was 16 laps in March, tied for the second-shortest at the 1.5-mile track.
Source: Racing Insights
GAMBLING IN SIN CITY
Denny Hamlin may not be on everyone’s radar, but he certainly should be. Oddsmakers have a keen eye on the No. 11 Toyota as Hamlin enters as the favorite this weekend with 11-2 odds, according to BetMGM.
Hamlin’s lone Vegas victory came in the playoffs one season ago and Toyotas proved fast in the Next Gen debut in March. But perhaps the bigger focal point should be what Hamlin is achieving in this postseason run. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has a 6.8 average finish over the past six races, best of the remaining Round of 8 contenders.
Kyle Busch, a Las Vegas native, is listed at 10-1 odds and has just one home win on his resume. But the two-time Cup champion was one late caution away from scoring the victory back in spring before a green-white-checkered restart saw Alex Bowman storm to the checkers.
A longer shot at 16-1 odds is Joey Logano, but he’s worth keeping an eye on. He won back-to-back spring races in 2020-21 and Team Penske is usually quick at the Las Vegas tri-oval.
Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live, which reset for the playoffs. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts by garaging a driver by the end of Stage 2, and there is a $10,000 prize for the playoff winner.
The 2022 Fantasy Live points leaders are Chase Elliott (1,094), Ryan Blaney (981) and Joey Logano (972).
In addition to Fantasy Live, NASCAR.com is offering the Playoffs Grid Challenge presented by Ruoff Mortgage during the playoffs.
Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week the full field of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.
NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Wednesday that Alex Bowman will miss the next three NASCAR Cup Series races as part of his ongoing recovery from a concussion.
Bowman will be sidelined again in Sunday’s South Point 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and plans to miss events the following weekends at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oct. 23) and Martinsville Speedway (Oct. 30). He scored his lone Cup Series victory this season for the No. 48 Chevrolet team at the 1.5-mile Nevada track on March 6.
Xfinity Series regular Noah Gragson again will substitute for Bowman in the No. 48 Chevy. He filled in for Bowman the last two weekends, posting finishes of 19th (Talladega Superspeedway) and 23rd (Charlotte Roval).
Bowman has missed the last two Cup Series events with concussion symptoms after a crash in the Sept. 25 event at Texas Motor Speedway. He sat out events at Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, knocking him from playoff contention after the Round of 12.
Hendrick Motorsports indicated that Bowman was evaluated Wednesday morning by Dr. Michael “Micky” Collins, the clinical director at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program.
“We have a tremendous amount of respect for the entire staff at UPMC,” said Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports. “Our priority continues to be Alex’s recovery and long-term health, and we will follow the plan that Dr. Collins and his team recommend. We’re not looking past the next three races and will evaluate plans for the season finale (Nov. 6 at Phoenix Raceway) as the event approaches.”
Bowman released his own statement on social media, saying he is focused on his recovery with hopes of returning to competition “as soon as possible.”
“I know that Noah will continue to do a great job representing the No. 48, and I’ll be cheering for him and the entire Ally Racing team on every lap,” Bowman said in his post. “Thank you again to everyone for the support I’ve received. It means so much to me.”
NASCAR officials indicated Wednesday that Stewart-Haas Racing has dropped its request for an appeal hearing to contest L2-grade penalties against the No. 4 Ford team.
The No. 4 crew was penalized Oct. 5 for unapproved modification of a single-source part, and the team had announced its intent to appeal the punishment two days later. The infraction was found in a technical inspection at the NASCAR Research & Development Center after the previous weekend’s Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Driver Kevin Harvick was issued a 100-point deduction in the Cup Series drivers standings, and the No. 4 team was handed an equal penalty in the car owner standings. Crew chief Rodney Childers was fined $100,000 and suspended for four races.
Even with an appeal pending, Childers sat out the first race of his suspension for last weekend’s event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, with team engineer Stephen Doran filling in atop the No. 4 pit box. Childers, who marked his milestone 600th Cup Series start at Talladega, is on schedule to return for the Nov. 6 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Harvick qualified for this year’s Cup Series Playoffs with two regular-season wins, scoring back-to-back top finishes at Michigan and Richmond. With the 100-point penalty affirmed, he is ranked 16th among the drivers who qualified for the 10-race postseason.
On Wednesday’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast, Corey LaJoie provided his personal insights on NASCAR’s latest safety measures, including the recent crash test held in Ohio.
NASCAR is experimenting with new rear clip designs in order to reduce the impacts drivers take in crashes. To help with the 2023 changes for the car, a NASCAR spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that the sanctioning body will cover the costs of the changes to the rear clips, center sections and rear bumper struts.
“They run thousands of tests through algorithms and this software that runs every different combination of tube thickness, tube variation and location to find out and fit within the parameters they’re trying to achieve,” LaJoie explained on the episode. “The new rear clip they just tested takes about 50% of the g-load away on a rear impact.”
At the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course Saturday, NASCAR met with drivers to discuss the findings from the crash test and to have an open discussion on safety for the future with the Next Gen car. LaJoie added on the podcast that he left Saturday’s meeting “frustrated” with some of his fellow drivers for the direction of the meeting from the driver contingent.
Listen to the full podcast to hear the entire segment.
CONCORD, N.C. — William Waters was not going to miss a chance to meet his racing hero, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.
Last weekend, Waters, a 64-year-old California transplant, showed up at the Books-A-Million store — blocks from Charlotte Motor Speedway — taking his place in line more than an hour early and slowly rolling a race-used Goodyear tire toward the book store for Johnson’s autograph. The grin was unremovable as Waters anticipated meeting his all-time favorite racer and having Johnson personally sign his new book: “One More Lap: Jimmie Johnson and the #48.”
“He always just seemed to be a nice guy, always friendly, always took the time to sign autographs or high-five people,” Waters said of Johnson. “Other drivers are more standoff-ish, but Jimmie’s personable.”
Photo by Holly Cain
Like Johnson, Water’s sister-in-law, Carol Flick, hails from El Cajon, California.
“One of the biggest streets in town is now Jimmie Johnson Boulevard,” Flick said. “He’s absolutely a big sense of pride for us. I have a few things with his signature, but this book’s going to be great.”
With the crowd growing exponentially outside, Johnson started his afternoon in the store’s back office, carefully placing his famous signature on books as he waited for his time to go out and meet his fans. And sign tires.
The expressions on Johnson’s face as he thumbed through each edition were a testament to the sentimental and highly personal story the photos tell — the story of a middle-class kid from blue-collar El Cajon whose talent and drive ultimately made him one of auto racing’s most celebrated champions.
Watching Johnson examine the pages of the book, it was clear each photograph evoked a powerful memory. So much so, he concedes, that more than once during the editing process, he insisted on adding a couple more photos and pages.
“Passion project, labor of love,” Johnson said, leaning back in his chair. “That’s definitely what this is.”
The completed book — produced by Condé Nast Corporate Photography Director Ivan Shaw — is 272 pages and features 175 photographs from nine celebrated photographers. NASCAR team owner and NBA Legend Michael Jordan wrote the heartfelt forward.
“I’ve always just archived what was going on and, at some point, realized it might be worthwhile,” Johnson said of the impetus for the collection. “But at the same point in time, I just wanted it for myself.
“We have tons of art books at home, and I look through these art books, and I just love documentation. I love docuseries, from a videography standpoint to a still picture standpoint. I’m just truly a fan of it, and that’s what I consume. I have all of this stuff, and now I’m at a point in my career, in my life, that we can share it.”
One More Lap is officially in stores.
So many memories captured by the most talented photographers… this book is a behind-the-scenes look into my career and it's really exciting to finally see it on the shelves! pic.twitter.com/vix6zsx603
Johnson shares photos from his childhood, from his early racing days on dirt bikes and off-road trucks to his humble ascension to what will certainly be a place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
And, of course, amid the career highlights are heart-warming family photos — images of Johnson and his wife Chandra and their young daughters, Genevieve and Lydia — the real fundamental, he says, of maintaining his pace.
The photographs of Johnson’s motorsports beginning provide an intriguing perspective and include some very personal, previously unseen “snapshots.” An elementary-aged Johnson leaning against his bike with the “not another picture, mom” look on his face. There’s Johnson and one of his younger brothers — both barely waist-high — dressed in identical striped shirts and cowboy hats and a touching shot of a young Johnson stretching out atop his dirt bike, head resting between the handlebars and a huge grin on his face.
Beyond the pages of these early-day snapshots is a two-page photograph of the yellow van caravan that the Johnson family — his parents and two younger brothers — took into the California desert most weekends in the late 1970s and early ’80s. The van is pulling not just a travel trailer but also a trailer carrying the family’s dirt bikes and four-wheelers.
Johnson is convinced a triple haul would not be allowed down most California freeways these days.
“I have no clue how this is legal,” Johnson said, smiling and pointing toward the image. “That’s our van that we rode in. We rode in this down the road, and then this is the trailer with all our toys in it. I mean, that was our setup. Even in California now, there’s no way you can tow two trailers.
“But that’s San Diego in the ’70s. That’s it.”
Another of his favorite photos also spans two pages. It shows the yellow and orange No. 81 Chevy driven by Blaise Alexander with Johnson’s No. 92 red, white and blue Chevy alongside as they battled for position in NASCAR’s former Busch Series — now Xfinity Series — race at Richmond Raceway in 2000.
Alexander was one of Johnson’s closest friends. The two shared the joys, challenges and week-to-week survival as they made their way upward in the sport. Alexander, however, was tragically killed in an accident racing in the ARCA Menards Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct. 4, 2001. Johnson has ever since carried a decal on his No. 48 car honoring his friend Alexander.
“As they edited the book, they pointed to the photograph and were like, ‘We just felt like it was a good photo, it’s you in the old car, and the colors popped, and we loved the symmetry of it,’” Johnson said. “I was like, ‘Well, here’s why this photo is important to me.’ Obviously, with it being Blaise [Alexander] and Blaise is nowhere else in the book, the photo ended up staying as a result.”
Questions inevitably arise about where Johnson sees his immediate future in the sport. A month ago, he announced that he would not continue racing in the IndyCar Series full-time in 2023 and instead focus on a “bucket list” of races.
Johnson said returning to the NASCAR Cup Series for the first time since he left following the 2020 season is a priority if he can find the right situation. He smiled, acknowledging that would probably mean his first NASCAR Cup Series race — ever — not driving a car with the No. 48 on the side. Alex Bowman now drives the No. 48 for Hendrick Motorsports.
“I would like to do a couple [of] races [ideally] to get a feel for it and have a good showing, but then it just depends,” Johnson said. “Running a couple [races] changes the dynamic of teams that would potentially be interested in running me, and then it gets complicated really quick.”
In the meantime, Johnson said he is enjoying the opportunity to meet fans and share the book — the stories and the photos. As with most of everything Johnson is involved in, the project is already a top in its class. The book is currently a “#1 Best Seller” in Celebrity Photography on Amazon.com.
Most of all, however, Johnson smiles and talks about the chance to spend more time with his family. He calls himself a “barn dad,” helping his daughters as they compete in horseback riding. And he looks forward to supporting his wife Chani’s endeavors as an art gallery owner in Charlotte.
“That’s the balance I’m trying to strike, filling that bucket of being a competitor and having those experiences in race cars and also balancing life, supporting my wife and kids and what’s important to them,” Johnson said. “Being around and having deeper relationships with my parents and my siblings and my friends. I’ve been on this hamster wheel since I was 19, chasing the dream, and I have no regrets. But I do realize life could be deeper in some other ways. Life could be richer in other ways. And that’s the balance I’m trying to find.”
From hard work, determination and ultimately, the success of talent and drive, Johnson fully concedes it’s been a fortunate life lived
“It’s all part of the journey,” Johnson said. “I don’t think anyone would feel sympathetic for me if I said, ‘I wish I had done something a little different.’ I’ve had this incredible career. I’ve been able to experience so much and work with so many great people. And each mistake made, which would be the point you’d want to go back and change, they have only made me better.”
