slorydn1
6th March 2011, 13:07
JOHNSON NOT SWITCHING — Ride swapping is big this year, but don’t expect five-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson (http://news.speedtv.com/topic/Jimmie_Johnson) to be part of the fun. Next month, Scott Dixon will drive Jamie McMurray’s NASCAR Sprint Cup car at Talladega, while McMurray will have a stint in Dixon’s IZOD IndyCar Series ride at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. Later in the summer, Tony Stewart and 2008 Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton will trade places at Watkins Glen International.
As for Johnson, that ship already has sailed, at least for him.
“There has definitely been some conversation on it,” Johnson said Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he qualified 14th for the Kobalt Tools 400. “Four or five years ago I would have been in a position to do it. I’ve joked around about the agreement that Channi (wife) and I had — open-wheel cars (http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-friday-las-vegas-notebook-nascar-sprint/#) were cool until we had a baby and until I can get that sold through my wife, I just don’t see it happening.”
Not that Johnson wouldn’t welcome the opportunity.
“I just want to drive one of those cars,” he said of the open-wheel IndyCars. “They are so awesome and the downforce and what they can do. I would love to drive one of them, I just don’t know if it’s every really going to work out on an oval or at the (Indy) 500. That’s the first hurdle, then there’s Rick (Hendrick) and Lowe’s. There’s a lot of steps in this to get it done. I wish that I had the opportunity and I wish Chevy was in open wheel four or five years ago. I would have pushed real hard and hopefully would have made something happen then.”
http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-friday-las-vegas-notebook-nascar-sprint/
Wow now Dixon and McMurray. Jaimie is getting the better end of this deal, though. Dixon is gonna be snoring by himself in a Cup car at Talladega, unless they find some way to make the restrictor plate disappear. THEN he would be hauling the FREIGHT
As for Johnson, that ship already has sailed, at least for him.
“There has definitely been some conversation on it,” Johnson said Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he qualified 14th for the Kobalt Tools 400. “Four or five years ago I would have been in a position to do it. I’ve joked around about the agreement that Channi (wife) and I had — open-wheel cars (http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-friday-las-vegas-notebook-nascar-sprint/#) were cool until we had a baby and until I can get that sold through my wife, I just don’t see it happening.”
Not that Johnson wouldn’t welcome the opportunity.
“I just want to drive one of those cars,” he said of the open-wheel IndyCars. “They are so awesome and the downforce and what they can do. I would love to drive one of them, I just don’t know if it’s every really going to work out on an oval or at the (Indy) 500. That’s the first hurdle, then there’s Rick (Hendrick) and Lowe’s. There’s a lot of steps in this to get it done. I wish that I had the opportunity and I wish Chevy was in open wheel four or five years ago. I would have pushed real hard and hopefully would have made something happen then.”
http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-friday-las-vegas-notebook-nascar-sprint/
Wow now Dixon and McMurray. Jaimie is getting the better end of this deal, though. Dixon is gonna be snoring by himself in a Cup car at Talladega, unless they find some way to make the restrictor plate disappear. THEN he would be hauling the FREIGHT