Jimmie Johnson, Jenson Button Using NASCAR Race At COTA To Help Prepare For 24 Hours Of Le Mans

Jimmie Johnson returns to the driver’s seat in the No. 84 Chevrolet Camaro for The Legacy Motor Club in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas. It’s the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion’s first race as a driver since his impressive return in the 65^th Daytona 500 was ruined when he was involved in the massive last-lap crash in overtime that helped determine the outcome of the race.

Rather than look back, however, Johnson is using Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the 19-turn, 3.4-mile road course that hosts the United States Grand Prix Formula One contest to help prepare for the 75^th 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Johnson along with Mike Rockenfeller and former Formula One World Champion Jenson Button will be part of the Garage 56 effort that will take a NASCAR Cup Series stock car to the world’s most famous endurance race on June 10-11, 2023.

Garage 56 is a cooperative effort between NASCAR, Chevrolet, and Hendrick Motorsports.

Button will be making his NASCAR Cup Series debut this weekend driving a Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing in a cooperative effort with Stewart Haas Racing.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” Button said Friday after NASCAR Cup Series practice. “I never thought, in my wildest dreams, I’d be racing in a Cup car. So, this is a lovely opportunity. I got to thank Mobil 1 for it.

“I’ve been doing quite a bit of driving and stock car racing at Le Mans for later this year. But we don’t really have so much competition in that, so this is exciting. I get to race against 30 other crazy guys out there. I’m really, really looking forward to the challenge – and it definitely is a big challenge.

“Jumping in the car for a 50-minute practice session – and that’s it – before we go qualifying and racing. It’s tough I think for anyone who is not used to big, heavy cars with low downforce. I’m enjoying the process. The team has been great, and I’m looking forward to a good, solid weekend. The car felt pretty good out there, and I think tomorrow in qualifying – when it really counts to get a lap in – there’s a bit more pressure. We’ll see how it goes.”

Ironically, Button has more experience at COTA than Johnson. He competed in the USGP contests at COTA five times from 2012-2016.

This will be Johnson’s first-ever race at COTA.

“I’ve personally always wanted to race at this track,” Johnson said Friday afternoon at COTA after participating in NASCAR Cup Series practice. “To have an opportunity to come back and compete on this track, it’s so technical and really a lot of fun to drive around here. Thankful we ended up with a few more laps of practice this weekend with rule changes to the car that led to a practice session today that we’re taking advantage of.

“I had a great time out there. I’m trying to figure the car out. It has a lot less grip than I remember a Cup car having and certainly a lot less grip than what I’ve been driving over the last two years.

“I’m trying to dial that all in and also understanding what this car might respond to from an adjustment standpoint. There is still a ton of learning going on but a great experience today and excited about this weekend.”

Johnson has prepared for this weekend by using the GM Motorsports simulator located in Huntersville, North Carolina. It has proven to be a valuable tool in helping the driver who retired from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition at the end of the 2020 season readjust to the current NASCAR NextGen race car.

He has also used that simulator to help learn the intricacies that are different in the Garage 56 Sports Car that he will drive in Le Mans, France.

“Thankfully we’ve had a lot of simulator time and a lot of testing time,” Johnson said. “We’ve been able to work through our driver changes, which are pretty unique in a stock car vehicle versus sports cars; having a door is a big difference than climbing in and out of a window and a window net and all that goes to it.

“Hendrick has done an amazing job. So has GM to give us all the simulator time that we need. We still have another test session or so out there for us and some more sim time. I’m spending time in my home sim.”

Competing in the Garage 56 Chevrolet at Le Mans will be a unique experience. Because it fills a category for cars outside of the regular Sports Car realm, it will not have the speed and handling advantages of the purpose-built Sports Cars.

That will require a different driving style, according to Johnson.

“All the racing I’ve done in sports cars, I’ve always been in the fastest category and didn’t have to worry about many cars approaching from behind,” said the driver who

spent 2021-2022 in the NTT IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing. “It’s going to be a much different experience, especially with headlights. So, in my home sim, I’ve been loading up as many prototypes as I can in the session and just have them in my mirror all the time and trying to get used to where to look, why I should look in certain areas and where I should expect those cars.

“That would be the only twist to it – spending a lot more time on iRacing and also on rFactor 2 getting used to traffic.”

But the sports car setup for the Garage 56 entry is dramatically different than the Chevrolet Camaro that Johnson will drive in NASCAR Cup Series competition in a select number of race this season.

The sports car is lighter, and the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion can feel it.

“Much less, without a doubt,” Johnson said of the weight differential. “I think there’s almost 400 pounds of weight out of the Garage 56 car and around double the downforce. It has much bigger tires. Carbon brakes. The Garage 56 car has a lot more grip than a Cup car does around here, to say the least.

“Just looking in the rearview mirror and seeing how big the spoiler here is this weekend compared to the Garage 56 car, it’s got to be a foot difference in just rear downforce alone. It’s just a much different experience.”

As Johnson prepares for his second NASCAR Cup Series race of 2023, IMSA Sports Car start Jordan Taylor make his NASCAR Cup Series debut this weekend. He takes over the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet as Chase Elliott continues to recover from a fractured left tibia in a snowboarding incident on March 3. Elliott will be out for six weeks.

Button is also making his NASCAR Cup Series debut and believes this is the best test yet as he prepares for the Garage 56 effort at Le Mans, even if the two cars are not alike.

“Testing – lots of testing,” he said. “I’ve done six days in the car now. But it’s very different to this. People are like, ‘You know, this is very useful for the Garage 56 program,’ but it’s not.

“It’s very different – paddle shift, it’s got downforce, it’s lighter and kind of like eight seconds a lap quicker. But they both have their place.

“I enjoy both of them equally. It’s fun with a project you’re involved in in terms of development, but it’s also fun jumping into a stock car that’s the same pretty much as everyone else’s on the grid. I’m a racing driver, and I love racing – whatever it is.

“Racing at Le Mans is spectacular, and it’s such a special place. If you haven’t been, you’ll have to go. But, for me, going wheel-to-wheel here is pretty special.”

Johnson loves having big-name drivers such as Button and Taylor take on the NASCAR Cup Series regulars on a road course.

“I’m excited for it,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be fun. We’ve been talking trash like crazy on text, so it’s been a lot of fun already.

“If we could just have Rocky (Mike Rockenfeller) out there somewhere, it would be nice having all four of us bouncing around.

“I think international attention for any form of motorsport is super-helpful. I think the regulars in NASCAR knew that they needed to lock it down from a driver standpoint and car standpoint to get their cars right. There’s still points on the board. Stage racing and championships and how they’re determined now are more important than ever.”

Drivers that come from road racing backgrounds are referred to as “ringers” in NASCAR Cup Series racing. That’s because the skill level they have on a twisting, turning road course gives them a bit of an advantage, but in the day.

But NASCAR Cup Series drivers have become much more proficient on road courses over the past 20 years.

“Ringers could come in and take the money pretty easily in the past or at least take the podium spots away,” Johnson said. “The regulars are just buttoned up now. It doesn’t matter if it’s the team, the car, or the driver.

“That doesn’t mean having ringers come in or very well-accomplished road-course racers and drivers from different disciplines don’t bring a ton of importance and star power to it. To have the names we do in the field and in the starting lineup is super-impressive and I think it’s going to bring more eyeballs to the sport. It’s harder now to be a ringer and show up and expect to be on the podium, but they’re in the field and their fanbases will be watching.”

Johnson returned to NASCAR Cup Series action as a driver in the 65^thDaytona 500 on February 19. His primary responsibility is ownership partner along with Maury Gallagher of Allegiant Airlines and team “ambassador” Richard Petty at The Legacy Motor Club.

Johnson has immersed himself in the duties of running the race team showing an impressive business savvy and acumen since he joined the operation last November.

“My focus point still really has been on the business marketing aspect of the team,” Johnson said. “I sit in on plenty of meetings and debriefs and have a pulse of what is going on in our competition department. If you would have asked me four or five months ago where I’d probably spend most of my time I’d think naturally on the competition side, but there’s really been more on the business side.”

Johnson’s presence and involvement has helped strengthen areas of The Legacy Motor Club, but he continues to learn on the job in his role as team owner.

“There have been so many changes from year to year,” Johnson said. “We’re trying not to overreact to the first couple of races and performances.

“You go to Daytona, and we all feel like we all had good cars and were competitive. California is after that. We had some weird stuff go on with the splitter and all that dirt and rock and all the debris that was at the track that the splitters delaminated on our cars.

“It’s really easy to look at that and say that’s the reason why our performance wasn’t where it needed to be. Vegas, Atlanta, Phoenix… we’re at a point now where we have enough styles of tracks that we can better evaluate where we’re to start the year. We’re not where we want to be, but there’s endless work going in the shop.

“I’m very thankful for the crew chiefs, for Joey Cohen (VP, Racing Operations) and his hard work and focus that’s gone into it and all the engineering that’s behind it.

“We’re digging along. We haven’t hit our peak for the season yet and I think we now have an idea of where our short-track cars are, what we need to work on – mile-and-half stuff and certainly the restrictor-plate tracks.”

As Johnson continues to learn his role as an ownership partner of a NASCAR Cup Series team, he still gets to drive the No. 84 Chevrolet in selected races this season. He most recently announced he will be competing in NASCAR’s first ever street race on the streets of Chicago on July 2.

More races will be announced throughout the season, according to Johnson.

For this weekend at COTA, he is hoping to learn a few things that will help him when he arrives in France for one of the world’s most famous races in June – the 24 Hours of Le Mans.