TOYOTA RACING – Jimmie Johnson
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 11, 2026) – LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver Jimmie Johnson was made available to the media on Wednesday prior to the Daytona 500.
JIMMIE JOHNSON, No. 84 Carvana Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Can you tell us about your trip to Japan?
It was my second time there. The first time was a great immersion trip for me to learn more about the company, and meet some individuals, and then that was a success, and kept joking with everyone, we need to bring a car over, and before we knew it, we took three cup cars over. 23XI brought one, we brought one, and then actually took the Garage 56 car over. To be with the chairman of Toyota, and just to see that inner child come out, and his desire to drive cars – we put a second seat in a cup car, thinking, you’d only want to ride before we knew it, he was behind the wheel driving. Then he wanted to drive the Garage 56 car. So that was just a really neat eye-opening experience around how important motorsports is for an OE.”
So, can Erik (Jones) and/or John Hunter (Nemechek) trust that if you’re behind them in the closing laps, that you’re gonna be the wingman and maybe not try and step out and your third Daytona 500?
“I have no idea what I would do in that moment. I really don’t. And I feel like it’s circumstantial, you know, if it’s the Hail Mary, there’s no need. But if I legitimately have a shot, then, you know, it’s a different, it’s a different situation. I’ve only raced one way, which is to win. So, I really find it hard to believe when the helmet doesn’t go on, that I’m not looking around, regardless of the car that’s there, and want that clean air, and want to be the first one to strike.
What are your feelings about having a race in San Diego, your home area?
“There’s so many race fans in Southern California, and to bring our sport, you know, to them, and on a military base, in San Diego proper, is just a scenario I could never dreamed of. I think it’s going to be great for a sport. And, you know, for me personally, it ticks so many boxes, including the 20th anniversary for our foundation. And also, my grandparents are – there’s a beautiful cemetery there on the hillside, and my grandparents are there. So, it will be sentimental and really special.”
What is it about this race that you say, all right, I’m going be there?
“Truthfully, it’s the fact that the draft has not changed much in the 25 years. Regardless of the aero package, the car, whatever it is, like, these big cars blasting a hole in the air, and the way the draft works and behaves, you’re not out in left field. Even if you’ve been away for a while, you can come back and work your way through the duels, get some drafting time, and find that sweet spot and be competitive. The half-mile tracks, a mile and a half, it’s really tough. If you’re not in these cars all the time, and deeply rooted in the process, to have a shot to win is unrealistic. I guess I’m finally admitting that now. I remember Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. When I ran nine races in ‘24, he’s like, ‘What the hell are you doing? I said, ‘I want to win a race’, and he’s like, ‘No, you’re not. It’s way too tough. It’s way too nuanced.’ I was like, ‘You’re crazy.’ He was right. (laughter). For big moments, without a doubt. I think plate tracks, um, if we get Dale back in one, give him a few laps, he’d be right there at the front of the field, like he always was.”
What’s the swing of emotions coming into this when locked in, and knowing you’ll be in the field?
“Yeah, it did, and coming in knowing that we’re in allows us to interact and work with our other two cars in a way that we couldn’t otherwise. We just had a 50-minute practice session, and, you know, we were able to work through some ideas and take different paths than our teammates did. I guess you’ll kind of look at the math in a way – 33 percent more information than we can gain this weekend. Certainly, by committing to the exemption, we know we have this practice to take advantage of, and we know that we’ll be able to maximize things in the race. Now, if we finish well in the race, it’s going to sting from a financial standpoint, but, you know, we’ve protected, protected the bottom side, but have limited ourselves on the upside.”
Can you put this particular 500 into some context, the unsatisfying end to last season, and then an incredible offseason for NASCAR changing the point system and everything that’s happened?
“Yeah, there’s been so much that’s gone on. Our sport has seen some headwinds in the last four to six months, and to have that all behind us now, and the biggest race of our year, and kick off our season, it’s the perfect thing. It’s the right medicine for us, and if we can just make sure that we’re going to have a sunny day, and we go off on time, you know, it’s, we’re due for a sunny race. We’ve had plenty of the other stuff.”
What is it, like, to race against a guy like Connor Zilisch, who you are old enough to be his dad?
“You say that; the first test session I had at CGR (Chip Ganassi Racing) with the team in 2021, we’d go to Barber for our first test, and Dario (Franchitti) takes myself and Alex Palou out and walk the track.We are walking around the track, just getting to know each other, chatting. I tell him my age, and he looks at me, and he goes, ‘Huh, you are older than my dad.’ I was like, he just started, like, moving away quicklym and I was like I’m going to kill you (laughter). So I still give him a hard time about that today, but thankfully, you know, that band aid’s been pulled off before, and I can’t change it, but it really does impress me when you have someone like Connor (Zilisch) at his age, and all the hype, and he’s able to perform, he has his head on his shoulders. There’s still a lot that’s going to test him, but, he is a true racer at heart and I’m certainly pulling for him.”
Jimmie, do you have a favorite memory of Greg Biffle?
“Many. I think the first thing I remember is when the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series was getting started, I was trying to work on a couple of trucks and hanging out on the West Coast, and, um, it wasn’t Bakersfield. I’m trying to remember a little track that they used to go to out in the, out in the desert. But anyway, it was plain white truck, young guy, sideways, hauling butt. I knew he was, like, a local and short track guy, but you’re out there with (Ron) Hornaday and (Mike) Skinner and (Jack) Sprague and all these guys. This young guy, just ripping him. And so, you know, became a big fan of him and got to know him more, but had a lot of incredible battles with him. Another one comes to mind is running each other out of gas at Michigan. I thought I was saving fuel, leading, doing a great job, and I ran out of gas, and Greg (Biffle) thought he did a great job, and he ran out of gas about a half a lap later, and Mark Martin was the only one saving fuel and went along and won, and we had a huge laugh about that after. Once the sting went away, after losing our brains.”
This is your 23rd Daytona 500. After all these years, is there one moment of race day that you look forward to or savor the most of any?
“Opening ceremonies; it just has such a moment. National Anthem, Thunderbirds coming by. That’s the moment for me.”
Dario Franchitti said you got him this truck ride, are you his agent now?
“Yes, in some ways, yes. (laughter) With the time we spent together in IndyCar, and then sharing a vehicle in 2024 in Goodwood, and we joked about it, and he’s like, wow, you know, I’m not sure if I can. I’m not sure if I should, and then one recently, he was like, you know that St. Pete is Truck and IndyCar, and I was like, you know I can get you a truck. He’s like, oh, I would do it. Like, if I make this happen, you’re in, right? He’s like, yeah, of course. Next morning, I call, I’m like, ‘Hey buddy, guess what? We’re going truck racing.’ He’s tested. He had to go through his medical clearance, and had his test session, and it went well. It’s fun seeing him get so excited for it, and I look forward to that in a few weeks.”
Do you have any anticipate different anticipation this year Jimmie, for what you’re doing, in the sense of you’ve got your limited schedule locked in here?
“Yeah, I think from a 30,000-foot level, our organization and what we were working on last year, our own infrastructure, our own software tool chain, a lot of these elements that, you know, are so valuable and important in today’s world. When the race car leaves the shop, you know, the cake is baked. You can’t work on them when you get here. Our inconsistencies had a lot to do with us developing our own internal software and systems. I feel like we have a really good hold of that now. In addition to now a collaboration with Gibbs, and so that’s going be quite useful for us. So, from a performance standpoint, feel really good. But what’s really a shift that you’ll see as the year goes on, our investment in experiential, our investment in hospitality, you know, that’s an element that I’m very passionate about, as our partners at Knighthead Capital, and trying to create a brand and a lifestyle brand out of motorsports, and it not being just about the X’s and O’s of a race team. That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to perform and win. But, in addition to, this year, you’ll see more moments and more storytelling. My interest in running Dario (Franchitti) is to tell his story, you know, to lean into his legacy. We’re still getting the pieces put together, and as the year goes on, there’s probably five or six different moments that will be seen and noticed as LEGACY tries to story tell more, tries to offer hospitality, experiential moments. There are these touch points that, I really want to build out, and I think are useful. Not only for our existing partners, but to bring in prospects, to also, someday, offer to fans and create these incredible opportunities to come inside the ropes and experience our sport. So, that’s all part of a bigger plan that is where I want the company to go, and we’ll lean into that more this year, while trying to go win some races.”
How much higher our expectations with how well last year went?
“I think that our expectations are still very similar. We had looks at wins last year.
We legitimately did, where we’re most focused right now is the consistency. We want to be here for the long run. The format is going benefit consistency with the format change, and for us to be racing for a win one weekend, and on a mile and a half, and go to the next mile and a half, and run 20th with both cars, like, we, we’ve got average that out, we get that part under control. As we have developed our infrastructure, there’s a lot of telling signs of why we have the inconsistencies. We still need to go live it, but it’s nice to be able to look back and rationally look at elements and say that this makes sense. This is why. I feel that we’ll have a much more competitive year.”
How did you handle it going from winning all the time then not?
“It is a tough journey, and wrong, right or indifferent, my journey to Cup, I didn’t win a lot, and I feel like that journey helped me in a lot of ways, that, when I did start having success. I think the experiences then helped me hang on to it for as long as we did. Unfortunately, at some point, it starts drying up, and it did for me, and it will for others. We have none of us know where that is for Kyle (Busch) right now, until he decides to step away, but there is a moment out there for everyone where production just goes down, and it doesn’t mean that your heart isn’t in it, and your skills aren’t there, but whatever it is, it dries up, and, uh, I hope that isn’t the case for him, He is such a talent, but it gets us all at some point.”
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