Johnson continues his progress in Nashville

When it comes to wild weekends, Nashville has become an entertainment destination for those who seek a little fun and a little excitement.

Representing The American Legion, Jimmie Johnson had more than his share of both in last weekend’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville.

The driver of the No. 48 Carvana/American Legion Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing began the weekend on Broadway in the entertainment district of this bustling destination city that rivals Las Vegas for fun and excitement.

“We had a team function at Ole Red on Thursday night, pretty well positioned in the chaos,” Johnson recalled. “There were a lot of people out and a lot of energy. That was cool to see.

“I was recognized walking down the street. Had someone jump out of their car stuck in traffic for an autograph and a photo. But there seemed to be a strong bachelorette party contingent rolling around.”

The festive atmosphere continued Friday morning when Johnson met with 90-year-old American Legion member James Markham of Mt. Juliet, Tenn. Markham was part of the official opening of the event when the Korean War veteran joined three-time Indianapolis 500 winning driver and four-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Dario Franchitti on a pace car ride across the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge.

The 1,660-foot clear-span bridge over the Cumberland River was the most unique part of the 11-turn, 2.17-mile temporary street course that was new to every driver in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

“It’s going to be rough and bumpy but it’s part of it,” Johnson predicted before Friday’s first 70-minute practice session. “Perfect race tracks from a track topography standpoint don’t create great racing. Tracks like this that are bumpy and rough and have these quirky things about them put on the best races.

“It’s an interesting balance. My natural effort has been set up for NASCAR and the limits of that vehicle are way lower than this. I find myself constantly out of my comfort zone trying to find the edge. On a track like this with zero margin for error, I’m probably more uncomfortable out there than anyone else at this stage. I have to manage that and utilize that.”

Johnson was off to his best start of his NTT INDYCAR SERIES rookie season, as the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion was showing much improved pace compared to the rest of the field in both Friday’s and Saturday’s practice sessions. That gave the driver hopes of advancing out of the first round of qualifications for the first time this season.

Unfortunately for Johnson, he crashed on cold tires on his out lap leaving the pit area and was unable to complete a lap.

In Sunday’s noon warmup session. Johnson was up to speed and showed impressive improvement. But with the warmup session about to conclude, Johnson was speeding over the bridge when his car snapped lose and hit the wall in Turn 4.

“Jimmie said it snapped on him under braking and I’m not exactly sure what took place,” said Scott Pruett, Johnson’s race strategist at Chip Ganassi Racing. “We’ll get to it and get it fixed and go racing later here today.

“We don’t know what happened. That’s one of the things about it. It didn’t even look like he got to brake before it got away from him before that. That’s one good thing about the race starting at 5 p.m. We have time to get the car back together.”

His primary car was too damaged to repair in time for the race.  Chip Ganassi Racing prepared the backup Honda – a No. 10 entry that had Alex Palou’s NTT DATA livery.

Chip Ganassi Racing frantically worked to get the backup ready in time for the 4:30 p.m. start to the race. Unfortunately, there were more issues before the start of the race. Once Johnson got the car rolling, he did his best to avoid contact around the tight street course before he was part of the multi-car pileup in Turn 11 when Team Penske teammates Will Power and Simon Pagenaud ran into each other.

That blocked the race course, and the red flag was displayed to stop the race while the carnage was cleaned up.

Johnson’s crew attached the air jacks to the car to assess the damage, but that’s against INDYCAR rules that prohibit any work done to any race car during the Red Flag. Johnson’s frustrating day came to an early end when INDYCAR parked Johnson’s car for the remainder of the race.

Johnson’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson went airborne in a crash with Sebastien Bourdais on Lap 5 and dramatically came back to win the race for his second career INDYCAR win.

“It was an exciting day,” Johnson after a wild but disappointing weekend. “Sadly, the car bottomed really bad approaching turn 4 in the warmup session. It lifted the rear tires off the ground and had a spectacular spin and crashed. The team worked its guts out to get a car ready for the race – a new car, mind you – in the race today.

“The chaos in the time we had, we had an issue of getting buckled into the car and getting started in the race. Then in the race, things were coming along. We found our groove to get going and work my way up a few spots. The caution came out and we left pit lane in the middle of the pack and got up to speed. The guys in front of me had an issue going into Turn 11. I really thought I had the accident missed and had some contact from behind and that contact damaged the shifting linkage for the transmission and ultimately put us out of the race.”

Despite the disappointment, Pruett saw Johnson make more progress as he continues to learn the drastic differences between NASCAR and INDYCAR.

“We came out of the box real strong Saturday morning,” Pruett explained. “He was running top 10, top 12. We didn’t get a run on new tires because of all the red flags at the end. Things derailed a little bit going into qualifying.

“Jimmie was showing great confidence. You see such a move forward with his education, understanding and learning of what he wants in the car. His confidence in making calls on what he feels. (Engineer) Eric Cowdin has been doing a great job adjusting to that. I’m just trying to keep my hands around everything and keep it going in the right direction. I felt the confidence of him coming into this and his lap times and how he felt going around the track. We were excited about it.

“He liked the course a lot and showed real good confidence going out the first time. We saw confidence we don’t see from him a lot. A lot of it has been that learning curve of understanding what he is looking for from the track.

“During Sunday’s warmup Jimmie just made a mistake. He went in too deep. Rolled too much speed on cold tires. We have to keep him from beating himself up. He is his own worst critic. Those things happen. We have to gather it up and continue on.”

Johnson and the No. 48 Carvana/American Legion Honda team has a short turnaround as the next race is the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Practice is set for Friday, with qualifications beginning Friday night at 7 p.m. ET. Practice can be watched at 3 p.m. ET on Peacock, while qualifications and the race will be broadcast on NBC Sports.

For more information the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix, click here.