the 48 as a legacy brand

Every end marks a new beginning, and that sounds Eastern enough.

It is not the end for Jimmie Johnson, as people were starting to wonder if he would soon be a NASCAR commentator, or taking-up some new role in the NASCAR universe.  But it seems Indy Car is what has become the new interest of Jimmie Johnson's professional career.  And as we know, Indy Car has collected some of the more mature talent of the racing world in years past, such as Ruebens Barricello and the re-collecting of Juan Pablo Montoya.  This commentator hopes that Danica Patrick will also find her way back to American open-wheel competition.

Honest, hard racing in some of the fastest racing vehicles in the world, on many of America's most challenging circuits: this is what Indy Car offers the competitor.  For the "only NASCAR" viewer the experience can be disorienting, as we have a pitched battle between Honda and Chevrolet, where NASCAR offers the usual American suspects plus Toyota, a more recent mainstream favorite.

Jimmie Johnson was admittedly unprepared, in "unfamiliar waters" during the recent online race, as he was new to the formatting of iRacing.  His dismal performance could draw comparisons to Richard Petty's farewell race, in which he went out in a blaze, his 43 car burning, but hardly a blaze of glory.  Commentators of the time may have thought, but dared not type that it seemed like the high time for the King to step down, to clear the path for more relevant racing competitors.







However unfamiliar iRacing may seem, Jimmie Johnson is not washed-up nor has he become a perennial back row field filler, but rather, while still holding that competitive spark, he shifts his focus to a new racing frontier, however on familiar American soil, with his foray into Indy Car.  This commentator fully expects the 48 to be better prepared next time he appears in a televised iRacing event, and I would not be surprised if he snags a top-10 finish.


This is also the era of the early retirement, with Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr establishing a pattern for competitors to retire while still relatively young.  Perhaps they think of raising a family outside of the trackside grind, like Earnhardt Jr, or think more of their health, as there were reports of one-time youthful wonder Jeff Gordon having multiple back surgeries, which makes this commentator wonder if driving at competition speed, with all the bumping, might have been a kind of torture.

And we hear that guys like Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch are no longer "wunderkind", no longer the Golden Children of auto-racing, but more mature, experienced, dare we say "cagey", talents who seem to resonate more with the working man.  But Jimmie Johnson has been his own thing, sitting atop the heap without a good metaphor hanging around his neck.

In the end, I have only one question:  is Indy Car ready for Jimmie Johnson?