SPORTS
Jimmie Johnson to retire from full-time racing
Published
2 years agoon
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson is retiring from full-time racing and will turn his focus toward spending time with family.
He figures his future schedule will include no more than 10 bucket-list events, but the 47-year-old had no idea Monday what that will look like in 2023.
Johnson told The Associated Press he was excited to announce “I’ve got a blank sheet of paper, and we can now see what opportunities exist and start making a calendar.” Carvana has already told Johnson it will back whatever racing he pursues.
Johnson took two weeks from the IndyCar finale — with a weekend spent in England with Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti at the Goodwood Revival — before finalizing his decision to scale back. He told the AP he didn’t really need the time to ponder his future.
“It’s been an interesting process to feel so fulfilled with the experience and then also try to make a decision,” Johnson said. “In the big scheme of things, there is so much life-planning going on with the kids. We’ve always had an idea of trying to live abroad for a year or two. We love Colorado and want to spend more time there, and there’s just so much swirling personally and professionally that I just wanted to take some time and make the decision not on the back of a positive or negative experience on the racetrack.”
So what is Johnson, who retired from NASCAR in 2020, thinking?
LE MANS
The 24 Hours of Le Mans would be part of the NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports special “Garage 56” entry. Johnson has said from the start he wants to be part of the three-driver Le Mans lineup, even though its an exhibition for the Next Gen and the car will be alone in its class.
He’d been awaiting the 2023 IndyCar schedule to see if he’d even be available, but will ensure his schedule is clear should NASCAR want its future Hall of Famer to be part of the project.
INDYCAR
Johnson for sure won’t return for a second full IndyCar season with Chip Ganassi Racing. He raced only the street and road courses in 2021, added the ovals to run the full 2022 season and now isn’t even sure if he’ll run IndyCar at all.
“We are fully supportive of Jimmie. He has been a valued member of our team and if we can find a way to continue working together, we would like to do so,” said team owner Ganassi, who told AP he’d like to run four full-time cars. Now that Johnson has made up his mind not to drive a full season in the No. 48, Ganassi is figuring out how to keep that entry on track.
Johnson struggled on the street and road courses over two seasons, with his best performances on ovals — the discipline he dominated for nearly two decades in NASCAR. He finished an IndyCar-best fifth at Iowa, and although he ultimately crashed out of his Indianapolis 500 debut, Johnson turned laps at over 240 mph in a dazzling qualifying performance.
“I do have a desire to go back, it’s just at this point, I know what’s required to do a full schedule, and I don’t have that in me,” Johnson told AP. “I don’t have that passion that I need for myself to commit myself to a full season.”
BIG IDEA
Johnson has said since his 2020 NASCAR retirement that he’d race again in the series in the right opportunity, and is now entertaining the idea of doing “The Double” — the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
Kurt Busch was the last driver to attempt the 1,100-mile, two-state odyssey in 2014. Busch fell 200 miles shy of completing it when his engine failed in the NASCAR closer. Tony Stewart, who twice attempted both races, is the only driver to complete all 1,100 miles. John Andretti and Robby Gordon both made attempts before Busch.
Johnson would like to give it a try: He won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway four times, including three consecutive victories from 2003-2005.
“You know me and endurance sports, and the double sounds awesome,” Johnson told AP. “I’ve always had this respect for the guys who have done the double. I would say it is more of a respect thing than a bucket-list item, and I’d love to put some energy into that idea and see if I can pull it off.”
The other NASCAR events that’s have caught his attention? Next year’s inaugural race through the downtown streets of Chicago and the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro. Johnson noted as a past winner, he’s got an exemption into both the All-Star race and the exhibition season-opening Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. However, the 2022 NASCAR rules state a driver must be competing full-time to race in the all-star race.
WHAT ELSE?
The future in sports car racing is an unknown for Johnson after this weekend’s IMSA season-ending Petit Le Mans. He’s spent the last two seasons running the endurance races in a joint entry with Hendrick and Action Express, but does not expect enough inventory next year when IMSA adopts new cars for Johnson’s project to continue.
He told AP he would consider racing in a lower IMSA category, such as LMP2, and is even curious about the six-race World Endurance Championship. But the WEC Series intrigues him because of its exotic locales — Monza, Italy, Fuji Speedway in Japan, Bahrain — and the love of international travel he shares with his wife and two young daughters.
He and Chani Johnson have explored enrolling their girls in school in either England or France for a year for the experience, and as a hands-on father, Johnson takes an active role in shuttling his daughters to and from their full schedule of sports and activities. Chani Johnson is also a successful owner of an art gallery and is looking to expand her businesses.
“Chani has always supported me to the nth degree and also at the same time had her objectives, desires and pursued her pathway and her career. I think she’s optimistically cautious I follow through with this plan,” Johnson told AP. “But these decisions are based around family needs and demands, and I think it gets tricky and a bit more complicated on my schedule if we can get some traction on travel and living abroad.
“But those are decisions that will come about in the next few months. And so I go into this I would say with no regrets. I look back and definitely learned lessons from what’s happened, good and bad. But I don’t have any pit in my stomach of something left unfinished, or any regrets I might have.”
Sharron Davies says that the sportswear brand is showing ‘disdain’ for women
Sharron Davies, the former British Olympic swimmer and vocal critic of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, has called for a boycott of sports apparel giant Nike following its partnership with transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney.
“Nobody really seems to be listening to the general public,” Davies said on Thursday to GB News. “And that’s what seems to be incredibly frustrating. So, the only way we can actually make these companies and make governments listen is to boycott with our wallets.”
Transgender social media personality Mulvaney – who has also partnered with Bud Light – was featured in Instagram images modelling Nike’s range of sports bras this week, clothing which Davies says “doesn’t apply” to Mulvaney, who has not yet had gender-reassignment surgery.
“It’s just this total disdain with which women are being treated at the moment,” Davies added, “Particularly in the world of sport where physiology makes so much difference.”
Mulvaney has so far not yet commented on the controversy. Anheuser-Busch, which owns Bud Light, said through a spokesperson that the brand “works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of the many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics.”
IOC amends transgender guidelines
Transgender participation in sports has become a fiercely-debated issue amid a wave of legislative proposals in Republican-led states in the US which have sought to impose various restrictions on trans athletes’ abilities to participate in female sports.
Schools and colleges in the US, though, would be disallowed from imposing blanket bans on transgender athletes as part of a provision to existing gender-equity legislation proposed this week by the Biden administration.
Another former Olympic athlete, Caitlyn Jenner, who is transgender, has also joined in the chorus of backlash against Nike, whom she described as “woke” and said that “inclusivity” should not come at the expense of the majority of people.
Like Davies, Jenner has been a noted critic of transgender athletes competing in sports against biologically-born women. Jenner did note, however, that she has no issue with Mulvaney pursuing sponsorship deals, as she has done herself in the past.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP presidential candidate noted for his opposition to so-called ‘wokeism,’ has also expressed his opposition to Nike’s deal with Mulvaney, calling it the “worst kind of woke capitalism.”
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The International Olympic Committee has defended plans to include Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Paris 2024 Games
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) must not act as a “political referee,” according to its president, Thomas Bach. The organization has faced a backlash for its plans to reinstate Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competition ahead of the Paris Games in 2024.
Speaking at the Ruhr Political Festival in Essen, Germany on Wednesday, Bach said that the IOC must stay out of political disputes to preserve its power as a unifying force on the international stage.
“If politics decides who can take part in a competition, then sport and athletes become tools of politics,” Bach stated. “It is then impossible for sport to transfer its uniting power.”
However, he added that the IOC must be “politically neutral but not apolitical.”
The IOC imposed sporting sanctions against Russia and Belarus shortly after Moscow launched its military campaign in Ukraine last year. The measures were subsequently adopted by numerous other sporting federations across the globe, and severely restricted the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions.
UK asks Olympic sponsors to ‘pressure’ IOC – media
Despite Bach stating earlier this year that he believes sanctions should continue against the governments of both Russia and Belarus, he has appeared open to allowing athletes from both countries back to Olympic competition under certain criteria, such as participating under a neutral flag and appearing in Asian-based qualification events ahead of the Paris Games next year.
Bach claimed on Wednesday that the current situation presents his organization with a “dilemma,” noting that Ukraine has demanded “the total isolation of all Russians” from global sport. He further stated that the IOC has a responsibility towards “human rights and the Olympic Charter” – and not towards the “total isolation of people with a specific passport.”
Elsewhere, Bach has faced resistance from the likes of the British government, amid reports earlier this month that it had petitioned major Olympics sponsors to pressure the IOC to maintain its hardline stance against Russia and Belarus.
Bach’s latest comments came as “several dozen” people held a protest outside Essen’s Philharmonic Music Hall, some of whom were Ukrainian refugees, according to Reuters. Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris Olympics if a complete ban on Russia and Belarus is not upheld.
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International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has criticized Ukraine’s calls to boycott the Paris 2024 Games if Russian athletes are allowed to take part. The role of the Olympics is to unify, not escalate and contribute to confrontation, he said.
“It’s not up to governments to decide who can take part in which sports competitions because this would be the end of international sport competitions… as we know it,” Bach told journalists on Sunday.
In late January, the IOC said it may allow athletes from Russia and Belarus who do not publicly support Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics under a neutral flag.
The announcement angered Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who called on countries to boycott the Games if this happens. Speaking on Friday, Zelensky said the presence of Russian athletes would be a “manifestation of violence” that “cannot be covered up with some pretended neutrality or a white flag.”
In comments cited by France 24, Bach stated that “history will show who is doing more for peace, the ones who try to keep lines open and communicate or the ones who want to isolate and divide.”
Our role is bringing people together.
Ukraine’s calls for a boycott of the Summer Olympics go against the “principles we stand for,” he said.
IOC president blasts Ukraine – media
Bach added that these calls are premature, saying: “we are talking about the sporting competitions to take place this year. There is no talk about Paris yet, this will come much later.”
In deciding the fate of Russian and Belarusian athletes, the IOC must address the “serious concerns” of the UN Human Rights Council that banning them “only because of their passports is a violation of their rights,” he explained.
“We have seen a Belarusian player under neutral status winning the Australian Open. So why shouldn’t it be possible in a swimming pool for instance, or in gymnastics?” the IOC chief said. He was referring to the success of tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open in Melbourne last month.
Bach added, however, that Ukrainian athletes should “know how much we share their grief, their human suffering and all the effort we’re taking to help them” as a result of the conflict.
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