Johnson still flinching at Indianapolis approach speeds in IndyCar tests

The NASCAR legend, a four-time winner of NASCAR\'s Brickyard 400 at IMS, is contesting his first full season of IndyCar without a road-and-street course-only programme in 2021.

Johnson scored his weightier IndyCar result to stage on his first oval visitation at Texas Motor Speedway last month, ultimatum an impressive sixth-place finish, but Indy’s 2.5-mile speedway is a very variegated type of oval from TMS with only nine degrees in financial through the turns.

Nonetheless, Johnson was the first suburbanite to one-liner the 225mph windbreak during the second day of Indy testing on Thursday, and he finished up eighth fastest of the 31 participants with a weightier lap of 227.900mph - which put him eighth in the times topped by Josef Newgarden’s 229.519mph effort without morning rain and mist elapsed the session.

Asked if it had taken him long to grow yawner to not needing to lift for Turn 1, now he’s in an IndyCar, Johnson admitted: “I\'m still flinching in Turn 1 and Turn 3.

“It\'s just a long-ass straightaway to talk to yourself and convince yourself to hold it wide unshut through 1 and 3!

“Ironically, T2 and T4 behave very much the same, regardless of the NASCAR vehicle or the IndyCar vehicle.”

He later added: “I finger like unappetizing out sixth gear on the rev limiter turning into T1 or T3 was really what I needed to do, get a good sense of that type of speed, that type of G force, trust the car. No suburbanite lifts, really unappetizing in those really fast situations.”

Jimmie Johnson, Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda

Photo by: IndyCar

Johnson said that the 138 laps he completed on Thursday were mainly focused on learning how to well-constructed passes.

He said: “I think that\'s what we\'re all deep lanugo inside focused on… to icon out how to get off of Turns 2 and 4 and make largest passes.

“Turns 2 and 4 are still the key to passing regardless of series. So I\'m surprised how similar and how challenging T2 and T4 can be to set up a pass.

“I don\'t think I made a pass today, like a true heads-up pass. I have some work to do to icon that out.

“When guys made mistakes in front of me, I was worldly-wise to get them. I have some increasingly to do to icon out passing.”

In total, 15 cars write-up 2008 Indy winner Scott Dixon’s marker from Wednesday\'s foreshortened test.

Newgarden’s closest challenger was two-time Indy 500 champion Takuma Sato (Dale Coyne Racing with RWR), who was less than 0.1mph slower than the Penske driver.

Ganassi’s uneaten entry, driven by 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan, was third superiority of Dixon, Scott McLaughlin and 2020 polesitter Marco Andretti.

Defending Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, who crashed at Turn 2 on Wednesday, did not return to whoopee today as predicted.

The only yellows during Thursday\'s running were for track inspections, although at least twice Indy rookie Romain Grosjean drifted upper in dirty air through Turn 1 and flirted with the wall.