Jimmie Johnson wants to set new personal bests in IndyCar at Texas Motor Speedway

Though denied a lap during a scrubbed IndyCar test last week at Texas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson still soaked in some old glory in a very familiar victory lane.

Renamed in 2020 as “the Jimmie Johnson Winners Circle” for his record seven NASCAR Cup Series victories at the 1.5-mile oval, Johnson gazed at a wall of plaques honoring a quarter-century of victors at the track north of Fort Worth.

He flashed back to his first win there on Nov. 4, 2007 – an “epic side-by-side battle” with Matt Kenseth that ranked as “one of my favorite battles ever in a Cup car.

INDYCAR AT TEXAS: How to watch Saturday on Sunday on Peacock and NBC

“That one was really special for me,” Johnson said Wednesday morning during a Zoom news conference to preview his NTT IndyCar Series oval debut Sunday at Texas (12:30 p.m. ET, NBC). “Honestly, from a pure driving standpoint, it was my favorite mile-and-a-half (track) that we competed on. There’s just so many lanes, so many options, big bumps, lots of character in the track.

“I don’t remember a ton specifically from that (2007 victory), but I remember the mental awareness I had. Certainly some of the mental coaching I did to myself to really try to finish that pass off with Matt, knowing it was Matt, he raced me clean and allowed me to get in there and race that hard that late in the season.”

More than 14 years later, Texas will mark a new phase of “Jimmie 2.0” that began with his entry into IndyCar last season. In 2022, he has moved into a full-time schedule that was driven by his expected debut in the Indy 500 (at a track where he and Jeff Gordon are tied with a NASCAR record four victories on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval).

Texas will be the lone oval tune-up for the Greatest Spectacle in