Ryan: Ready for ‘Jimmie Johnson Mania’ at the Indy 500? ‘Why not? Let’s dream big’

FORT WORTH, Texas – The 30-mph gusts came whipping Sunday afternoon through Texas Motor Speedway, winds of change coinciding with a racing superstar’s long-awaited arrival in the NTT IndyCar Series.

Scott Dixon felt the direction shift with 10 laps remaining in the XPEL 375 when his No. 9 Dallara-Honda got stuck in traffic while plowing into a massive frontstretch headwind. Watching three cars zip around the outside into Turn 1, the six-time series champion and five-time Texas winner did a double-take.

Was that Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Jimmie Johnson actually making a bold outside pass with the No. 48 – for fifth place — in his first IndyCar race on an oval?

“I looked at the (scoring) pylon and said, ‘Man, he’s ahead of us!’ ” Dixon said with a mixture of delight and surprise. “We’re just happy he did such a tremendous job.”

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Yes, on this blustery Sunday, it was no longer idle bluster to proclaim that Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, officially was a legitimate IndyCar driver.

Though Dixon would regain the top-five position with two laps remaining when Johnson suddenly was scrambling to conserve fuel because of faulty telemetry, the moment still ranked as the highlight of Johnson’s career-best sixth that left the IndyCar paddock awestruck.

“I passed Scott Dixon,” Johnson said (and still with a slight level of incredulity an hour later). “Probably to his disappointment, to my excitement. I had to look two or three times to make sure really it was the 9 car, not another car with a blue back half. Yeah, I have caught Scott Dixon, this is good.”

How good?

So good that his team already was thinking about Johnson