"Had too many broken bones": Jimmie Johnson looks back on his transition from motocross to racecars 

Jimmie Johnson recently looked back on where his racing journey began. One of the three 7x Cup champions, Johnson is regarded by many as an all-time great in NASCAR history. However, the NASCAR legend and former HMS driver started his racing career on two wheels on Californian dirt tracks.

Featuring in an episode of the High Performance podcast shared on December 23, Jimmie Johnson's motocross career was brought up, with the former #48 driver affirming that he did start his racing career in the two-wheeler sport.

Johnson mentioned that his grandparents owned a motorcycle store in Southern California, and the town produced most of the motocross world champions from the 60s until the 80s. Talking about his motocross background and how his father eventually helped him transition to four-wheel racing, Johnson said:

"Then the motocross scene moved a little further north kind of in the 2000s that Jeremy McGrath era. But that was my world and that was everything. So I grew up on bikes, I got my first motorcycle on Christmas when I was 4 and then started racing at 5. I found my way to four wheels when I was a teenager, just had too many broken bones, and my dad found a way to get me into a similar type of racing but with a roll cage around myself in stadium off-road racing, and things kind of took off from there," Johnson said [at 3:10].

In an older interview with Jeff Gluck, Johnson also revealed how he briefly lost track of his fitness during his transition from Motocross to racecars.

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When Jimmie Johnson talked about losing track of his fitness during his transition to racecars

Speaking to Jeff Gluck in 2019, Jimmie Johnson revealed how he was 'super-physical' during his teenage years while racing in Motocross. However, when he slowly made his transition to stock car racing, he briefly struggled with maintaining his fitness.

Talking about having to learn the new sport and traveling to different places for races, Jimmie Johnson said that he picked up some 'bad habits' in his diet when he would stop at truck stops and eat junk food.

"The fitness just tanked. So I would say up until 17, 18, I was fit and an athlete and then had this hiatus for a long period of time. I would say probably ’08, ’09, somewhere around there is when I started to get serious again (in his early-30s), and it filled some piece inside of me from my day of feeling accomplished, feeling good about myself, confidence going up and I know that I’m doing that’s important for my career," he said.

Further highlighting the importance of workouts, Johnson mentioned that working out is a 'vital' part of his daily routine and helps him maintain a 'positive outlook' for the rest of the day.