"The most epic experience I've ever had" - When Jimmie Johnson reflected on trying Fernando Alonso's Formula 1 car

NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson swapped cars with Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso at the Bahrain International Circuit five years ago. Johnson got the chance to drive a 2013 McLaren MP4-28, which was used by Jenson Button and Sergio Perez in the 2013 F1 season. Previously, Tony Stewart had also driven Lewis Hamilton's 2008 F1 car.

Johnson shared that driving the open-wheel car felt even more exciting than a Christmas morning when he was a kid.

"Such a different experience, and I don't think I'll stop smiling for months. The most epic experience I've ever had in motorsports in my life. It was almost like when you're young and you had that Christmas morning excitement, running out to the Christmas tree when you were five or six years old. It was above that," Jimmie Johnson said (03:32).

Johnson also talked about how his helmet was not properly fastened during the first run. Strong wind from the car made it lift up and they had to fix it to keep it from coming off.

"Coming down the front straightaway, as soon as I grabbed fifth gear, the helmet lifted up so far I was looking at my microphone. My talk microphone here was always identified. I had to come in, and we worked on a few things to get my helmet to stay on my head. There was so much air coming over the top of that car that it was literally trying to put my helmet on," he added.

Meanwhile, two-time F1 champion Alonso drove a powerful NASCAR with a 5.8-litre V8 engine.

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Jimmie Johnson's NASCAR team

Legacy Motor Club (LMC) co-owner Jimmie Johnson and his team had an underwhelming 2024 season.

The team's two full-time drivers, Eric Jones and John Hunter Nemechek finished the year at 28th and 34th in the final Cup standings, respectively. The team switched from Chevrolet to Toyota this year and also made other recent changes.

LCM hired ex-Joe Gibbs Racing's Jacob Canter as competition director in August and Brian Campe as technical director in October. It hired Chad Johnston as Manager of Race Engineering this week. Moreover, the team shuffled crew chiefs and Ben Beshore was moved to Jones's No. 43 team last month. Campe took over the No. 42 team for a while.

After Maury Gallagher bought Richard Petty Motorsports and formed Petty GMS Racing in 2022, Johnson bought a stake in the team and rebranded it as LMC. The team has one race win, the Southern 500 in 2022.

Seven-time Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson confirmed last weekend at Pheonix that he will return part-time to the Cup Series in the No. 84 next year.