ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Jimmie Johnson didn’t publicly downplay the expectations on himself as a rookie at last year’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. He tried to eliminate them entirely.
Sitting on a bench inside the Mahaffey Theater in April, the NASCAR legend told the Tampa Bay Times he felt so inexperienced in IndyCar that it would have been hard to call any finish a disappointment. After 10 months of reflection and lackluster results, Johnson began this weekend’s Grand Prix feeling differently.
“I think I was a bit naive when we sat on the bench and talked,” Johnson said Friday. “I thought I would be farther up in the grid, but as it turns out, these cars are so much more different than what I grew up driving.”
