After testing positive for COVID-19 last week, Jimmie Johnson said he’s asymptomatic and feels great, and since being reinstated by NASCAR, he’s eager to race Sunday in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.
But the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion has been on an “emotional journey” in the last several days, which he opened up about Friday during a Zoom call with reporters.
Johnson, 44, missed the first race of his 19-season full-time career Sunday after NASCAR announced July 3 that he tested positive for COVID-19. Away from his team and quarantined in Colorado, he watched Justin Allgaier race in his No. 48 Chevrolet at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
And with his wife, Chandra, testing positive too, he previously said he was “heartbroken” for his two young daughters while also concerned about giving them the virus. Although Chandra has experienced what they believe are allergy symptoms, they’ve both been asymptomatic when it comes to the novel coronavirus, Johnson said.
So when the result of his COVID-19 test Monday was negative, the veteran Hendrick Motorsports driver said his initial response was anger out of frustration and confusion, and he has more questions than answers.
Jimmie Johnson says he was initially angry after getting his first negative COVID-19 test Monday, four days after testing positive but has put that anger aside as he returns to racing Sunday at Kentucky: pic.twitter.com/ebV30BurEK
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 10, 2020
“I started cussing and used every cuss word that I knew of and then I think invented a few new ones,” Johnson said Friday.
“Being in a fact-based world and then being so early in a pandemic where we don’t have many answers as a country and for the globe, there’s anger everywhere,” he continued. “Anger related to the pandemic, for me being positive, for me missing a race, for me not being with my team, the fear in my children’s eyes — I just had anger everywhere.”
That led to him speculating about how long he had the virus and running through different scenarios in his head about initially testing positive. But he said as he realized no good could come from speculating, his mood shifted toward optimism about taking a second COVID-19 test Tuesday, the results of which were also negative.
“It brings a lot of questions as to where I was in the journey of being positive and all of that,” Johnson said. “So there’s a lot of speculation there. I don’t know those answers, and believe me, I’m the most frustrated person out there, especially living in the world of facts that I do. To not have the facts drives me bananas. But I have followed protocol, and I have been reinstated so that’s about all I can speak to at this point.”
To be reinstated by NASCAR, Johnson needed to be asymptomatic, have two negative tests at least 24 hours apart and be cleared by his physician. NASCAR announced Wednesday he will be back behind the No. 48 Chevrolet wheel for Sunday’s Kentucky race.
“I feel like I’m more on the optimistic side of things and really out of the dark headspace that I was in and just moving in the right direction,” Johnson said, also noting he’s “a smarter, stronger person today experiencing all this.”
That includes being thankful he’s asymptomatic and only having to miss one race in his final full-time Cup Series season before retiring.
Jimmie Johnson says he is worried about spread of COVID-19, says it is hard to give advice to sports leagues when so much is still to be learned and feels fortunate to have been asymptomatic: pic.twitter.com/plYcf4pGJT
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 10, 2020
Johnson enters the Kentucky race 15th in the driver standings — he dropped from 12th after missing Sunday’s Indy race — and will need to win a race or stay among the top-16 drivers to qualify for the 10-race playoffs this fall and have a shot at a record-breaking eighth championship in his final season.
Following Johnson’s positive test, four Hendrick crew members were also tested for COVID-19, and they all had negative results, the team said. So Johnson and the No. 48 Chevrolet team will have its regular roster competing this weekend.
In addition to following NASCAR’s COVID-19 rules for races — which include temperature checks, required PPE and contact tracing — Hendrick said it’s instituted its own precautions to keep its team as safe as possible. Those measures include daily health screenings, split work schedules and the separation of its traveling employees versus those working in the shop.
“Watching how fast the virus is spreading and things staying open and us pushing forward as a country and as a world, I fear that we’re all going to have this at some point,” Johnson said about his larger takeaway from the last week.
“I just don’t see how we avoid that. I’m worried about that. I know that I’ve been very fortunate to be asymptomatic and have been able to have the range of emotions from anger to concern. Some people only have concern, so I feel like I’ve been fortunate to be in my position, be asymptomatic, and I know many aren’t in that position.”
He also shared some parting advice for everyone, not just other professional athletes trying to compete and stay safe and healthy.
“Take care of yourself, take care of your loved ones, be smart,” Johnson added. “We know the ways to help it not spread and I think we just need to get more serious about that and really protect ourselves and our loved ones.”
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