For the second time since last month, bad luck had ended Jimmie Johnson’s race on the IndyCar Series.
On Lap 84 of 110 of today’s Portland Grand Prix, Johnson’s No. 48 car received contact from Rinus VeeKay, which sent his car into a wall. Video replay shows VeeKay pretty inexplicably turning right into Johnson to make the contact.
A caution for the entire race course had to be brought on as a result of the crash. Whether or not VeeKay receives any sort of punishment for his actions remains to be seen.
It’s the fourth time this season that Johnson will be unable to finish a race. Four weeks ago he finished 18th at the Music City Grand Prix after hitting a wall. Though that hit was a little less egregious than this one.
Racing fans are gutted for Johnson and fuming at VeeKay over this:
The learning curve in the IndyCar Series has proven a little bit steeper for Jimmie Johnson than NASCAR was. While he has made major improvements over last season, he isn’t exactly dominating like he did even in his final NASCAR season.
Johnson has two top 10 finishes – sixth at the XPEL 375 and a career-best fifth at the Hy-VeeDeals.com 250. He’s on pace to finish with double the number of points that he had last season.
There’s one more race in the IndyCar Series this season: the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey in California next week.
Will Jimmie Johnson finish the season strong?