Jimmie Johnson Traces His Fitness Evolution During the Peak of His NASCAR Career

Most NASCAR drivers today train like endurance athletes in order to withstand the heat in the cockpit and the high G-forces that stock cars produce. One person who created significant awareness about how much of a role physical fitness plays in being a good driver is Jimmie Johnson. The seven-time champion was among the first in the modern era to focus on achieving peak fitness levels.

He spoke on The RACER magazine’s YouTube channel last month and detailed his journey from being a run-of-the-mill gym guy to a high-performance triathlete. His story came after Paul Tracy, the interviewer, asked him how many hours he used to cycle in a week during his best form. Johnson said that he began shaping his body by going to the gym and doing intense weightlifting programs.

The accountability that this developed led him to take his job more seriously as a Cup Series driver. He said, “I just made better decisions during the week. From what I was eating, my rest, I was up earlier, I was more efficient during the day, got deeper into my notes, deeper into engineering and all these different elements.” But being stuck in a box soon got boring for him.

This was when Johnson discovered the joy that triathlons brought. Being someone who grew up racing mountain bikes and swimming in school, he quickly developed an affinity for the sport. He spoke about how he got a few members of his race team and Kasey Kahne to join him in races.

Johnson continued, “We raced a July race in Daytona, and then the next morning did a sprint-distance triathlon in Charleston, South Carolina, and I was just hooked, man. It was like another form of racing.

“I started building some structured training around it and I found again that the accountability, the nutrition, the hydration, the meditative nature of following a line in the bottom of the pool and swimming to being on my rides, to running. I got my day organized and all I would think about was the race car and what I needed to do there.”

He went on to reveal the standards he achieved during his peak form. He admittedly ran 100 miles a week back in 2018 when he was preparing for the Boston Marathon. Several drivers come into the sport today hoping to be the next Jimmie Johnson. But few realize what it takes to reach his level.