A man walks into an airport, walks up to the giant board titled “Departures,” and with a packed bag at his side, looks upon the dozens of cities listed, knowing that he can board any single one of those airplanes headed to any destination of his choosing, no questions asked. A golden ticket. A passport to the world. A bucket list. A Genie Plus Lightning Lane with no restrictions. Use whatever metaphor you want. What it is, is a feeling of true freedom.
No, this is not about George Clooney in the closing scene of the 2009 Oscar-nominated film “Up in the Air.” It’s about another handsome, graying, legend-in-his-own-time who now finds himself standing in front of a blank itinerary that he can fill with whichever stops and stations that he has ever desired. But that’s not a roller bag in his hand. It’s a helmet.
“What I’m doing now, it’s about the experience,” Jimmie Johnson said Tuesday. “This allows me to open up the runway and gives me more time to experience this.”
On Monday, Johnson revealed that he was stepping away from full-time racing after two seasons — one part-time, one full-time — in the IndyCar Series. But, as the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion preached as he left stock car racing at the end of 2020, he doesn’t want to hear the word retirement. “I tried to retire once, and that didn’t work out,” the 47-year-old joked.
Since his final NASCAR start, a fifth-place finish in the Nov. 8, 2020, season finale, he has made 29 IndyCar starts, including 2022 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors, and ran another half-dozen in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar series, starting with a podium finish in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, his third runner-up effort in the race.
But for every race and series he has run, there are at least a handful of events and race cars that he wasn’t able to enter or drive because of a full-time IndyCar commitment that he repeatedly confessed this season was more than he had anticipated.
“Man, I’ve had racing friends from all over the world calling and saying, ‘You should come try this series I’ve been running in’ and it sounds so awesome,” Johnson explained one year ago, laughing. “But then when we hang up, I’m Googling that series because I’ve never even heard of it, and I’m like, ‘Oh man, that does look awesome!’ The freedom to maybe do that, that’s a gift. We all dream of living a bucket list, but no one ever gets to actually do that.”
Now he does.
He has openly and giddily described his time in the IndyCar paddock as one of the most enjoyable of his life. As frustrating as his learning curve could be, especially on road courses, that has been countered by the good vibes of being a part of what has always been an uncommonly friendly cul-de-sac experience of living in the IndyCar motorcoach lot.
“Jimmie could have walked into this paddock with his résumé pinned to his firesuit and been busy jetting to events and that would have been totally understandable,” six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon said of Johnson, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, in May. “But instead, he arrived as this humble, eager guy who fit right in and wanted to learn. He was one of us very quickly, and that’s a testament to him.”
As is that ringing telephone, with opportunities to compile a to-do list of racing that harks back to the old school career paths of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and the hero of every kid who grew up like Johnson as a desert rat of Southern California and the Baja Peninsula: Parnelli Jones.
He talks of being uncomfortable and qualifying at the back of the grid and not winning races, and somehow makes it sound awesome. Johnson is a man who is playing with house money and knows it. Now he wants to take that blank check and start ticking off races and places.
With his decision to end full-time racing now official, the process of sewing the quilt of his future behind the wheel has started … as soon as he’s done with this weekend’s Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
“My timing is in a good spot, so we’ll see what the coming weeks bring.”
Johnson wants to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans, nearly impossible to do if one is running full time in IndyCar. It just so happens that NASCAR has been working on a “Garage 56” entry — a slot reserved for an innovative car that doesn’t have to abide by the competition’s regulations, but also is not classified in the results — for next year’s race and it’s being built by Hendrick Motorsports, where Johnson spent two decades and won all of those Cup Series titles.
He wants to return to the Indy 500, where he led two laps before crashing out late, but would also like to pair that with the Coca-Cola 600 for the Memorial Day Weekend Double, which has only been attempted by five racers and none since Kurt Busch did it eight years ago. He is still on great terms with Ganassi, who has raced in both series with legendary success and helped Tony Stewart do the Double in 2001. He’s also big pals with Justin Marks, who bought Ganassi’s Cup team, now Trackhouse Racing, and has created Project 91, designed specifically to bring big stars from other disciplines over for one-off runs in a top-shelf NASCAR Cup Series ride.
And he really, really wants more shots at the Rolex 24 and the 12 Hours of Sebring. He has been so close so many times at Daytona and finished seventh in his lone Sebring start in 2021.
Sports cars in Europe, dirt cars around the United States, a return to Baja, nothing is off the table — as long as it’s fun and as long as he’s able to get home to his family as much as possible. His two daughters are both in elementary school, with the oldest looking at middle school sooner than later. He glows as much if not more when talking about wife Chandra’s art gallery expansion as he does when describing racing at Indy. He speaks of living in Colorado and Charlotte and maybe one day the Johnson family spending some time living in Europe. For a kid who grew up in a trailer park in El Cajon, California, saying that kind of stuff aloud still feels like a through-the-looking-glass life.
The only dream better than living one’s career bucket list is being able to do that while also experiencing it with one’s family, not to mention being there as they live their own dreams — say, crushing it at a dance recital.
So, yes, this man, he is standing in front of that “Departures” board, but he is not alone. He has his family with him. He’d like for us to ride along with him, too.
“Carvana came up with this tagline, ‘No Finish Lines,'” Johnson says of the sponsor who has also told him it will have his back (and be embroidered on his chest) for whatever racing he wants to do next, wherever and whenever that might be. “Most people want to believe that’s a reality and would like to challenge themselves and start a second career and pivot in life, but that’s tough to do. I have discovered these last two years how many fans and racers identify with what I have done and want to do that in their lives.”
College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.
Maryland quarterback Malik Washington, who set the team’s freshman passing record this fall, will return to the Terrapins for the 2026 season.
Washington set Maryland freshman records for passing yards (2,963) and completions (273) this season, while connecting on 17 touchdown passes. He reached 200 passing yards in all but one game and finished as just the second Big Ten freshman since 1996 to record at least 2,500 passing yards and at least 300 rushing yards.
“Representing this team, this area, means so much to me and my family,” Washington said in a statement Saturday. “This is home and we’re going to continue keeping the best athletes from this area here with the Terps. I believe in everyone in our facility and I know we’re building something that our fans will be excited about for years to come.”
Washington, the nation’s No. 134 recruit in the 2025 class, grew up in Severn, Maryland, about 30 miles from Maryland’s campus. Despite a 4-8 record that included only one Big Ten win, Maryland announced that coach Mike Locksley, who recruited Washington, would return in 2026. Locksley will enter his eighth season as Maryland’s coach.
“Malik is a Terp through and through and I’m thrilled he’s coming back to lead this football team,” Locksley said in a statement. “He means so much to this area and this area means so much to him. What we saw from Malik this past season is only the tip of the iceberg. He has such a bright future and he’s already started putting the work in towards the 2026 season.”
NEW YORK — Fernando Mendoza, the enthusiastic quarterback of No. 1 Indiana, won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, becoming the first Hoosier to win college football’s most prestigious award since its inception in 1935.
Mendoza guided the Hoosiers to their first No. 1 ranking and the top seed in the 12-team College Football bracket, throwing for 2,980 yards and a national-best 33 touchdown passes while also running for six scores. Indiana, the last unbeaten team in major college football, will play a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
Mendoza, the Hoosiers’ first-year starter after transferring from California, is the triggerman for an offense that surpassed program records for touchdowns and points set during last season’s surprise run to the CFP.
A redshirt junior, the once lightly recruited Miami native is the second Heisman finalist in school history, joining 1989 runner-up Anthony Thompson. Mendoza is the seventh Indiana player to earn a top-10 finish in Heisman balloting and it marks another first in program history — having back-to-back players in the top 10. Hoosiers quarterback Kurtis Rourke was ninth last year.
Quarterbacks have won the Heisman four of the last five years, with two-way player Travis Hunter of Colorado ending the run last season.
The Heisman Trophy presentation came after a number of accolades were already awarded. Mendoza was named The Associated Press player of the year earlier this week and picked up the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards Friday night while Love won the Doak Walker Award.
THE CONFIDENT COMMODORE
Pavia threw for a school-record 3,192 yards and 27 touchdowns for the Commodores, who were pushing for a CFP berth all the way to the bracket announcement. He is the first Heisman finalist in Vanderbilt history.
Generously listed as 6 feet tall, Pavia led Vanderbilt to its first 10-win season along with six wins against Southeastern Conference foes. That includes four wins over ranked programs as Vandy reached No. 9, its highest ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 since 1937.
Pavia went from being unrecruited out of high school to junior college, New Mexico State and finally Vanderbilt in 2024 through the transfer portal.
Brash and confident, the graduate student from Albuquerque, New Mexico, calls himself “a chip on the shoulder guy” and he was feisty off the field, too: He played his fourth Division I season under a preliminary injunction as he challenges NCAA eligibility rules; he contends his junior college years should not count against his eligibility, citing the potential losses in earnings from name, image and likeness deals as an illegal restraint on free trade.
Vandy next plays in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Iowa on Dec. 31.
THE LEADER OF THE BUCKEYES
Sayin led the Buckeyes to a No. 1 ranking for most of the season, throwing for 3,329 yards while tying for second in the country with 31 TD passes ahead of their CFP quarterfinal at the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31.
The sophomore from Carlsbad, California, arrived at Ohio State after initially committing to Alabama and entering the transfer portal following a coaching change. He played four games last season before winning the starting job. He led the Buckeyes to a 14-7 win in the opener against preseason No. 1 Texas and kept the team atop the AP Top 25 for 13 straight weeks, tying its second-longest run.
Sayin was only the second Bowl Subdivision quarterback in the last 40 years to have three games in a season with at least 300 yards passing, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a completion rate of at least 80%. West Virginia’s Geno Smith was the other in 2012.
Sayin follows a strong lineage of Ohio State quarterbacks since coach Ryan Day arrived in 2017. Dwayne Haskins (2018), Justin Fields (2019), C.J. Stroud (2021), and Kyle McCord (2023) averaged 3,927 passing yards, 40 TDs, and six interceptions, along with a 68.9% completion rate during their first seasons.
THE LOVE OF THE IRISH
The last running back to win the Heisman was Alabama’s Derrick Henry in 2015. Love put himself in the mix with an outstanding season for Notre Dame.
The junior from St. Louis was fourth in the Bowl Subdivision in yards rushing (1,372), fifth in per-game average (114.3) and third with 18 rushing touchdowns for the Fighting Irish, who missed out on a CFP bid and opted not to play in a bowl game.
He was the first player in Notre Dame’s storied history to produce multiple TD runs of 90 or more yards, a 98-yarder against Indiana in the first round of last year’s playoffs and a 94-yarder against Boston College earlier this season.
He padded his Heisman resume with a series of highlights displaying an uncanny ability to maintain his balance while hurdling defenders, spinning out of tackles or rolling off opponents. He teamed with Jadarian Price to create one of the season’s top running back duos, a combination that helped first-time starter CJ Carr emerge as one of the nation’s best young quarterbacks.
Source: Michigan begins query into athletic department
The University of Michigan has commissioned an investigation into its athletic department, centering on how numerous scandals have both occurred and been handled in recent years, a source told ESPN.
