Johnson started 18th on the 27-car grid for Sunday’s race at the Texas Motor Speedway, a venue where he scored seven wins during his NASCAR career.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver made good progress on track, making outside passes and rose through the field to run a legitimate fifth, before fuel worries due to faulty telemetry persuaded he and race engineer Eric Cowdin to ease the #48 car’s pace in the final couple of laps.
However, Johnson ceded only one place, to teammate Scott Dixon.
Asked if it was now valid to consider him a potential Indy 500 winner, Johnson replied: “I feel like that’s an aggressive statement, for sure. But why not? Why can’t we?
“The 500 is a special race. We’ve seen favourites win. We’ve seen the race won by strategy, first-time winners, a variety of different things that have taken place.
“Helio [Castroneves] is like ages older than me, [four months] and he won last year! Really, anything’s possible.
“If I had a poor running today or didn’t feel…
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