INDIANAPOLIS — We all have two bucket lists. There’s the one everyone talks about, that rundown of experiences we hope to complete before kicking the proverbial bucket. Then there’s the second bucket list, the one no one likes to mention. The surrender list. Those life goals that end up crossed off the menu and thrown into a bucket labeled, “Well, damn, I’m never gonna do that.”
Why not? Because we get older. We fall in love. We fall out of love. We procreate. We move. Our hearts and our bodies become more fragile. Our list of people for whom we are responsible expands from just ourselves to rooms full of folks, whether they be corporate boardrooms or family dining rooms. Staying alive and paying bills becomes more important than fulfilling fantasies. Calendar pages turn. Life goes on. Windows of opportunity close.
But sometimes, just as we’ve wadded up one of those would-be milestones and have our arm cocked to toss it into the trash bucket, someone unexpectedly pries that window open and offers to help you climb through.
That’s what’s happened to Jimmie Johnson, who will make his Indianapolis 500 debut Sunday. A 46-year-old rookie. He’s been married 18 years. He has two young daughters. Oh, and he’s also a year and a half into his post-NASCAR life, where he departed at the end of the 2020 season as arguably the greatest of all time and inarguably the greatest of his generation.
His seven championships are matched only by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. His 83 wins are topped by only five others. His five consecutive Cup titles stands alone as the most incredible record of NASCAR’s post-1972 modern era. He won two Daytona 500s, four Coca-Cola 600s, four NASCAR All-Star races and owns four wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, not in the eternally-epic…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at www.espn.com – RPM…