Jimmie Johnson took home his second career Daytona 500 on Sunday, but his championship car was a casualty of his celebration as it got damaged during his slide across the main infield grass.
According to USA Today, Johnson took his car sliding across the main DAYTONA logo over the infield grass and ended up digging into the turf, taking out part of the right front of his championship car.
"The damage was pretty bad, I'm not gonna lie," he said Monday. "...I knew instantly when it grabbed the dirt I had a big problem."
Johnson was speaking at a breakfast after the race and said the burnout "didn't go as planned", but that the car would remain at the Daytona 500 tour office for a year. Johnson said he was afraid the damage was similar to what happened to Carl Edwards in 2011 when he damaged the front of his car while also celebrating on the grass.
"I'm looking at my gauges, and I still had water pressure and water temp," Johnson said. "So I knew the radiator was still in it."
Johnson already knows the conspiracy theorists who would say that he damaged the car on purpose so avoid some scrutiny, but Johnson downplayed the issue.
"I just saw (NASCAR president Mike) Helton," Johnson said. "He wasn't overly upset with me, so that was good."
He added: "Luckily, they don't measure heights on the front of the car anymore."
Johnson won an exciting race that saw a few crashes as well as an excellent performance from Danica Patrick, who finished eighth. Patrick won the pole and started off in the number one spot and she made history as the first woman to lead Daytona. She had a chance in third place on the final lap, but eventually dropped back to eighth place where she finished.
