Johnson races students, golfs at Disney

Filed in: ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, Sports Celebrity Visits

Five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson visited Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. on June 13, 2012.

Johnson joined approximately 40 Daytona Beach-area elementary school children at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The children participated in athletic drills with select Olympic athletes and NFL players before moving inside to build their Lowe’s Build and Grow race cars.

Johnson participated in a question-and-answer session with the children and then joined them at a 31-degree race track to race the wooden cars.

The driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports then previewed the upcoming 160-lap, 400-mile race with media at Disney’s Palm golf course where his tee shot on the No. 1 hole went straight down the fairway.

“There’s nothing like it,” Johnson said about racing on the 31-degree high banks. “Even if I come run the Rolex 24, the 500, the 400 … whatever it may be, it’s Daytona. It’s such a special race track with so much history. Still today after all the years of racing there, I still drive through the tunnel, kind like a kid, look around and realize that I’m at Daytona.”