Johnson wowed by performance of F1 cars.

Formula One cars not only accelerate incredibly quickly, they also stop incredibly quickly. That is one thing that amazed NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series star Jimmie Johnson on visit in May to the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.

Johnson and his Hendrick Racing teammate, four-time NASCAR champion and three-time Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon, attended the race as guests of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team and 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who drives for Williams. Johnson and Gordon went down to watch the F1 cars in Turn 1 and were astounded at how late the drivers finally came off the throttle pedal and stood on the brakes.

"I thought that the throttles were stuck wide open because we would have lifted a lot sooner," said Johnson, who, like Gordon, was attending his first-ever Grand Prix. "They are truly amazing vehicles to watch. I'm not used to seeing that. I thought that they were going to fly off the road."

The shriek of the V10 engines revving to 19,000 rpm and the speed of the cars as they flicked through the bends also impressed Johnson.

"They are ear shattering, very loud," Johnson said. "The sound and speed of these cars is amazing."

While there are vast differences between the F1 cars that compete in races such as the United States Grand Prix on June 20 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series cars that compete in races such as the Brickyard 400 on Aug. 8 at the Speedway, there are similarities, as well.

"In some ways, there are great differences," Johnson observed of the two different disciplines of motor racing, "but in some ways F1 is real similar to NASCAR with just a different face on it.

"It's still racing. There are still routines that the drivers have to go through, and there is a set of rules they and the teams have to work under. But F1 is a totally different environment. It has been a great experience to come over and see it."

The biggest difference Johnson observed between F1 and NASCAR was in the strategy. F1 rules call for the cars to be impounded for much of the time between qualifying on Saturday afternoon and the race on Sunday, and very little work is allowed to be done on the cars during this time. In F1, getting the car's setup for the race figured out before qualifying and then qualifying well is crucial. In NASCAR, fine-tuning the car's setup is an ongoing process from practice to qualifying to post-qualifying practice and into the race.

"We are able to work on our cars after qualifying," said Johnson, who drives the Lowe's Chevrolet, "so you don't have to plan your race setup before qualifying. As for the competition, when we go into the race, we have cautions and a lot of pit stops, and just a different overall strategy.

"It seems that in F1 the qualifying position is so much more important than it is in our racing. The start (in F1) seems like the easiest place to make up positions, and if you have a bad qualifying you are behind from the get-go, unlike our racing."

On the other hand, Johnson observed, racing is racing, be it NASCAR or F1.

"The bottom line is that there is competition, and you are still trying to be the best," he said. "They (F1) have a lot more resources that their rules allow them to use, but the bottom line is that they are still trying to outdo the next guy, and that's the same regardless.

"What was amazing for me to see was the sponsor interaction. They (F1 drivers) still have sponsors and team owners to worry about, and they have responsibilities there like we do, so that was another similarity that I did not expect to see."

NASCAR is indeed a very different discipline from F1. So why should NASCAR fans go to a F1 race?

"If you are a car enthusiast and you want to see performance," Johnson said, "you had better come to a F1 race. If you respect cars and you want to see something go fast, you had better come to one of these races."