Jimmie Johnson could be late for 24 Hours of Le Mans event if Coca-Cola 600 gets postponed

Jimmie Johnson could be late for his 24 Hours of Le Mans training Wednesday in France if Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., gets postponed.

Johnson, who has returned to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year as a part-time racer this season, will be racing in his first-ever 24 Hours of Le Mans this season. As a rookie competitor, Johnson is scheduled to attend training for first-time racers on Wednesday.

He has been in communication with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the organizer of the race about the potential scheduling issue.

“The reason I need to arrive early is to run in their simulator and learn their procedures and protocols,” Johnson said to Fox Sports. “It’s much different than anything else I’ve done before. We’ve notified the ACO, and they’re aware of the potential rain delay and the fact that I might arrive to Paris later than my scheduled session on Wednesday morning. It appears that they’re willing to work with us and try to figure out how to give me some some time on Thursday or Friday or even Wednesday evening.

But a delay to the Coca-Cola 600, which will be the third NASCAR race he runs this year, could delay his plans to get out of the country.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans starts June 10 at 4 p.m. in France. The defending champions are the trio of Switzerland’s Sébastien Buemi, New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley and Japan’s Ryō Hirakawa. They are racing together again this year.

This year’s event is the 91st edition of the famous race and the 100th anniversary of the race’s first ever running in 1923.

Johnson will be racing with German racer Mike Rockenfeller and British racer Jenson Button. Rockenfeller helped win Le Mans in 2010 while Button also has experience in the race.

The trio will be running out of Garage 56 in the race, which is the designation for cars that are not expected to compete to win but instead run to test new technology.

The car they are running in is the result of a collaboration between Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR, International Motor Sports Association and Goodyear.

“There’s this great excitement in the back of my mind, and I know that I’m going to jump on a plane Monday or Tuesday and fly across the pond and get into it,” Johnson said. “It’s just really exciting. But so many unknowns. It’s hard to hard to really quantify what I’m going to go and work on.”