Jimmie Johnson, who matched a record with seven US stock car racing season titles, announced Wednesday he will race in IndyCar in 2021 and 2022 for Chip Ganassi Racing.

The 44-year-old American is in his final season in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), where he matched Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most career Cup series crowns.

Johnson won five in a row from 2006-2010 and added the 2013 and 2016 titles but had said this would be his final season.

Ganassi, who runs NASCAR and IndyCar teams, owns the carsof IndyCar season points leader Scott Dixon. The 40-year-old from New Zealand is chasing his sixth series crown.

Johnson, who has 83 NASCAR race wins over 20 seasons, tested at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with Ganassi in late July, his first time behind the wheel of an IndyCar.

“When I tested Chip’s Indycar, it only lit the fire more. I found that I wanted to do it more than ever before,” Johnson said.

“Scott was just incredible to work with and in a short time I found out very quickly why Chip and his teams have won 12 IndyCar championships.”

“The goal is to run the full road and street program and today is a very important first step in accomplishing that goal.”

Ganassi looks forward to uniting the best of both worlds when it comes to US-based racing and seeing what develops.

“To pair Jimmie with the likes of Scott Dixon is quite an opportunity,” Ganassi said. “They are truly in rarefied air and I think everyone knows by now that I like winners.”

Ganassi is likely to have plenty of sponsor interest to back the NASCAR star’s switch to the open-wheel format.

“The goal right now is for us to run Jimmie in an Indy car for at least the next couple of seasons, and we want to show people we’re serious about the program,” Ganassi said.

“We felt it was important to get the partnership done and start putting the financial building blocks in place to make this a reality.”