Jimmie Johnson has endured his fair share of crashes on the track during his more than four-decade-long racing career, including some truly frightening wrecks in the NASCAR Cup Series, en route to seven titles.

However, as far as the 49-year-old 83-time race winner is concerned, his worst wreck to date actually had nothing to do with NASCAR, from which he has yet to fully retire, and instead came about on a golf course. This revelation came during a season that has seen him show he’s still got what it takes at the top level at Daytona.

Back in December 2006, shortly after having won his first Cup Series title and while at a charity golf event, Johnson was “horsing around” on top of a golf cart before falling off, as per Fox News. The crash left him with a broken left wrist, but as Johnson recently explained on the ‘Never Settle Podcast’, there was far more to it.

“How it wasn’t a compound fracture on my wrist is beyond me. I thought I knocked my teeth out,” he explained to Marty Smith. “I did not really brace myself. I got my hand down and my wrist snapped, but I hit my face on the edge of the golf cart path and the grass. 

“What I did feel was massive pain to my face. And when I stood up and tried to feel if I still had teeth in my mouth, my hand was drooping, and I couldn’t put my fingers to my mouth. 

“And I looked, and I could see the bones pushing up through my skin on my left wrist. And then, the series of mistakes I made after that, continued to make the pain worse and worse for months and months. But yeah, if you’re gonna be dumb, you’ve gotta be tough.”

Johnson added that his wife, Chandra, “Wanted to really punch me in the face” after the crash, noting how “She didn’t find out the truth until two days later when it popped up on the ESPN ticker.”

As a result of the crash, Johnson also missed out on the Race of Champions Nations Cup in Paris, where he was set to race alongside Travis Pastrana.

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“It’s disappointing that I can’t compete…but I’ll definitely be in Paris to cheer them on and provide any support that I can,” Johnson said at the time.

Despite the nasty wreck, Johnson was able to suit up for the 2007 season opener at Daytona, where he crashed out with just 27 laps to go. That season, he went on to win his second of five consecutive Cup Series titles with Hendrick Motorsports.

Having retired from full-time racing after the 2020 season, he has gone on to make sporadic appearances for Legacy Motor Club, which Johnson co-owns. This included a third-place finish at the Daytona 500 in February, marking the team’s best result to date this season.

Legacy is currently embroiled in lawsuits against Rick Ware Racing and T.J. Puchyr regarding Johnson’s team’s attempt to buy a charter from RWR.