Johnson had off-season hernia surgery

Six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson had hernia surgery three days after the 2013 awards banquet in December. The surgery, which Johnson revealed prior to Sunday's race at Dover, kept him out of the car for a test at Charlotte Motor Speedway the week following the banquet but he was back training 10 days after the Dec. 9 surgery.

"I had bilateral hernias, one on each side, and then a third one in my belly button, so I was very lucky to go in and have all three fixed," Johnson said Sunday after his win at Dover International Speedway. "It wasn't a sports hernia. It was something over time and getting older that something like 60 percent of men near the age of 40 have these and don't know. But I saw one midseason, a little protrusion in my skin and went and had it checked out, and they're like, 'You've got a couple years to get it fixed,' so I figured I'd get it fixed sooner rather than later and went in right after the banquet."

Johnson, who mentioned the surgery in a prerace interview on Fox Sports, said he wasn't trying to keep the surgery a secret and that many in the garage area knew about it. He said it was a laparoscopic procedure, which utilizes small incisions and small instruments with cameras that allow for a less invasive surgery. Sporting News