NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson ready to race after cancer scare

The morning after he hoisted another NASCAR trophy in victory lane, Johnson was in New York to have a form of skin cancer cut out of his right shoulder.

Johnson surprised the auto racing community Monday when he tweeted that he was on a table having a procedure to remove a basal-cell carcinoma, a common and slow-growing form of skin cancer.

In his first public comments about the cancer scare, Johnson told The Associated Press on Friday he was diagnosed in January.

Johnson's physician told the seven-time NASCAR champion during an annual checkup he had "a mole that was kind of changing shape."

A biopsy confirmed he had skin cancer, but it had not spread and it was not a more severe cancer such as melanoma.

After the procedure, Johnson waited about an hour for more lab work to make sure no additional cancerous cells were found.

Johnson drove the entire 10-race Chase last year with a tribute helmet to seven-time champs Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, the Hall of Fame drivers he had been chasing since he won his sixth title in 2013.

Johnson saw the mob that gathered Tony Stewart before his final NASCAR race and decided he would try and give the collector a helmet.