“I really think we can get our cars back in victory lane,” Jimmie Johnson said at the beginning of 2024. The 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion became a team owner in late 2022, buying out the stakes of Petty Enterprises with Maury Gallagher. The task in front of them was legendary – upholding the legacy of another 7-time Cup champion and NASCAR legend Richard Petty. However, the results have been bleak.

Legacy Motor Club saw promising talent in John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones in 2023. However, 2024 has been a steep slide in race results. Nemechek finished a dismal 34th in championship standings after fetching just 4 top-tens. Then Jones finished 28th, holding only 1 top-five and 2 top-tens. Clearly, Johnson’s objective is going awry and fans could not agree less.

Richard Petty’s legacy has screeched to a halt

We all know about the phenomenal contribution made by the Petty family. Lee Petty, the family patriarch, kicked off the legacy with 54 Cup race wins including the inaugural 1959 Daytona 500 win. Then Richard Petty brought the pinnacle of glory to the family – he fetched 200 Cup race victories over a 34-year career. His time in NASCAR had several highlights – like when President Ronald Reagan came to watch the Daytona 500 in 1981. Petty won that race, and subsequently feasted on fried chicken with the President and his fellow race car drivers. However, those golden days are a far cry from what Petty Enterprises represents today.

Soon after Jimmie Johnson bought out Richard Petty’s team in 2023, he completely rebranded it. Legacy Motor Club came into being, roping in a new manufacturer as well – Toyota instead of Chevrolet. However, things have spiraled over the past two years. During the 2024 Brickyard 400, the three LMC cars registered 28th, 29th, and 33rd finishes, and two of them crashed. Jimmie Johnson, in his nine select Cup Series starts this year, could not finish better than 26th – this stands as a bitter comparison to the 83 race victories that he fetched during his time. So when a Reddit post recently talked about the ‘Dumbest team names ever’, it included a few – Vision Aviation Racing, Swan Racing, etc. But clearly, it missed out on Legacy Motor Club, as fans agree.

This year, Jimmie Johnson made a heartbreaking admission as he confessed that continuing Richard Petty‘s legacy has been challenging: “I didn’t think it would be this tough…It’s a tough sport, and we have a great vision and have made a massive commitment to that long-term vision, so we’re on the journey. But I thought last year, we were kinda at the bottom — and then we went down a little lower and found a lower bottom. I do think we’re climbing our way out now, but there’s just so much that goes into it, and we’re getting the pieces in place and moving it along.”

And fans could not agree less, as they rallied to criticize Johnson’s venture.

NASCAR community finds a lack of ‘legacy’

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Granted, Legacy Motor Club does not sound as dumb as ‘Swan Racing’ or ‘Tyler Jet.’ However, fans pointed out that it does not do justice to its name. If you compare Richard Petty’s sterling 196 race wins and 7 championships under Petty Enterprises and today’s race performance of LMC, the result is a huge disparity. So one fan unequivocally added another name to the ‘Dumbest’ teams’ names list. “Legacy Motor Club,” they wrote. For 2024, Johnson had roped in 2003 Cup champion Matt Kenseth to mentor his two drivers. However, no success followed – so another fan chimed in: “Legacy, I get what they were doing, but there’s barely anything legacy about that team other than Kenseth, Johnson, and Petty (idk if he still runs that team).”

Despite Richard Petty being the paragon of excellence in the older team, he lost his significance. The legendary racer’s capacity in LMC was reduced, being just an ambassador in what remained of his family legacy. So fans were not so glad about this development either. “Petty is just an ambassador for that team. No ownership stake,” somebody wrote. Another fan implied that Petty’s absence may have been detrimental to the team’s performance. “Petty hasn’t run the team in like 20 years,” they wrote.

Some other people compared 23XI Racing with Legacy Motor Club. The former is the brainchild of Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin and had its fair share of unorthodox mixtures. However, they pulled it off – Tyler Reddick won the 2024 regular season title and even cracked the Championship 4 race. So one fan wrote: “Legacy Motor Club by far. I didn’t care for 23XI when it was announced (it kinda seemed like a name I would come up with when I was a kid), but I’ve gotten used to it and don’t think it’s quite as bad now.”

Evidently, Jimmie Johnson’s name has not lived up to Richard Petty’s legacy yet. As 2025 rolls into view, let us see if the team performs better or not.