Legacy Motor Club, under the leadership of Jimmie Johnson and Maury Gallagher, isn’t afraid to make big decisions that impact their racing program. It all started last year when they announced that they would be switching their OEM partners and joining the Toyota camp. They became the third team, after Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI, to join the Japanese automaker.

Despite being a fairly new team and switching OEM partners, Jimmie Johnson and Co. decided to develop their own racing platform. Thus deciding not to form a technical alliance with JGR, which is the Toyota powerhouse team in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was indeed a bold call on their part, which hasn’t fared well in 2024.

Trying to end the season on a good note, the team has once again resorted to making changes to the set-up. A recent announcement made by the team stated that Jacob Canter will replace Joey Cohen as Director of Competition.

Legacy Motor Club is trying to save the sinking ship with more changes

The team had already announced the departure of Joey Cohen from the team last month, with Bob Kennedy taking on the role of General Manager. While a switch from Chevrolet to Toyota was expected to rub shoulders against the big team, nothing of the sort has happened. Now, in a desperate attempt to salvage the situation, the team is banking on new changes to help them turn the corner for good.

Although LMC opted not to burn extra money by joining forces with JGR, they seem to have found an alternative in Canter. “I am incredibly excited to join LEGACY MOTOR CLUB and embark on this new journey. I am thankful to Maury, Jimmie, Richard and Cal for this opportunity … I look forward to collaborating with the talented team at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB to drive our success on and off the track with a championship mindset,” Canter said via the Legacy Motor Club press release.

Canter was once a vital cog in the Joe Gibbs Racing camp during his 16-year tenure. He initially started out as a race engineer before leading the charge for the Research and Development team. His most recent role was with General Motors as an engineering manager of vehicle performance at GM Motorsports. But with this appointment, he will return to his NASCAR racing roots.

The two drivers at LMC would certainly appreciate a performance improvement. For the time being, both Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek are struggling to put out any solid runs.

A look at the tow LMC driver’s season so far in 2024

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Erik Jones, driving the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE, is an experienced campaigner, competing in his ninth full-time season. He comes from a JGR background where he piloted a Toyota car, clinching two Cup wins to his name. So, it was a no-brainer to retain him after leading the charge for the team that decided to switch from Chevy to Toyota.

But even the two-time Darlington winner has been unable to crack the code in the 20 Cup starts he’s made in 2024. He only has a single top-10 finish to his name and is 223 points adrift from the playoffs bubble. By this point in the season last year, Jones already had four top-10 results, so it’s fair to say the transition from Chevy to Toyota hasn’t delivered the goods just yet.

Meanwhile, John Hunter Nemechek has shown a glimpse of his racing talents; he’s more or less followed in the footsteps of his senior at LMC. He has three top 10 finishes so far in 2024, and to counter that, he has seven P30 or worst finishes in the 22 races he’s competed in. Again, JHN is a former JGR prodigy who burst onto the scene with his impressive 2023 Xfinity Series campaign driving a Toyota.

It’s not that LMC does not have a good driver line-up, the root cause of the problem lies in their adaptability to the new OEM partners. Now this begs the question: Did LMC make the right call in ditching the technical alliance with JGR? Going by the results, it looks like they do have the playoffs to script a new narrative and overturn their fortunes with these new changes.