Legacy Motor Club Might Be the McLaren of NASCAR

NASCAR has been around the sporting scene for a very long time. To be precise, fans have been treated to the top level of stock car racing for 75 years. During that tenure, there have been several NASCAR teams across all three divisions. Some teams have not lasted very long, while others have stood the test of time. One of them is Legacy Motor Club, which is competing in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Although Legacy Motor Club is in its infancy, it was born from the ashes of Richard Petty Motorsports. RPM itself was conceived through a merger between Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises. The former was founded by ex-Hendrick Motorsports crew chief, Ray Evernham, in 2000. Meanwhile, NASCAR legend Lee Petty founded Petty Enterprises all the way back in 1949.

How old is the McLaren Formula One team?

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, there is the McLaren Formula One team. One thing that unites both teams is the level of historical success and, for the lack of a better term, a legacy. The team has been in the open-wheel racing giant since 1966 and enjoyed great success. McLaren boasts 12 driver championships and eight constructors championships.

They even boasted of drivers like Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, James Hunt, Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, and more. As a team, McLaren has amassed a mammoth 183 race wins and is just one away from 500 podiums. So it is safe to say that there is a rich history for a team of this caliber.

Does Legacy Motor Club have a ‘legacy’ to speak of?

As Legacy Motor Club, there is no such ‘legacy’ to live up to. However, its predecessor Petty Enterprises scored 10 Cup Series championships, though Gillett Evernham and RPM have not won titles. However, they too have had a number of high-profile drivers race for them. Getting the obvious ones out of the way, there is founder Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Maurice Petty, Kyle Petty, and the late Adam Petty. Interestingly, the late Ralph Earnhardt, father of Dale Earnhardt and grandfather of Dale Jr, raced for the team as well.

Other well-known drivers were Dick Brooks, Jerry Nadeau, Greg Biffle, Bobby and Terry Labonte. Even the likes of Dan Gurney, Kenny Wallace, Bobby Hamilton, and more, raced for Petty Enterprises. As for Gillett Evernham Motorsports, they had drivers like Bill Elliott, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, Dick Trickle and more. The Richard Petty Motorsports avatar of the organization had AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Bubba Wallace, and more recently, Erik Jones.

Finally, Legacy Motor Club has retained Jones’ services for 2023 in the #43 car and also fields a number of drivers in the #42 car.

Legacy Motor Club experienced a massive slump in form

If we’re being honest, no team can win drivers and constructors titles forever. Their rivals have to catch up eventually and give them a good fight for championships. In addition to that, it would be a massive turnoff for the fans, if they knew that the result was a foregone conclusion. So naturally, there were certain periods when Legacy Motor Club and its previous incarnations had setbacks. The same applies for the McLaren Formula One team as well, over the course of F1 history.

For Petty Enterprises, the #42 car never reached Victory Lane even once, over the span of four years. For the 1983 and ’84 seasons, they fielded a #7 car, but even that failed to snatch victories in either campaign. Even the iconic #43 of Richard Petty experienced a dry spell, one that ran from 1986 until his final season in 1992. Petty Enterprises also had a #44 car and a #45 car, neither of which reached the top spot. Even Richard Petty Motorsports only had five wins to their name, majorly thanks to Marcos Ambrose and Kasey Kahne.

The Gillett Evernham Motorsports incarnation, only has 15 Cup Series wins to its name. Most of them came from Kasey Kahne, with Bill Elliott grabbing the second most wins. Jeremy Mayfield contributed a couple of wins as well, but it is very hard to dominate in NASCAR. Finally, Legacy Motor Club struggled in its debut season, though Erik Jones sneaked in a single race win.

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Has McLaren ever faced a dip in form?

Just look at names like Prost, Senna, Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Alonso, and Button. All of them were huge Formula One starts and world champions, so on paper, McLaren looked incredibly strong. However, the team’s last driver’s title came in 2008, at the hands of Hamilton, in just his second season. Arguably, he could have won the previous year and become the first rookie champion if only his rivalry with Alonso had not gotten in the way.

Hamilton stuck with McLaren, all the way until 2012, before moving to Mercedes for the following season. In 2015, a new era began for McLaren. This was none other than the McLaren-Honda nightmare era, and it was a painful one. After parting ways with Mercedes, they reunited with Honda, and fans dreamed about the famous Prost-Senna-McLaren-Honda days. Those dreams turned sour very quickly, as the team crashed to a humiliating 9th-place constructor’s finish.

The seeds were already sown in 2013, as McLaren went podium-less for the first time since 1980. To make matters worse, the cars were horribly unreliable and slow. However, it still entertained fans who heard Fernando Alonso yelling on the radio several times, with plenty of YouTube compilations. This poor form has continued for a long time, but the good news is that they are slowly starting to rebuild from the ground up.

There is light at the end of the tunnel for both teams

In 2018, the team finished 6th in the championship, improving to 4th in the following year. That 2019 season also included a podium for Carlos Sainz Jr at the Brazilian Grand Prix. In 2020, that podium tally became two more, and the confidence was coming back. For the 2021 season, it happened. Daniel Ricciardo led an unexpected, but welcome 1-2 finish ahead of teammate Lando Norris. 2022 was tougher, with only one podium, but 2023 is a completely different story. The Woking-based outfit is actively challenging for podiums, as catching Max Verstappen is impossible. Last time out at Suzuka, Norris led Oscar Piastri to a 2-3 podium finish.

But what about Legacy Motor Club? Admittedly, the Jimmie Johnson and Richard Petty-owned team had a shaky 2022 campaign. This season though, Erik Jones is really leading from the front, and is often among the race leaders. Though he has yet to reach Victory Lane this season, one cannot help but think that that win is just around the corner.

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