“It Was Tough for Jimmie [Johnson]”- Legacy MC CEO Accuses Chevrolet of “Tier Three” Treatment, Reveals Harsh Reality Behind Toyota Alliance

Throughout his NASCAR career, Jimmie Johnson has developed a close bond with General Motors. Having won all seven of his NASCAR Cup Series championships while pushing a Chevrolet engine under the hood, the two created a formidable relationship, feared by the rivals on the track, but that won’t be the case anymore.

Despite Johnson’s realization of having a tier-one team in NASCAR to get better support from Chevrolet, he probably didn’t get what he foresaw, following which the CEO of the Legacy Motor Club slammed Chevrolet for their brutal behind-the-scenes reality as he reasoned his new alliance with Toyota.

Jimmie Johnson unravels the unfair treatment given by his decades-old partner

Being a tier-one team on the grid is what every team yearns for, as with that sought-after and highly-coveted status comes a better flow of communication and prioritizing of efforts from the engine manufacturers. But that’s not what happened with Johnson’s co-owned LMC.

Jimmie Johnson’s 7x Cup Series championship titles and the multiple NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series titles of Maury Gallagher left no void to make LMC a tier-one team. If that seems insufficient, don’t forget that Richard Petty, who also has 7 NASCAR Cup Series championships under his belt, is a brand ambassador for the team. However, getting the required support from Chevrolet wasn’t that plain and simple. According to Autoweek, the CEO of LMC, Cal Wells, broke the ice as he came forward during the EPARTRADE’s Race Industry Week, publicly slamming Chevrolet for giving “tier three” treatment. 

Wells said, “When you when you look at that ecosystem, it was tough for Jimmie—even though he had won seven championships for General Motors. This will always surprise me there wasn’t a focus on (LMC). And Maury winning multiple trucks championships for Chevrolet, you would just think that General Motors would say, ‘Jimmie, Maury, look at what we can do. Let’s move them up to be more independent and call them a true tier one.'”

Cal Wells then unfurled that having tier-one teams like Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, where Chevrolet made huge investments, portray their inclination toward them over Legacy Motor Club and said, “Unfortunately (GM) just didn’t feel that way. And they left (LMC) at what I would consider a tier three, where the information was very limited and intentional…they had tier one teams that they had made huge investments in and they were wanting to appropriately support their other true key partner teams”

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He further added, “It becomes a real challenge for folks like Chevrolet that are already oversubscribed. In other words, they have a plethora of tier-one teams. So just from their seat on the bus, it really didn’t make any sense.” Despite Johnson’s efforts for the betterment of the relationship, Legacy Motor Club and Chevrolet didn’t part ways on good terms. But the question that arises is why Toyota and not the American-made Ford?

Wells’ decades-long alliance behind his latest deal with Toyota 

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It was in 1979 that Cal Wells kicked off his professional motorsports career by founding Precision Preparation, Inc. Three years later, in 1982, Wells joined hands with Toyota, and together, the duo dominated the off-road circuits for a whopping 25 years.

In his 40-plus years with Toyota, Wells never found a reason to bash them, just like he did with Chevrolet. On the contrary, the LMC CEO was all praise for Toyota as their 2024 partner and said, “Toyota, on the other hand, it did make sense. And so through a series of meetings—at that time I had my TRD hat firmly on…and it ended up the view was it would be the perfect marriage. You’ve got individuals that are really, really good in their own swim lane, and now you could build a crossover. That’s how it came about.”

Coming from a person who’s spent over 40 years of his life growing the sport, the shift from Chevrolet to Toyota sparked concerns among other teams and drivers under the General Motors stable.

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Cal Wells’ revelation and Chevrolet’s reluctance to provide major updates to the 2024 Camaro are not hinting toward a bright future for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series manufacturer champion. What are your views on Chevrolet’s declining state in NASCAR?