Legacy Motor Club is grieving the loss of one of its most influential figures. On October 20th, co-owner Jimmie Johnson’s agent and attorney for over thirty years, Alan Miller, passed away suddenly, aged 87. Miller had been integral in shaping the 7x Cup champ’s career, ever since he was a teenager racing Stadium Trucks in his native California. Miller’s presence also ensured JJ & Maury Gallagher’s successful partnership. His legal offices oversaw their successful takeover of Petty GMS and its subsequent rebranding to Legacy Motor Club.

Miller left the world, days before the sport got ready to witness what could become its biggest battle in the courtroom yet. In less than a week, NASCAR will go against the coalition of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, thanks to an anti-trust lawsuit filed by the latter. Regardless, as these events unfold, LMC remains committed to honoring Miller’s lasting legacy and impact on the sport.

Legal battles loom as NASCAR mourns a pioneering attorney

In a high-stakes game like NASCAR, things can go wrong in a second—be it on the track or off it. Take regular season champ, Tyler Reddick’s car going airborne two weeks ago in Vegas, for example. Not a single person could’ve foreseen his terrifying fate in Sin City. So, when Reddick made a thrilling comeback the following week in Homestead, the impact of his win was worth tenfold, all thanks to the element of surprise.

However, what did not come as a surprise was their Lawsuit against NASCAR, which finds its roots in the new 7-year charter agreement, and the sanctioning body’s ‘monopolistic’ tendencies toward the sport. For almost two years, there’s been a lot of back-and-forth between NASCAR’s top officials and those who don’t see eye-to-eye with their contentious revenue-sharing system. And although most have expressed discomfort from the sidelines, 23XI Racing took it to another level and drew a line against NASCAR.

When the new charter contract landed in race teams’ inboxes earlier in September with a demand for signatures by midnight, most complied—even 23XI Racing’s fellow Toyota affiliate Legacy Motor Club. But Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin did not wish to relent. They considered their options for an entire month, and without hesitation, they took legal action. On November 4th, the plaintiffs, represented by renowned anti-trust lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, will go head-to-head against the defendants, who’ve hired an equally formidable legal counsel in Chris Yates. Both lawyers have won cases for some big clients in the spectator sports industry. But they’re pacing the legal lines in the wake of a tragic loss—the passing of one of auto racing’s most prominent attorneys, Alan Miller.

For years, Miller had been “an advisor, friend, and mentor” to Jimmie Johnson. In all 87 years, Miller’s life would take him on a journey for the ages. His client list speaks volumes about his incredible character: Erik Jones, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, David Gilliland, Erin Crocker, Bill Lester, Robert Yates Racing, and Michael Waltrip Racing are only a few names and organizations who’ve depended on his invaluable legal advice. So, in a fitting tribute, the Legacy Motor Club cars will feature a “memorial decal” for Miller, in the remaining two races of the season. Recently, FOX journalist Bob Pockrass posted an update of the graphic from his X account.

This will make Miller happy from wherever he’s looking down upon us all. He was an avid race fan from his younger days. Later in life, he became a board member of the Jimmie Johnson Foundation, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. But before he did any of that, Miller made waves as an amateur racer and won the 1992 Central Division SCCA CSR Championship and the Robert D. Collins Memorial Trophy. He also had a major hand in negotiations for Nextel’s sponsorship of the NASCAR Cup Series in the mid-2000s.

As you can tell, Miller wasn’t just a versatile lawyer, he was a very wholesome human being. He didn’t just talk the talk; Miller walked the walk. His multi-faceted life is a testament to his remarkable personality, but his achievements and actions go far beyond that.

The lost legal counsel behind NASCAR’s 7x champion Jimmie Johnson

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Miller’s journey to becoming a lawyer was anything but normal. While playing full-back for the AFL’s Boston Patriots and the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, he also earned his Law Degree. The Mt. Kisco, New York native, was a gifted athlete from an early age, and his nomination into the Boston College Athletics Hall of Fame is proof of that notion. In 1959, Miller earned the prestigious Omelia Trophy and represented the North Squad in the 1960 Senior Bowl All-Star Game played in Mobile, Alabama. That same year, he graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, specializing in finance.

Although he had a chance to play pro football in Canada, he chose a different path and enrolled in law school at Boston University in 1959. But when the American Football League (now part of the AFC) launched in 1960, Miller couldn’t resist the pull of the game and tried out for the New England Patriots. And he didn’t disappoint—over the season, he gained 416 yards with an impressive average of 4.1 yards per carry, catching 29 passes as well. But the next year, The Patriots traded him to the Oakland Raiders for quarterback Babe Parelli.

He played with the Raiders from 1961 to 1963, took a break in 1964 to complete law school, and returned in 1965 to finish his football career. During his time in Oakland, he became a mainstay in the lineup and made the AFL All-Star game in 1961, even earning second-team All-AFL honors from the New York Daily that year. Known for his grit, Raiders’ legend Al Davis once called him “pound for pound, the toughest player in the league.”

Despite the wear and tear, he never missed a game across five seasons, averaging 3.6 yards per carry and 10.5 yards per reception. He pulled the curtains on his pro football career after the 1965 season and moved seamlessly into law, graduating second in his class at Boston University. Miller then joined a law firm in Milwaukee, and the rest, as they say, is history. Once he retired, former US Congressman and Buffalo Bills QB Jack Kemp made him the general counsel of the American Football League Players Association. In 1970, he played a crucial role in consolidating the AFLPA into the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA).

In the years to come, Miller represented many clients from the sports industry, from different sports, and even more varied disciplines. For that fact, Jeff Burton’s brother, Ward, was his first NASCAR client. At some point, Miller found another client in Herb Fishel, who used to lead General Motors’ racing program. And that is how the hotshot lawyer met Jimmie Johnson.

Fishel had just signed the future 7x Cup champion to a GM contract and had asked Miller personally to “guide” Johnson for the future. And if not for him, we probably would’ve never witnessed JJ’s greatness. As Miller told his “good friend,” Tim Tuttle back in 2009, “Jimmie was living in Milwaukee. He wanted to get to pavement racing. He’d met the Herzog Brothers in off-road and they wanted to get to pavement racing. I went to Milwaukee, negotiated, and bought an ASA [stock car] team for them.”

The ASA was Johnson’s official entry into pavement oval racing. And in only a few years, the Herzog brothers would hand the El Cajon, California native his full-time debut in the 2000 NASCAR Nationwide Series. A couple of seasons later, Jeff Gordon convinced Rick Hendrick to sign the young phenom for the #48 car at Hendrick Motorsports. And through it all, Alan Miller was a constant presence by the side of Jimmie Johnson. As he said in an official statement, “[Alan Miller] truly looked after me as if I was one of his own.”

So, as Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek carry his memory on their respective cars this coming Sunday in Martinsville, our hearts will be heavy in remembrance of the man who was. Like his long-time friend, Jimmie Johnson, EssentiallySports is also “praying for his wife, Susie, son Shane, daughters Tracey and Michelle, his family, friends and all those who Alan touched throughout his time.”

A memorial visitation to honor Alan Miller’s life and legacy will happen at the Pine Lake Country Club in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, beginning at noon.