Folks, the 2025 season can be one for the smaller teams in the Cup Series. 23XI Racing was impressive last season with Tyler Reddick winning the regular season championship and reaching the championship 4. They are bringing the same momentum. Trackhouse Racing is on the rise with Shane van Gisbergen on the team. Folks, even Wood Brothers Racing has managed to find a win this early in the season (Josh Berry won at Vegas). And another team that is showing promise is Jimmie Johnson’s Legacy Motor Club. Their story has been good so far! However, the real challenge is to maintain it.

One thing that seems to be working in LMC’s favor is JJ is completely focused on the ownership role. He’s only running two races this season. The Daytona 500, finished in P3 and he’ll run the Coca-Cola 600 next. That’s it. The problem last year was that he was still embracing the driver in him. He ran 9 races without a single top-20 finish. And neither of his drivers managed to finish the season in the top 20. So, clearly, the 7-time champ wasn’t able to juggle both. But now things seem to be coming on track.

Can Jimmie Johnson’s team be successful this season?

The year kicked off on a great note for JJ. Not only since he got back some form with his P3, but all the LMC drivers did well at the Daytona 500. John Hunter Nemechek finished in P5 and Erik Jones ended his run in P12! And that too after he almost won the Duel race, eventually ending up in P2. That’s impressive for a team only in its second year with a manufacturer. Johnson decided to shift from Chevy to Toyota and even refused to take any data from JGR to accelerate processes.

His team is gathering their own data on the next-gen car. Which can be a short-term loss, but a long-term gain. And it seems to be working. LMC has made a fast car for 2025. Look at Jones’s qualifying runs so far, P4 in the Daytona 500. And now a P5 in the recent Phoenix race, followed by a back-to-back P5 at the Las Vegas one. But while the car has speed, Jones hasn’t been able to repeat his Daytona 500 performance so far. Out of his last four races, only one finish has been in the top 20 (P18 at Phoenix). However, this doesn’t mean the LMC car doesn’t have the finishing speed.

Look at John Hunter Nemechek’s stats. Out of his last five race races, four have been top 20 finishes, 3 top 15, and 2 top 10s. Maybe the two drivers should exchange notes. If they combine their skill sets, LMC looks to be going on an upward trajectory this season.

Even NASCAR analyst Eric Estepp spoke on this, he said, “John Hunter Nemechek, Legacy Motor Club was a punching bag last season. Look at the standings Nemechek is 15th. That’s pretty good two top 10s. They both came at drafting tracks but still again. I can’t get on the bandwagon and there really isn’t much of a bandwagon to get on at this point. So this is the last guy I’ll kind of sit on the fence for. John EK has run pretty well he has four top 20s in the first five races that’s good. His teammate Eric Jones has qualified really well Jones has back-to-back top five qualifying efforts. If they can somehow take Jones’s qualifying and Nemechek’s race performance and combine that Legacy Motor Club could be a formidable team.“

And undoubtedly the Toyota Camry is strong this year. Christopher Bell winning 3 back-to-back races is proof enough. And if you add Jimmie Johnson‘s newfound love for being an owner. Majority owner to be accurate. Maury Gallagher stepped back and now JJ will run the show. And it feels like LMC is heading in the right direction. Johnson, on this had previously said, “Right or wrong, I feel like I’m starting all over again and have my rookie stripe on. The 1.0 of Jimmie was a driver, and I earned the right to have some swagger and confidence in how I walked through the garage, and I find myself starting all over again. It feels like 2002; I’m the new guy. I have the yellow stripe on my back…I really liked the idea of a longer runway to learn, and so with a shorter runway, there’s stress that comes with that. But I love a good challenge. This is an industry that I know and love. I have great confidence in where our sport is going.”

Also, JJ’s got a good two-man line-up!

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Can Legacy Motor Club win a race this season?

This does seem like a possibility with the way Nemechek has run so far in the season. He’s already got 4 top 20s in just six races, last season it was 7 top 20s in 36 races. So that’s a year-on-year growth. And the way he runs in the Xfinity Series, he’s got serious potential. Won 7 races in 2023, and finished the season in P4. Won two races in 11 starts last season. Clearly, he failed to produce the same results in the Cup last season. But that was probably since for LMC, the Toyota car was fairly new. Now they seem to have gotten a hang of it.

And we think a win for Nemechek might come this season. Next up is Homestead Miami. He’s run well there in Xfinity. But the one to watch out for would be Martinsville. He’s won the track in the Xfinity car, and with his new form, he might be a contender in the Cup Series too. Or in any Superspeedway race, he’ll be a frontrunner. He’s got a 14.5 average finish on drafting tracks in the Cup Series. And if nothing works out, Nashville has always been kind to him. He’s got a 3.5-average finish there in the Xfinity Series. Folks, this could be a season of the underdogs. WBR has started the wave, now let’s see who joins in.

Also, this season, Nemechek is sounding more confident in post-race interviews. After the recent, Las Vegas race, he said, “I feel good about our result (P20) after we started but we still have some work to do on our mile and half program but step in the right direction.” And mentality is about improving this year for LMC drivers. even Jones echoed the same emotion. This is what Jones said after finishing 27th at Vegas, “We’ll continue to work hard and try to get back on the other side of this with a great result.”

What do you think, folks? Will 2025 be their best season to date? Would they manage to get a win? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.