Legacy Motor Club has faced ongoing struggles since its 2023 rebranding, when NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson joined businessman Maurice J. Gallagher as co-owner. Gallagher had acquired Richard Petty Motorsports in 2022 to form Petty GMS Racing, now LMC. But as Johnson has learned, team ownership is a different challenge. Reflecting on this, he once admitted, “I didn’t think it would be this tough.” Now, the seven-time Cup Series champion is visibly impatient as he fights for success.

Since 2022, the team’s three cars have made 216 race starts but have managed only one win, with Erik Jones’ Southern 500 victory. Even Johnson, in his own 10 starts, couldn’t crack the top 10. Determined to turn things around, JJ has implemented several changes, hoping to see his team rebound in the 2025 Cup Series season.

Will Legacy Motor Club bounce back?

The 2024 season hasn’t been ideal for the team, all its drivers are currently outside the top 25. Erik Jones in 29 races has managed a single top 5 and two top 10s. John Hunter Nemechek, in the #42 car, has run 31 races so far, staying out of the top 5 and only getting three top 10 finishes. Even Johnson ran 7 races this season, finishing 28th or higher in all of them. However, the recent internal changes in the team might bring some relief. The biggest one perhaps is getting Brian Campe as technical director.

This is surprising since Campe is leaving a successful Hendrick Motorsports for a struggling LMC. However, the veteran believes that the team has potential. Campe, while making the announcement, said, “I believe in the vision for Legacy M.C. and hope to help build on the talent that is already in place and bring my experience to the organization so we can compete for wins at NASCAR’s highest level.” 

That is exactly why Jimmie Johnson is bringing Campe on, his invaluable contribution to HMS and Team Penske are proof enough of his track record. He was the race engineer for Penske when Joseph Newgarden won the 2017 IndyCar championship. He was also part of the Hendrick team in 2021 when Kyle Larson bagged the Cup Championship.

This is not it! Legacy Motor Club has made several other changes, which were also recently discussed by NASCAR analyst Eric Estepp. In his recent video, Estepp said, “This is just the latest in what has been a series of notable personnel moves. Team president Joey Cohen left the team earlier this season. Crew chief Jason Barrett was let go as well in August. They brought in a new competition director (Jacob Canter). At the same time they hired a new general manager, recently they brought in a vice president of business operations. Now they’ve hired a new technical director.” According to Estepp, all these changes show the seriousness of the owners to bring the train back on track.

LMC has also made changes to its crew chiefs. Firstly, Eric Jones’s crew chief since 2022, Dave Elenz, was replaced. This comes as a surprise since Elenz is the only one who got a victory for the team in the past three years, he also has 15 wins in the Xfinity Series between 2015 and 2021. Like many, Estepp believed that the duo would garner more success in the LMC. “Hindsight maybe that was just the result of the next-gen car being so new 19 different winners, parity, but over time maybe the better driver-crew chief pairings have figured this car out faster than Jones and Ellens,” Estepp further said.

Elenz has been replaced by John Hunter Nemechek’s crew chief. But is that a good move?

Will Ben Beshore do a better job with the #43?

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John Hunter Nemechek’s Crew Chief, Ben Beshore, will serve as the Crew Chief of Erik Jones. This comes after what has been a disappointing season for the Nemechek-Beshore duo. Which is supervising since the duo had massive success in the last Xfinity Series season. The duo bagged 7 wins, 17 top-5s, and 24 top-10s, finishing the season in 4th place.

Other than this, Beshore also has some success in the Cup Series. In 2021, he was made the Crew chief of Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing, where in the two years (2021, 2022) the duo managed, 3 wins, 23 top-five, and 39 top-10 finishes in 71 races. Post this, he was paired with Nemechek in the Xfinity Series with JGR. Owing to their Xfinity Series success, many had high hopes. Even Estepp said, “I thought the Ben Beshore, John Hunter Duo would work better as well it just hasn’t I guess that’s just the theme of this year’s Legacy Motor Club across the board Huge disappointment.”

Meanwhile, Nemechek would have Campe as his interim crew chief until a permanent replacement is found. In his NASCAR career, Campe has worn many hats, be it working in the garage for Hendrick Motorsports as a strategist, as a race engineer for Dale Earnhardt Inc., or being the race engineer for IndyCar for Josef Newgarden in Team Penske. Only time will tell if these changes result in being fruitful.

What do you think? Will Legacy Motor Club bounce back? Let us know in the comments below.