Jimmie Johnson’s Unorthodox and Brave Move to Go Solo With Legacy Motor Club Supported By New Manufacturer

For the 2024 NASCAR Cup season, Legacy Motor Club is allying with Toyota. This comes after the organization endured a tough season last year. However, they believe that their fortunes will turn around with Toyota on their side. John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones are already solid drivers, and there is also Jimmie Johnson, who is competing part-time. Recently, Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson spoke about Legacy Motor Club and touched upon Johnson and an unusual move that he was making.

Wilson also acknowledged that the manufacturer has to temper its expectations. He revealed that Jimmie Johnson and the #84 team would run with no alliances. The TRD president realized that the road ahead would be difficult but insisted that they would support him every step of the way, and he admitted that he would love to see Johnson’s team run more consistently in the Top 20 or lead a few laps.

Why is there massive pressure on Jimmie Johnson, according to Wilson?

As it turns out, Jimmie Johnson is making the brave decision to go solo without any alliance. Wilson said, “Looking at where they are, where they’ve run, This past year, they finished 27th and 32nd in the owner’s points, the #43 and #42 cars. Certainly, our expectations are to do better than that. We take a great amount of responsibility any time an organisation signs on to Toyota. To have someone like Jimmie Johnson, a Hall of Famer and 7-time champion. Someone who’s only run with one OEM their entire career, it’s a massive pressure.”

In 2023, the 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion appeared in a handful of races. However, he withdrew midway through the season, owing to a personal issue, and didn’t race at all for the rest of the season. Now in 2024, Jimmie Johnson is back for a second bite of the cherry, and for the first time in his career, he will drive for Toyota.

When his schedule was announced, it was interesting to note that there were no plans for a road course event. After the Daytona 500, Jimmie Johnson will compete in Indianapolis, Phoenix, Texas, Dover, Kansas, Charlotte, and Las Vegas.

READ MORE: “I Can’t Put Away the Steering Wheel” – Jimmie Johnson Unravels His Racing Plans Alongside His Cup Series Venture

Jimmie Johnson recently inked a new sponsorship deal for the upcoming NASCAR Cup season. For the handful of appearances that he will make, he is partnering with Dollar Tree on a multi-year deal. This is a significant investment because the brand is worth $28.3 billion, so it is a massive financial injection for the team. Other sponsors include Carvana and Advent Health, both of whom will sponsor him for a few races each.

Will the Toyota alliance be the key to Legacy Motor Club’s fortunes?

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Legacy Motor Club has gone through several evolutions through the decades. Right from its early days as Petty Enterprises, to merging with Gillett Evernham Motorsports to become Richard Petty Motorsports, to the current avatar. Petty Enterprises was born in 1949 as Lee Petty Engineering. It soon became Petty Enterprises, and it remained that way for a long time. Without a doubt, it achieved great success during the Richard Petty era, and there were other champions too.

Unfortunately, their fortunes took a turn for the worse after 1979 and have not been the same ever since. Even a merger with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, and later Yates Racing, didn’t yield the desired results. Now, the team has metamorphosed into Legacy Motor Club and brought on Jimmie Johnson as driver and co-owner. However, in all these years, this is the first time that the team has partnered with Toyota.

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LMC split with Chevrolet after 2023 because they felt that they were not very high on the priority scale. Since the Japanese giants only have two teams on the roster, Legacy Motor Club will be the third. With a smaller number of teams squabbling for attention, this could be a chance to take advantage of more resources and a fortune reversal.