NASCAR Insider Reveals Jimmie Johnson’s Driver’s Calculated Risk at Kansas That Almost Took Them to Victory Lane

​​When Jimmie Johnson announced last year that he would be driving down the road of team ownership, all the eyes in NASCAR looked forward to seeing how he would fare in the high-pressure job. Battling many wars in his 2023 season with Legacy Motor Club (LMC), the former champion has faced a tough ordeal in holding up his fort. Thankfully, despite being hit by driver suspension, car issues, and family losses, he was finally able to see a slight light of hope at the Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

LMC’s 27-year-old driver Erik Jones has put up some quality displays of racing over the season. He got P8 at Atlanta, P6 at Talladega, and another P8 at Nashville. But in Kansas, the driver’s crew appeared to have given a dose of the super soldier serum to his Chevrolet. Razing through the 1.5-mile track, a brilliant strategy helped the car go from P19 to P3.

Legacy Motor Club Crew Chief reveals the clever reasoning behind their unusual strategy

The Kansas Speedway has never shown the character of the Talladega or the Darlington. With Kansas being a relatively calmer track, all expectations were that the evening would end without much drama or thrill. But what happened was quite the opposite. Multiple tire failures, a continual battle for positions between the race leaders, and tricky strategizing from crews, all led to one of the most interesting races of the year.

With Chris Buescher’s last-minute tire failure bringing about the race’s final caution, it was Erik Jones and his No. 43 Camaro that managed to get themselves into the spotlight. After a scintillating display of speed, just when it looked like Jimmie’s driver might have to settle for a finish at the end of the top 10, a golden cheque was handed to him. And his crew made sure to encash it.

Going to the pits for the overtime restart, the No. 43 team’s crew chief Dave Elenz made the decision to pit for two tires instead of four. This helped Erik gain multiple positions as he re-entered the track. Discussing the strategy with ex-HMS legend Steve Letarte, LMC’s No. 84 crew chief and radio sportscaster Todd Gordon detailed the reasoning behind the call.

He said, “Every second you’re gonna… It’s three cars that will go by a position. So if you’ve got a four-tire stop let’s call it 10 seconds okay (…) The two tire stops gonna be sub-five seconds. So you’re going to be about five seconds quicker to do two tires here. That’s 15 positions that you’ll get you’ll jump on Pit Road because you see these cars are nose to tail. So if I’m running back 12th, I might get to the front row by taking two.”

The two-tire change for sure did catapult Erik’s car as it capitalized on its already bursting speed and broke into the top 5, finishing the race at P3.

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Where do Jimmie Johnson and Erik Jones take their team from here?

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Erik has been with Legacy Motor Club for a couple of years now. Last year, racing under the Petty GMS Motorsports banner, his stats were comparably better than how they’ve turned up this year. However, the tectonic shifts in team ownership and the problems that the collective group has faced over the current year warrant some sort of turndown from the driver. Going into 2024, things ought to prove better. The driver’s performance on Sunday serves as a testament to that. It is by no luck that he was able to conquer the ‘too tough to tame’ Darlington last year, and it was not luck in Kansas either.

The icing on the cake is that Jimmie will shift his manufacturer from Chevrolet to Toyota next season. Toyota’s have been among the fastest machines this year and it can only be left to one’s imagination what this incredible driver can do from behind one of those cars.

Already having brought home great finishes in the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing years back, there is no doubt to expect any different from him next season. In his own words that came after LMC and the carmaker had penned the deal, “It’s been fun for me [Erik Jones] with the 43 car, and I’ve seen enough change in three years. I think we’re ready to settle in and really start to build the program that we want to see.” 

The coming races will serve as a testing ground for Erik and his mentor to sharpen their swords for the ultimate battle that is coming next year.

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