The 1981 Daytona 500 remains etched in NASCAR folklore—a race where Richard “The King” Petty snatched victory from Bobby Allison in a controversial finish that still stirs debate among racing purists. “I think he was still mad at me over that, but that’s okay,” Petty’s crew chief, Dale Inman recently quipped about the decades-old rivalry.

Today, at 86, NASCAR’s seven-time champion addresses a different controversy: fan backlash over Legacy Motor Club’s switch to Toyota. LMC was a Chevy team, but to be competitive and contend for trophies, Jimmie Johnson and Co. knew Toyota was going to be a better option. This decision didn’t go down well with the fans. Johnson won his seventh NASCAR championship with Chevy and now he’s switching allegiances to Toyota.

“Everybody has just been so kind on Twitter (X), I’m just going to have a standing ovation out there,” Johnson said ahead of the 2024 Daytona 500. With Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing seen as the big brother Chevy teams, LMC was better off with Toyota, who had only two teams (JGR and 23XI Racing) under their umbrella.

For King Petty, this outrage and reaction didn’t make sense as he had partnered with more than just one OEM throughout his racing career.  The parallels between Petty’s championship years and today’s NASCAR landscape reveal how little has changed in the sport’s competitive underpinnings. While fans often romanticize brand loyalty, team owners—from Petty to Hendrick—have always made decisions based on performance potential rather than sentiment. This tension between fan expectations and racing reality sits at the heart of the Legacy Motor Club controversy.

“We won races with seven different manufacturers,” Petty stated decisively when questioned about loyalty. “So we were fortunate enough to be able to cut an edge that whatever cars seemed to be the best at that particular time of the year or season, then we were fortunate to be able to get in them.” This matter-of-fact assessment cuts through the nostalgia that often clouds NASCAR history, reminding critics that his record-setting 200 wins came through pragmatism, not blind loyalty.

For fans who associated Petty primarily with Plymouth and Dodge, seeing the iconic #43 as a Toyota triggered accusations of betrayal. Yet his response reveals the disconnect between fan perception and racing reality: championship teams have always followed performance, not paint schemes. And for LMC, they couldn’t grow under the shadow of HMS and RCR. Not to forget, the likes of Trackhouse Racing and Spire Motorsports are also proving to be prominent satellite teams for Chevy’s NASCAR program.

Petty’s 200 wins were achieved through strategic camaraderie across various brands, beginning his career with Plymouth and later racing with partners like Dodge, Ford, Buick, Chevrolet, and Pontiac. By comparison, Rick Hendrick—often cited as the model of manufacturer loyalty with Chevrolet. He built his empire on consistent support rather than the manufacturer-hopping that characterized Petty’s era when factory backing was less stable. 14 NASCAR championships and 313 wins in the Cup Series had made HMS the winningest team and it was largely because they stuck by with Chevy.

While Petty and Hendrick took different paths, both share the fundamental philosophy that winning trumps sentiment. This pragmatic approach extends beyond manufacturers to partnerships, driver selections, and technology adoption. And in an era where the margin of victory is determined by split seconds, LMC knew they needed more resources and expertise to match the stride of big dogs at the Cup Series level.

NASCAR’s Long Dance with Manufacturer Loyalty

NASCAR has faced numerous manufacturer loyalty dilemmas just as the Legacy Motor Club did with their Toyota change. Back in 2008, Joe Gibbs Racing created a stir in the NASCAR community by splitting their 16-year collaboration with General Motors to choose Toyota as their new partner. Fans together with industry analysts showed initial disapproval when Toyota decided to enter the American most domestic motorsports competition. Through steadfast dedication to winning race events and driver championships, Gibbs hoped over the naysayers resulting in multiple title wins for Kyle Busch while Toyota established itself as the third premier manufacturer in NASCAR with Ford and Chevrolet.

In 2016 Stewart-Haas Racing moved from Chevrolet to Ford to indicate that established teams still embrace the performance-centric principles established by Petty even during current times. Petty’s remarks about Legacy’s Toyota choice display the practical mindset which formed the fundamentals of NASCAR competition. Since winning on Sundays has always exceeded vehicle badge importance.

Modern teams face similar decisions in a more corporatized environment. As Petty observed decades ago and reaffirmed recently, NASCAR’s success has always been about securing the best equipment for the current conditions, regardless of the logo on the hood. In a sport where technology and support can change competitive dynamics overnight.

“The way we race today is much different than my last year in 2020. The demand that is on the manufacturers today – they really control data, and the progression of the technology is different… The thing that really stands out to me spending time with Toyota like I have is why they have the specific car count and their laser focus on the teams that they have and how they can provide and their philosophy behind that.” Johnson agrees with Petty’s vision.

Unlike 23XI Racing, they haven’t signed a technical alliance with JGR and are looking to develop their own program as a tier-1 Toyota partner. So the on-track progress is expected to be a little slow when compared to the success trajectory of 23XI Racing.