It’s fair to say that Legacy Motor Club isn’t having the season they wanted. Having switched from Chevrolet to Toyota earlier this year, the team co-owned by Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson had hoped to turn their fortunes around. However, John Hunter Nemechek hasn’t qualified for the playoffs and both the team’s full-time racers currently occupy the tail end of the driver standings. The poor results even led to an organizational shake-up in August, begging the question what went wrong.

As you may be aware, Legacy Motor Club was previously owned by Richard “The King” Petty, the seven-time Cup Series winner, under the name of Petty GMS Motorsports. With another NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson replacing Petty in late 2022, the hope was that it would allow the team to take the next step, but so far it hasn’t been the case. Petty, who expressed his reservations when JJ took over, candidly spoke about Legacy Motor Club’s underperformance this year.

Richard Petty puzzled by Legacy Motor Club’s results

It was just the start Legacy Motor Club had hoped for. The opening Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway marked a new beginning for the racing team and a heightened set of expectations. All three drivers took the wheel of their brand-new Toyota Camry, hoping their season would begin on a positive note. That’s exactly what happened.

Full-time drivers John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones finished seventh and eighth respectively at the 2024 Daytona 500. The No. 42 car improved on that result three races later by ending the race at Bristol in sixth place. Everything seemed fine and dandy.

As it turns out, almost everything. After the opening race, Erik Jones went without a Top 10 finish for the rest of the season, while Jimmie Johnson hasn’t ended a race higher than 28th place. Nemechek had three top-10 finishes but with a disappointing stat of five DNFs. None of LMC’s drivers are in the Top 30. Petty addressed the predicament of his former team on his YouTube podcast.

The “King” shared a clip from his podcast on his Instagram handle, where he was asked by a fan what he hopes to see Legacy MC accomplish in the final races of the year. Richard Petty answered, “We hope they do a little bit better. I’ve said this before, I think starting the new season, first 3-4 races I thought we was in pretty good shape for, you know, going with Toyota for the first time, a new car, but I don’t know if we got worse or everybody else got better.”

In 2022, when Johnson first came on board Petty was on the fence. He said that both of them had different ways of doing things and they “probably agreed on about 50 percent of what it really comes down to.” When asked whether the changes ringed in by Johnson bother him, Petty simply answered, “Yes it does.”

Even when the move to Toyota was announced, Petty had a subtle warning for his former team. Taking to his X in December, he pointed out, “We’ll have people that are experts on the Toyota coming in and some of the Chevrolet people won’t be there anymore. It’s going to be a whole new team with the majority of the players being transferred from one car to another… The big deal is getting used to working with Toyota which we’ve never done before.” As we can now analyze, the challenge proved to be too much for the team in its first season with the new manufacturer.

While John Hunter Nemechek attained three Top 10 finishes, it proved to be little consolation in an otherwise disappointing season, highlighting just how severe Legacy Motor Club’s struggles have been. Their struggles began last year following a noteworthy 2022 season. They found the victory lane in the Southern 500 in 2022 and finished in the top 20 in points. But the next year turned out to be frustrating.

Jones went winless with only one top-five and seven top-10s after having three top-fives and 13 top-10s the previous season. He dropped from 18th to 28th in the standings, averaging a disappointing 20th place throughout the year. The poor performances have carried over to this year.

Despite the lackluster results, Erik Jones has signed a multi-year extension with the team, indicating the faith Johnson and co. have in his abilities. Once considered to be one of the hottest prospects in NASCAR, the 28-year-old began his career at Joe Gibbs Racing, after which he transitioned to a full-time role with Furniture Row Racing in 2017. Meanwhile, earlier in July, team co-owner and part-time racer, Jimmie Johnson admitted to feeling overwhelmed by how the season has turned out.

Speaking exclusively to IndyStar he admitted, “I didn’t think it would this tough. It’s a tough sport and we have a great vision and have made a massive commitment to that long-term vision, so we’re on the journey, but I thought that last year we were kind of at the bottom and then we went down a little lower and found a lower bottom.” 

To turn this around, Johnson and Co. made several changes to the team’s technical staff in August. One of which is former Joe Gibbs Racing engineer Jacob Canter joining as Director of Competition. Bobby Kennedy also entered the scene as the new General Manager as he oversees the day-to-day operations, having previously worked at Michael Waltrip Racing and Ultra Motorsports.

Johnson and Gallagher’s vision is to see their racing team succeed in the long term, which is why they have hired experienced personnel to guide Legacy Motor Club forward. Moreover, JJ also went ahead and replaced his crew chief.

Jimmie Johnson replaces Jason Burdett with a new crew chief

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Along with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson is the most successful driver in Cup Series history with seven championships to his name. But in the last two seasons as a part-time driver, the veteran has been a shadow of his former self, prompting him to replace his crew chief Jason Burdett with Gene Wachtel.

With zero top 10 or top 5 finishes and two DNFs, Johnson wanted to make a change to his team setup. Former crew chief Jason Burdett, went out in August and was replaced last week by the experienced Gene Wachtel. Wachtel began his career in 2005 with Dodge Motorsports as a Test Team Manager. He subsequently held various key roles at Hendrick Motorsports, Stewart-Haas Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, and General Motors.

Speaking about the appointment ahead of the 2024 Hollywood Casino 400, Johnson said, “It’s been a few weeks since I have been behind the wheel of a NASCAR vehicle so I’m ready to get back to work. Having Gene on board as crew chief will be great for our team, as he has great experience on the engineering side. We had a great run going at Kansas in the spring, and our day got cut short, so my goal is to pick up where we left off and put together a competitive race for the No. 84 team.”

Despite the renewed optimism at Legacy Motor Club, the result at Kansas Speedway was less than inspiring. Jimmie Johnson finished the race in 36th place, his worst result in the Cup Series this season. However, the California native will also be competing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway this year, giving the pair a few more opportunities to finish strongly.

While the team is scrambling for solutions, Richard Petty will be watching from the sidelines, hoping that one of them would work.