Legacy Motor Club has not been setting the NASCAR stage alight. Despite this, team owner Jimmie Johnson has some grand designs for the organisation. Recently, the 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion inked a deal with Knighthead Capital Management as a strategic partner.

With this strategic partnership, Johnson’s ambition wasn’t just restricted to NASCAR racing. “As time goes on and opportunities present themselves to Legacy Motor Club, we’ll have an open eye and certainly hope to expand.” These were his words on the broadcast booth during the 24 Hours of Daytona race earlier this year. At a time this looked like an ambitious statement, but going by the latest revelation, it looks like LMC is making major moves, following in Trackhouse Racing’s blueprint. So much so that he had on-ground meetings and tested the waters during his visit to London.

Jimmie Johnson was exploring expansion opportunities for Legacy Motor Club

Johnson told Kelly Crandall, “London is full of F1 teams and all the support series teams are there. All the infrastructure from sale, marketing, digital, sponsor procurement, engineers, technicians, you name it! London is the Charlotte for Formula One. As time goes on, especially with this Next Gen car, vehicles are getting closer together. Especially with the sports car side, using the same trans axles and rear ends. Before long, we’ll be using the same torque sensors. All these elements are just kind of being used across all platforms. Certainly, the way, the WEC Series races and IMSA, NASCAR is now an extension of that. We’re kit car racing. So there are many benefits to being in London, that are going to help our team.”

Now we’ve seen Trackhouse Racing expand its brand and reach well beyond NASCAR. Justin Marks and Co. have a team in MotoGP and they also competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona this year. So, this expansion isn’t out of bounds, especially for a superstar driver like Jimmie Johnson. “I have so much respect for Justin’s vision and execution and just the way he’s gone about building Trackhouse. That’s certainly a model that I’m inspired by.” So you see, the former HMS driver had his eyes set on making a big splash not only in NASCAR but other forms of motorsports.

Apart from private investment and sponsorship money, another big factor that is essential behind a team’s expansion driver is OEM support. And it looks like Johnson and LMC have got that covered with Toyota’s backing, In fact, they are ready to fuel this expansion drive, “Absolutely one of my initiatives and more so than that. I think there are a lot of great opportunities, especially with a great partner like Toyota and all the divisions that they race in.”

Initially, it looked like Legacy Motor Club could branch out into more series and events in America alone. But, thanks to Knighthead links, Johnson could potentially take his team to the World Endurance Championship.

There are big plans on the horizon for the organisation

Johnson during the podcast also explained, “I love the WEC series, Knighthead has an involvement with the Jota team, actually owns the Jota team. Who knows what that will look like over time. In addition to IMSA, there could be a really neat opportunity for us that I’m trying to pursue. I just love to be more of a global platform and have Legacy Motor Club race anywhere and everywhere we can. If that does happen, I’m going to be travelling a lot, not at every NASCAR race. It really falls back on key hires, the right people in the right places that can really manage and lead.”

Given how involved Johnson is with his team in the ownership role, these ambitions could become reality soon. However, they will need to sort out their NASCAR program first. Ever since they’ve transitioned from Chevrolet to team Toyota, things have been pretty grim for them. While 2024 was a testing ground, the new season brings new opportunities to build their base and try to contend for wins and potential playoff spots.

But hey, a P3 finish by Johnson at the Daytona 500 and a controversial Duel win decision on Erik Jones’ part means they have been busy in the off-season. So it remains to be seen how big of a leap LMC will make during the 2025 season.