Jimmie Johnson and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Find Success at Daytona

Legacies are made at Daytona International Speedway, and though LEGACY MOTOR CLUB might not be celebrating a legacy-defining win following Sunday's Daytona 500, they are celebrating a team first.

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season was puzzling for the organization. With only six top-10 results across two full-time entries for the organization, there was much left to be desired. So, when speedweeks kicked off this week at Daytona International Speedway, it was refreshing to see the team show promising speed.

It became evident that LEGACY MOTOR CLUB did their homework during the off-season as both John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones showed top-10 speed in Practice 1. Then, majority team owner Jimmie Johnson qualified his No. 84 Carvana Toyota into "The Great American Race" out of nine “Open” cars.

Just when you thought the weekend couldn't get any better for the organization, Erik Jones came inches away from winning Duel Qualifier 1 on Thursday. To end the week, the team took home two top-five finishes, which marks just the third and fourth top-five in the team's history, and it's the first time the organization has ever placed two of its cars inside the top five of the finishing results in a single race.

"Being able to have two cars in the top five is a really solid day," said John Hunter Nemechek, who finished fifth in the team's No. 42 entry. "I'm happy to see Jimmie (Johnson) come home third. I wish I would've beat the boss man but sometimes that doesn't happen. So, overall really solid day for this No. 42 group proud of all the men and women at the shop and all the effort that's been put in over the offseason I think it showed down here that we have strong cars and we had some really solid runs so just glad we didn't get caught up too bad in that last wreck and we were still able to come home fifth."

Equally as glad to not have been caught in that final wreck was seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion, Jimmie Johnson, who is taking home his best finish in the Gen 7 car ever for the organization he owns.

"I have emotions that I didn't expect to have. I've never been in this position as an owner, and it's really opened up a different set of emotions," Johnson shared on the FOX broadcast. "And the pride that I have in this result and the pride that I have in this company, now that we're trying to achieve and the journey we're on, I am so satisfied, so happy right now."

This great result for Johnson, his first top-five finish as a driver since the 2020 season, begs the question, does it make him wish he was making more than two Cup starts this year?

“Yeah”, Johnson said while laughing. “Speedway racing really hasn’t changed a lot even through the generations of cars. I can be a lot closer here than showing up at Phoenix or something. A tenth or a tenth and a half you’re looking for on some of those tracks is so hard to get back, but speedway stuff is going well for me.”

Though this is an exciting moment for the team, the veteran driver isn't letting his focus shift.

"It's hard in this sport though to get too excited about things, especially in race one. But there is another plate race next week and then we have a road course which is deceiving and then we really get into the meat of the season," Johnson explained. "So, we're gonna enjoy tonight but know that we have a long season ahead of us."

Nobody can predict the chaos that is Daytona, but the team can carry a hope that the positive results and consistency shown by LEGACY MOTOR CLUB through the weekend will carry through to Atlanta Motor Speedway next week and then to the remainder of the 2025 season.

Photo Credit: Taylor Kitchen | Racing America