Legacy Motor Club has announced that Noah Gragson, regular driver of its NASCAR Cup Series No. 42 Sunseeker Chevrolet, will not compete in Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway, as he recovers from the effects of his heavy crash in last week’s race at …
Legacy Motor Club has announced that Noah Gragson, regular driver of its NASCAR Cup Series No. 42 Sunseeker Chevrolet, will not compete in Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway, as he recovers from the effects of his heavy crash in last week’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway. GMS Racing and NASCAR Truck Series veteran Grant Enfinger (pictured above) will take over the No. 42 this weekend.
Rookie Gragson was evaluated and released from the infield care center following his crash at WWTR. Upon return home to North Carolina, he began to experience concussion-like symptoms mid-week and is seeking treatment.
The Sonoma road race will be the Cup Series debut for Enfinger. The 38-year-old, who was the 2015 ARCA Menards Series champion, is a nine-time winner in the NASCAR Truck Series with two victories this season, including last weekend at WWTR.
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“Noah’s health is the highest of priorities and we commend him for making the decision to sit out this weekend,” said team co-owners Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson. “We are appreciative that Grant was available and willing to step in since the Truck Series is off this weekend.”
“My thoughts are with Noah, I know how much he loves this team and the guys on it,” said Enfinger. “I’m happy to help out Legacy Motor Club and the No. 42 team.”
Legacy Motor Club has been issued an L1 penalty for a greenhouse infraction on the No. 43 Chevrolet of Erik Jones. Jones and the team have been docked 60 points and five playoff points. Dave Elenz, the team’s crew chief, has been fined $75,000 and …
Legacy Motor Club has been issued an L1 penalty for a greenhouse infraction on the No. 43 Chevrolet of Erik Jones.
Jones and the team have been docked 60 points and five playoff points. Dave Elenz, the team’s crew chief, has been fined $75,000 and suspended from the next two NASCAR Cup Series races (Sonoma Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway).
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The infraction relates to section 14.1 of the NASCAR Rule Book under overall assembled vehicle rules and 14.1.2.B engineering change log. Hendrick Motorsports was penalized for a greenhouse infraction earlier this season on the No. 24 Chevrolet of William Byron and the No. 48 Chevrolet of Alex Bowman.
On a NASCAR Cup Series car, the greenhouse consists of the top part of the race car. That includes the roof and top of the front and rear glass.
The No. 43 was taken to the NASCAR R&D Center for further inspection after Sunday’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway. Jones finished 18th in the Enjoy Illinois 300 in St. Louis.
With the penalty, Jones falls from 26th to 30th in the championship standings.
By resume, Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion with 83 career wins and all the accolades that come with greatness. But by feel, when Johnson makes his selective starts this season in the No. 84 Chevrolet for Legacy Motor Club, …
By resume, Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion with 83 career wins and all the accolades that come with greatness. But by feel, when Johnson makes his selective starts this season in the No. 84 Chevrolet for Legacy Motor Club, it’s a different ballgame.
“Daytona was nice where we had a bit of practice and had a qualifying race to work through and feel things out,” Johnson said Saturday. “I got into the rhythm, and I started to feel much like myself. The package for plate racing, even with the Gen6 car versus the Next Gen Car, is pretty darn close. A lot is the same, so that wasn’t all that different.
“I rolled into COTA thinking – all right, it’s going to be like Daytona – and I was sorely mistaken for that. These cars really do drive much differently – the mechanical grip level versus the aero grip is much different. The shocks and the way the internal bump stops work, in addition to the external bump stops on the car… None of that was taking place when I was in the car last, and man, the car drives so much different as a result.”
The Coca-Cola 600 (Sunday, 6 p.m. ET, FOX) will be Johnson’s third start of the season. He spent two years away from stock cars after returning from full-time competition at the end of 2020, and in the meantime, not only has the competition continued to get better, but the race car has dramatically changed.
Making matters worse as far as this weekend goes, rain washed out practice and qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway. While everyone in the field will go into the race without any previous track time, it’s even worse for someone like Johnson. The four-time Coca-Cola 600 winner can admit it adds to feeling “ill-prepared” for this event.
“It is sad to me that in today’s world, we can’t go test to get ready for a race,” Johnson said. “And then a practice and qualifying session rains out, and you get zero track time, you have to depend on the simulator. We’re very low on the totem pole with resources and sim time; I get 30 laps of sim time to get ready for a race.
“It’s a 600-mile race and we’ll make the best of it. But just logically, as I think through how big our sport is, how big this race is, how big the opportunity is, it’s just crazy that I can’t get properly prepared for this race.”
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Beyond Sunday night at Charlotte and the inaugural Chicago street, the remainder of Johnson’s schedule has not been announced. He and Legacy Motor Club are trying to be methodical with his events whether it’s giving him the chance to cross off certain tracks or return to old favorites.
There is also the competition side. In the events he’s running, Johnson finds himself focusing more on how he can help the two primary cars, Noah Gragson’s No. 42 and the No. 43 of Erik Jones.
“My last two years in IndyCar and sportscars, I was much more selfish and much more in that traditional headspace as a driver – ultimate speed, ultimate fun, how can I do all of those aspects,” Johnson said. “Where now, when we take the No. 84 car to the track, is it hurting our program or is it helping our program? And if so, in which ways? When you think about crew personnel, and inventory of parts and pieces, that’s one conversation. Notoriety, popularity, sponsorship dollars, all of those other aspects are another conversation. We’re always weighing the pros and cons out, and here before long we’ll start thinking about ‘24 and what races make sense for me.
“And then I honestly feel like getting through this weekend is going to be a big step in me deciding – we choose a lot of road course races for me in ‘23, trying to help Legacy Motor Club get better on road courses. We feel like we’ve seen some gains from that, especially the time I’ve been able to spend with Noah and Erik – going to the sim, going to a driving school, driving some other cars and really just spending time together and honing that craft. This will be my first proper oval and depending on how that experience goes, I think it will give us a better place to decide from looking at ‘24.”
There is also another side of the competitive element — a new NASCAR world for Johnson also includes him no longer thinking like a seven-time champion who is looking for his next win or championship.
“It’s different,” Johnson said. “I’m evolving mentally, maybe a little quicker than I give myself credit (for) or would have thought in probably six months since stepping into this new role. And in six months’ time, I’ve been able to really transition into the thought process that I’m in now versus that selfish driver.”
David Wilson loves reunion stories. Wilson (pictured above), the president of Toyota Racing Development, has had a few over the years, and he’s just as eager for the one coming next season. Legacy Motor Club and Toyota announced earlier this week …
David Wilson loves reunion stories.
Wilson (pictured above), the president of Toyota Racing Development, has had a few over the years, and he’s just as eager for the one coming next season. Legacy Motor Club and Toyota announced earlier this week that they will pair together in 2024 in the NASCAR Cup Series, bringing Erik Jones and Noah Gragson back under the Toyota banner.
Jones climbed — and won — his way through the NASCAR ladder driving a Toyota. Signed to the Toyota development pipeline as a teenager, Jones has won in a Toyota in the Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Cup Series. He is also a former Cup Series Rookie of the Year.
“Erik Jones is a very special person to Toyota, and his mother Carol and his sister,” Wilson said. “We bonded over those years together.”
Jones and Gragson are just as enthusiastic as Wilson about the future.
When his tenure with Toyota ended after the 2020 season at Joe Gibbs Racing, Jones said he never had any animosity toward Toyota or Gibbs, understanding it was a business decision. Jones has driven a Chevrolet for the last three seasons with the No. 43 team.
“When I initially heard of the opportunity earlier this year to maybe come back to Toyota, I was excited about it because it gave a path forward,” Jones said. “I felt like we were reaching our limitations where we were and what we could do for the future, and I have a lot of unmet goals in the Cup Series at this point. So, for me, Toyota gave a path to meet those goals, so I was more than happy to welcome that news and come back in.”
Jones feels his team was “reaching our limitations where we were” and is better poised to move forward with Toyota. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images
Because he’s quite familiar with the Toyota system, Jones doesn’t feel there will be much change for him next season. Jones looks forward to working with many of the same people he’s known for quite some time.
“I already know Toyota’s commitment and how things work and how things run, and it makes me excited as a driver going in knowing some of the resources that we’re going to have going forward to continue building the program.
‘It’s been fun for me 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.”
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Resources are what Gragson is also most looking forward to — not just on the racetrack but off it with the Toyota performance center. When Gragson was in the Toyota pipeline that program was still relevantly young, but now, it’s one of the most important tools Toyota drivers use for training, nutrition and more.
“I’m excited,” Gragson said. “The main thing to me is when I came over here midseason last year and met with Maury [Gallagher] and Mike Beam, they told me, ‘We want to do this and we want to do it right and we want to do it quick.’ You hear that from time to time, but these guys are involved, and they’re making moves, and they’re making stuff happen.
“Seeing Maury’s vision to bring Jimmie [Johnson] in and the steps they’ve been putting into place so far in a short time has been really exciting to see. This is another step of the journey, and I’m excited to be a part of it. I’m excited to get back in a Toyota. I know a little bit — I was in the KBM stable with Toyota in the Truck Series, so I might not know the full extent of what it’s like in the Cup Series, but I know that Toyota truly is a family.”
Gragson is eager to hang his hat back in the Toyota tent. “I know that Toyota is truly a family.” Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images
Jones drove a Toyota in all three series from 2013 through 2020, winning 18 races across the three national series for Kyle Busch Motorsports and Joe Gibbs. Gragson drove a Toyota truck for Busch from 2016 through 2018 and also made three Xfinity Series starts in a Gibbs Toyota in 2018. Gragson has two wins driving a Toyota.
However, a lot of Gragson’s success in recent years had come while driving a Chevrolet when he moved to JR Motorsports. Gragson also understood there was no fit for him to stay in a Toyota and the timing wasn’t right. But he maintained his relationship with those at Toyota through text messages and conversations.
Wilson described Gragson as a tremendous character and great for the sport.
“He is a talent,” said Wilson. “I love the personality, but he can wheel a race car, and that’s what I love even more. We look forward to getting them back behind the wheel of Toyotas next year.”
Both drivers will return to the Toyota camp with more experience. Jones said he feels more well-rounded nowadays and has learned more in the last three years than in the previous years.
“I felt like, as a young guy coming into Cup, I didn’t always know how to take advantage of everything and the resources that were available to me,” said Jones. “Going through these years now and learning as a person and a driver, I think the resources will be taken much more advantage of on my end. So, I’m excited about that.”
Gragson’s career as a Cup Series driver is still young, but he continues to be surrounded by the best people and, next season, with somewhat familiar equipment. Gragson will be a sophomore in the Cup Series next season as Jones goes into his seventh full season.
“I wouldn’t say I forecast that both or either Erik or Noah would be driving a Toyota again. What I knew in my heart is given the opportunity and the circumstance to drive a Toyota again that they would be happy,” Wilson said. “Again, this comes back to what I think is most important in our driver development program, and that is we take a tremendous personal responsibility in those relationships and the fact that we have some influence on them. We take that very seriously, and in the course of that, you develop relationships.
“I subscribe to karma, if you will, in that good things happen with that. You have to be careful in this garage because, in the end, it’s a pretty small garage. This is a feel-good story from my perspective, from Toyota’s perspective, to have two tremendous people back in the family.”
Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson reiterated that the decision for Legacy Motor Club to field Toyota NASCAR Cup Series entries beginning next season was prompted by the desire for the team to become a winning organization. “Toyota is a quality …
Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson reiterated that the decision for Legacy Motor Club to field Toyota NASCAR Cup Series entries beginning next season was prompted by the desire for the team to become a winning organization.
“Toyota is a quality organization; we all know that. Chevrolet, Ford, everybody at this level of competition is good at what they do,” Gallagher said. “Competition burns deep. We here at GMS (Racing) and now Legacy wants to win, and Mike Beam proved that over the years with 41 truck wins, two championships, and the like, and we’re focused on that.
“Chevrolet is a fabulous partner, and we could get there, I’m sure, as well. But when it comes down to it, this seems to be a better move long-term for us with where we’re at. Having Jimmie on board is definitely been a game-changer for us as well, and we consciously have gone about improving ourselves as we could in a lot of aspects to be at the top of this sport.”
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Both co-owners made clear they are not leaving Chevrolet. But in expressing multiple times about their long-term expectations for the organization, Gallagher and Johnson said aligning with Toyota presents a good opportunity.
“This is a foundational piece for the club that really makes sense, and we needed to do,” said Johnson. “To have this deep partnership and alignment with Toyota, it’s been a fun period of time to get to know them and understand their passion and how much our core values truly align, and the focusing commitment we’ll all have to the years ahead and the performance we want to have on the track.”
Toyota has long held a desire to add more cars to its fleet. Of the three manufacturers in the Cup Series, Toyota has the fewest cars. The addition of Legacy Motor Club will give Toyota eight in the series next season, alongside four from Joe Gibbs Racing and two from 23XI Racing.
Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson did not pinpoint a date on the calendar when Legacy Motor Club entered the conversation. However, he did say it hasn’t been that long in the making; the deal coming together over the last few months.
“The remarkable thing is from the very first conversation, I think we both had a vision as to the potential, and we just clicked,” Wilson said. “Jimmie, to me, was a garage acquaintance, and we’d nod at each other across the garage space, but I didn’t have a relationship with him. I’ve truly enjoyed just getting to know him.
“Maury and I have been friends in the garage for a couple of years now, and we’ve done a dance or two together about working together, so we kind of had a head start with Maury. But by and large, the thing came together pretty quickly.”
Gallagher said information is the name of the game in the sport, and having the best information through a partnership with Toyota is important. Legacy Motor Club is not officially a key partner to Chevrolet, whose badge it carries on the Nos. 42 and 43. Legacy Motor Club also pays for a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing and, by not being high in the pecking order, has to work through Childress for the information it receives.
Legacy Motor Club gets its engines through the collaborative effort between Childress and Rick Hendrick. But next season, Johnson said Legacy Motor Club will be on equal footing as Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing.
“That’s big,” Johnson said. “That’s real.”
Gallagher didn’t shy away from the lack of performance from the organization this season, but Legacy Motor Club continues to take as many steps forward as quickly as possible in hopes of changing the results.
Since announcing the team’s intention to run in the Cup Series for 2022, Gallagher bought the majority of Richard Petty’s operation to add another car, changed drivers by bringing in Noah Gragson, shuffled personnel around, and added Johnson to the ownership group. The manufacturer switch is the next step.
“Being in the back of the pack… some people can live there, but that’s not a place that I’m willing to live,” said Gallagher. “We won last year, which I think surprised everybody. We want to be one of those people at the top. We want that edge. We’re moving down a road that I think is going to produce an ability to stand alone.
“And one of the things when we talked to David and Tyler [Gibbs], we wanted to stand alone. We want to be our team. Historically, most of the teams with Toyota have Gibbs as their technical partner. We want a direct relationship with Toyota at this point, and we’ve built a shop to do that (with) Mike Beam, and what we’ve done over time and the people that will come. It’s something that I think is the best outcome for the team and will give you the best control of your future.”
Legacy Motor Club, the organization co-owned by Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson, will field two Toyota entries in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning next season. Legacy Motor Club currently fields the No. 42 for Noah Gragson and No. 43 for Erik …
Legacy Motor Club, the organization co-owned by Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson, will field two Toyota entries in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning next season.
Legacy Motor Club currently fields the No. 42 for Noah Gragson and No. 43 for Erik Jones. Alongside the four of Joe Gibbs Racing and two from 23XI Racing, Toyota will have eight cars in the Cup Series next season.
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“All of us at Toyota are thrilled to add Legacy Moto Club to our NASCAR family,” said Jack Hollis, Executive Vice President of TMNA (Toyota Motor North America) and President of Toyota Motor Sales. “While Toyota’s tenure in NASCAR has yielded on-track success, our proudest accomplishments are those relationships that have been built off the racetrack.
“Jimmie Johnson and Maury Gallagher, along with the great club that Legacy M.C. is assembling, will be a great addition to our existing Cup Series team partners with Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing, who are truly part of our family.”
Legacy Motor Club will make the switch to Toyota from the Chevrolet camp, with whom Johnson has spent the entirely of his NASCAR career as a driver.
“Maury Gallagher and I are very excited about the partnership with Toyota and TRD beginning in 2024,” said Johnson. “We admire and respect the level at which Toyota conducts their business in this sport and look forward to forging a new legacy for the future.
“I will always be appreciative to Chevrolet and everything we have accomplished together. I’m so thankful they took a chance on a kid from California so long ago and proud that the history books will forever memorialize our record-breaking success we shared.”
Both Gragson and Jones have driven for Toyota in the past. Gragson ran a Toyota while at Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series and when he made his Xfinity Series debut. Jones drove a Toyota as he moved through the NASCAR ranks from the Truck Series with Kyle Busch to the Xfinity Series and Cup Series with Joe Gibbs Racing.
“We are humbled and delighted to welcome Legacy Motor Club into the Toyota and TRD NASCAR family,” said David Wilson, President of TRD, U.S.A. (Toyota Racing Development). “Jimmie Johnson and Maury Gallagher have impressed us with their long-term vision and commitment to building a championship caliber organization. More importantly, their character and values are aligned with ours and our current Cup Series partners, Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing.
“Of course, we also look forward to being reunited with our old friends, Erik Jones and Noah Gragson.”
Joey Cohen didn’t come from a racing family, but he wanted to be a race car driver, and he succeeded for a bit with success in karting, late models, and moving through the local ranks. Eventually, Cohen went to school to study engineering and …
Joey Cohen didn’t come from a racing family, but he wanted to be a race car driver, and he succeeded for a bit with success in karting, late models, and moving through the local ranks. Eventually, Cohen went to school to study engineering and entered NASCAR when that started becoming more of a tool for race teams. Cohen’s resume includes working for some of the biggest teams in the sport, and he’s currently the competition director at Legacy Motor Club and was one of those responsible for pitching Maury Gallagher on it being the right time to go Cup Series racing.
Legacy Motor Club got a much-needed boost Saturday at Circuit of The Americas when both its drivers advanced into the final round of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying. Erik Jones will start eighth in the No. 43 Chevrolet, while rookie Noah Gragson rolls …
Legacy Motor Club got a much-needed boost Saturday at Circuit of The Americas when both its drivers advanced into the final round of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying.
Erik Jones will start eighth in the No. 43 Chevrolet, while rookie Noah Gragson rolls off from 10th in the No. 42 Chevrolet. Not only was it the first time both cars made the final round, but is the best starting position for each in the first six races.
It’s perhaps the only thing that has gone according to plan in a season that is only a month old.
“We’re trying not to overreact to the first couple of races and performances,” team co-owner Jimmie Johnson said. “You go to Daytona and we all feel like we had good cars and were competitive. California is after that (and) we had some weird stuff with the splitter and all that dirt and rock and all the debris that was at the track that the splitters delaminated on our cars. It’s really easy to look at that and say that’s the reason why our performance wasn’t where it needed to be.
“Las Vegas, Atlanta, Phoenix — we’re at a point now where we have enough styles of tracks that we can better evaluate where we’re to start the year. We’re not where we want to be, but there’s endless work going on in the shop.”
Jones echoed the boss’s assessment and said while his top-10 finish last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway was great, that was a superspeedway-style race. The intermediate tracks need work and COTA, the first road course race of the season, will be a good test of where the organization is making left and right turns.
“We’ve been fortunate that everybody has had up and down weeks, so we’re not too far out in points from where we want to be, which is in that top 16,” Jones said. “One good week gets you pretty good in there. But as far as our performance, I don’t think we’ve been happy with it.
“Las Vegas and California, neither were great. Phoenix wasn’t that great for us. So we’ve got to get better, and I think we all know that. Dave (Elenz, crew chief) and I are working hard, and all the guys are working hard to get faster. I’m doing what I can to get quicker, especially at a place like this where you’ve got to be on your game as a driver more than ever. We want to get better. It’s going to take time, but I think we’re trending the right way.”
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Speed will help those efforts. Jones has three top-20 finishes in five races, and before his eighth-place result a week ago at Atlanta, he’d finished no better than 19th.
It’s been frustrating for Jones to feel one thing with the car while it’s doing another. He’s felt good behind the wheel of his Chevrolet, but it hasn’t been fast enough.
“Vegas is one that has really stuck out for me because I felt like our cars drove really good in practice, qualifying and even the race. I told Dave a lot of the day, ‘It’s driving pretty good, we’re just not where we want to be in the field.’ So a lot of it is speed. California was kind of the same. I could get it driving good, but it wasn’t really going anywhere. Phoenix was a little different because I felt like we had speed and qualified well, and then didn’t race as well. It’s back and forth, but the speed, especially on the mile-and-a-half’s, has been kind of our hang-up.”
Gragson, who has just one top-20 finish, certainly wants more speed. Although he’s new to the Legacy M.C. team and understands the resources are not as deep as some other organizations, Gragson said Johnson, Gallagher, and Richard Petty aren’t going to be content with how they are performing.
Between the two, Gragson and Jones have combined for 15 laps led and sit outside the top 20 in points. Asked where the organization stacks up in the Cup Series field, Gragson took a long pause before responding.
“That’s tough to answer,” he said. “We’re a C or D team, realistically. We’ve got great help from Richard Childress Racing, but even then, we don’t have all the tools and resources some of the other teams (do). It’s a building year. It’s a building couple of years, probably.”
Legacy M.C. has teammates on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Whereas seventh-year driver Jones, who is in his third year with Petty and second under Gallagher, understands the building process, Gragson is experiencing it for the first time. The Las Vegas native graduated into the Cup Series after four years and 13 wins in the Xfinity Series.
Gragson became used to sitting in fast cars that he could contend with every week. Now he’s humbled every week in the Cup Series and doesn’t deny the challenge of keeping his head up after a tough race.
“I think having some of those guys come over from JR Motorsports that were with me the past several years allows me a little bit of comfort,” Gragson said. “I know they believe in me, and if you get with a bunch of new guys that you’re trying to build relationships with, you don’t know how realistically they’ve bought into you. We have a great team.
“But it’s definitely challenging from – I don’t want to say it being easy; we worked really hard – but we had a lot of success (in the Xfinity Series) to driving your a## off just to run like 27th at some of these places. It’s like, ‘All right, what’s the problem here?’
“Just trying to keep the confidence is key, and little building steps like being fast on pit road, having good pit stops, good restarts, having a good qualifying effort like we did today. Those little things are what we need to do this year and maybe into next year. But just trying to take it day by day right now.”
Said Johnson, “We’re digging along. We haven’t hit our peak for the season yet, and I think we now have an idea of where our short-track cars are and what we need to work on – mile-and-half stuff and certainly the restrictor-plate tracks.”
