It’s one thing to win seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, and it’s another to run a successful Cup Series team. Jimmie Johnson learned this the hard way as his team, Legacy Motor Club, continued to struggle in the 2024 season. Piloting the #43 car, Eric Jones finished 28th whereas his teammate, John Hunter Nemechek, ended the season in 34th. And Johnson is trying to do all he can for LMC to find a footing in NASCAR.

This is evident from the amount of changes they have made, including the switch from Chevrolet to Toyota this season. While it was a good move, the young team did not benefit from it because Johnson refused to get into a technical partnership with Toyota racing giant Joe Gibbs Racing to get their data. Rather they started to build their own data. This apart, Johnson is making numerous internal changes as well as poaching industry veterans. Recently, another veteran joined LMC to save the sinking ship.

Can Jimmie Johnson’s team bounce back in 2025?

Johnson bought an ownership stake in Petty GMS Motorsports in 2022, owned by businessman Maurice J. Gallagher. Gallagher acquired Richard Petty Motorsports in 2022 to form Petty GMS Racing. After Johnson joined the team, was rebranded as LMC. This year has been full of changes for the team. The year 2024 started with two full-time entries, #42 with crew chief Ben Beshore, #43 with crew chief Dave Elenz, and lastly, #84 with crew chief Jason Burdett, which Johnson piloted for 9 races this season. And Joey Cohen was the competition director. But it all changed as the season came to an end.

Cohen was let go, bringing in Jacob Canter, a long-time JGR race engineer, as the competition director. The team also hired Brian Campe as a technical director. Campe, before coming to LMC, had worked with Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske, and JR Motorsports. He was also in IndyCar, where he won the Indianapolis 500 with Juan Pablo Montoya and the championship with Josef Newgarden in 2017 as his race engineer. In addition to this, the entire No. 84 team, including Jason Burdett, was released. LMC also parted ways with Dave Ellenz, leading to a reshuffle. Ben Beshore took over the #43 team for the season’s end, while Brian Campe assumed the role of interim crew chief for the #42 team.

After all this, the team has now hired another veteran, Chad Johnston, to serve as the organization’s Manager of Race Engineering. Johnston has 7 Cup wins to his name and was the crew chief for Ryan Preece and the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team in 2024. With SHR closed down, Johnston moved to LMC. Campe on hiring Chad, said, “Chad is a great hire for us at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. His decades of experience and extensive knowledge will make him a huge benefit to the CLUB. We have a lot of work to do this off-season and Chad’s expertise will help us accomplish our goals.”

Well, the question now remains: can this move, and all others made in 2024 produce a better performance in the 2025 season? Even NASCAR analyst Eric Estepp dwelled on this in his recent video, he said, “I don’t blame them for making changes trying to fix it. I think Brian Campe is a great hire. Chad Johnston, we’ll see. I’ll say this about Legacy Motor Club: from the outside, it kind of looks like a circus just a little. But they keep hiring industry veterans so there must be some confidence. Is it simply that everyone believes in Jimmie Johnson that he’ll eventually figure it out? They believe in Maury Gallagher, a man who built a championship-winning Truck Series team (GMS Racing). He can figure it out. All these veterans all these industry guys are buying into that group and as long as that group stays intact who cares what kind of turnover happens outside the nucleus…They’re going to keep trying different combinations hoping they can get this train back on the track.”

Yet, only time will tell if this would be enough to compete against NASCAR giants like JGR, HMS, and Team Penske. Well, 23XI racing this year proved that it was possible, so why not LMC?

What are the chances of LMC in 2025?

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While both 23XI and LMC are young and both Toyota teams, there is one major difference. 23XI, owned by Denny Hamlin, went into partnership with JGR, unlike LMC, and the data helped them improve at a rapid rate. Only in their 4th year, they won the regular season championship, and Tyler Reddick also made it to the championship 4 when no JGR driver made it past the round of 8. While LMC is taking a slower route it might prove to be beneficial in the longer run as the data would be exclusive to them. But in the shorter run and in the 2025 season, it looks like an uphill task.

Estepp on this said, “They (23XI Racing) agreed to a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing. The Legacy Motor Club did not do that. They are building their own database they’re attempting to be more independent. Long term, it may work out, but short term, they are not nearly as competitive as their Toyota teammates over here. I’m hoping that year two with Toyota they’ve got more data and their simulator is up to date.”

With all the internal changes and hires, clearly, no LMC team has gotten nearly enough time to find that right balance as the people keep changing. It can prove to be counterproductive. “I think Eric Jones is good. I think John Hunter Nemechek is fast if a little inconsistent. I’m confident that this team can take a big leap, but with all these changes, I also have a lot of question marks. We still don’t know who Eric Jones and John Hunter Nemechek’s crew chiefs next year will be Brian Campe is just an interim crew chief for John Hunter Nemechek. That’s not his long-term job and Ben Beshore will he stay with Jones remains to be seen,” Estepp added.

As of now, things look uncertain for LMC in 2025. But as we all know, NASCAR is a game of uncertainty and anything can happen. Do you think Jimmie Johnson’s team can bounce back next season? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.