Legacy Motor Club has a lot to bounce back from.
Since 2023 when the team took its name, its cars have finished in the top ten in just 11% of the races they have attempted. By any measure, that is a struggle.
But it has bounced back. The Legacy Motor Club cars have been in contention more frequently and put together better finishes this year, with four of the team’s six top-five finishes since 2023 coming so far this season alone.
The impetus for that has been a wholesale change, driven by team owner Jimmie Johnson, as its drivers explained.
“Personnel, process, and procedural changes,” John Hunter Nemechek listed off. “A lot of hard work. The culture in the shop has changed. Jimmie’s vision is definitely there. A lot of good things happening at Legacy Motor Club, so I’m excited to see where the future goes.”
As for what those buzzwords mean in practice, his teammate Erik Jones explained that the team changed the process of how it built its cars, and said that the culture of the team was reflected by how willing team members were to adapt to the process.
“I think the culture that we shifted to earlier this year was a big change in the way we built our cars, but I think everybody there really bought into it and went at it, and it’s shown more and more on the track here as we’ve gone,” Jones said.
“I think we’ve got people more and more onboard with our process,” he added. “So keeping it going is what we need to do, but I feel like it was a really big culture shift early on.”
Jones highlighted that when a team is doing well it compounds because it’s able to attract the right talent since those people actually want to work at the team, and vice versa when it’s struggling. Right now, the team is on the upswing and attracting talent, continuing its growth.
“The point we were at before, we were struggling so much it was getting challenging to get people,” he explained. “We are in a lot better spot now and people are a lot more willing to come over and want to work for Legacy, they’re excited about it, so that’s a really great thing. We’ve got to keep trending this way and keep getting better.”
Another big change that’s started to pay off was the move from Chevrolet to Toyota. Jones said that the relationship is continuing to evolve as the team and the manufacturer both try to get the most from each other, and that has also contributed to the success.
“I think it’s still ongoing, still learning what we need from each other, what we can provide ourselves, what Toyota can provide to us,” Jones said. “It’s just changing as we go week to week, figuring out that relationship and who gets what. So it’s been good. It’s been, definitely, a learning process for everybody, but they’ve helped us make some strides internally with the information they’ve given us.”
It has certainly been a tough start at Legacy Motor Club, but what stands out is that both drivers are enthusiastic about the direction the team is going and fully buy in.
“I’m happy to be a part of the organization right now, building it from the ground up, brick by brick,” said Nemechek. “I definitely feel pretty good with the progress that we’ve made.
“Just continuing to try and step through and continue to make progress.”
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