Legacy Motor Club is bringing in the big guns for the road courses.
With the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course preceding Watkins Glen as NASCAR’s regular season schedule draws to a close, the team announced Tuesday that sports car champion Mike Rockenfeller will replace the suspended Noah Gragson in the No. 42 car for those races.
Xfinity Series competitor Josh Berry scrambled to sub for Gragson at Michigan, with the suspension being announced on Saturday, just before practice and qualifying. With more time to consider a replacement, the team gave Rockenfeller the nod.
The German driver is well-known to the NASCAR garage, as a perennial road course sub for smaller teams in the garage area, but he’s especially well-known to Legacy team owner Jimmie Johnson as his teammate in the Garage 56 Le Mans effort.
“Rocky and I were teammates and helped develop the G56 program,” Johnson said in a statement from the team. “I couldn’t think of a better person to assist our Club in this tough situation.”
“These back-to-back road course events will be great for Rocky from the technical side as they will bring out his expertise. Rocky is extremely knowledgeable and talented, and I know he will get us the best results possible,” he added.
Johnson will certainly be hoping that Rockenfeller can improve the performance of the No. 42 car. Before his suspension, Gragson had managed just one top-twenty finish and an average finish of 28.2, good enough for just 33rd in the standings, the worst of any full-time driver.
At Indianapolis, Rockenfeller will add to a star-studded lineup that includes two Australian Supercars drivers and a former Formula One racer. Shane van Gisbergen will be looking to keep his perfect Cup Series win record alive in the Trackhouse PROJECT91 entry, while Brodie Kostecki will be hoping to beat his rival on new turf in a Richard Childress Racing car. Kamui Kobayashi, for his part, is just excited to race for his hero Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing.
Rockenfeller will also be joined by Formula One World Champion Jenson Button, making his third and final start in the Rick Ware Racing No. 15 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
As for Noah, Legacy Motor Club rushed to deny reports from The Athletic that he’s been dismissed from the team. Regardless of the team’s decision, his future remains uncertain with an indefinite suspension from NASCAR. And the sanctioning body has proven that it’s prepared to take insensitivity issues seriously.
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