In 2022 Richard Petty Motorsports with an alliance with Maury Gallagher and superb driving from Erik Jones looked to be righting a ship that had been cast away for decades. Jones and the 43 Chevrolet were running fast, leading laps, and even won a crown jewel race in the Southern 500. Now less than a year after Jones' Darlington victory the script is completely different with the 42 and 43 struggling mightily and even being penalized while new owner Jimmie Johnson faces his own struggles with the rebranded Legacy Motor Club team. This is the curious case of Legacy Motor Club.
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52 comments
What do you think of the performance of Legacy Motor Club in 2023?
Decent
Kinda disappointing
Rick Ware Racing tier
Every circus has a clown show.
Abysmal
This team was making strides last year an I thought they were the future of nascar but every since Jimmie Johnson came in that team has become Rick Ware 2.0.
In many races RWR outpaces them…
Jimmy is a ghost to that team.
Hopefully, them switching to Toyota will help them improve
It’s not that curious if you paid attention to how far Hendrick fell after Gordon retired and Jimmie became the senior driver of the team. Johnson has never been a good team leader, and that has extended to being an owner as well. He’s a supremely talented guy but he’s not a bus driver, in NBA terms he’s Kevin Durant.
Doesn’t help that they pushed Richard Petty out for Jimmie as well. Richard is a sponsor & fan draw even today, Jimmie has never been that guy. Most of his fanbase only popped up once he became the trendy old past his prime driver to root to see succeed one last time starting in ~2018. If Maury Gallagher is smart he’s mending that bridge with Petty ASAP, so that 80% of his two car’s seasons don’t have to be self sponsored by Allegiant & Sunseeker.
Jimmie Johnson is a driver fans HATED they need to ditch Jimmie and get Richard Petty back on board, and Kyle too, Petty GMS ran great, if they could get Ryan Newman as a part time short tracks only driver he could bring in sponsors, look at how many new sponsors Roush got when he was there, he could easily be their “grocery getter”
Can y’all educate yourselves before spewing BS at least. Richard has been only a mascot for RPM over a decade before this. He wasn’t making the hiring and firing decisions, he was there to give sponsors a photo-op and wave to fans. I don’t have feelings on Jimmie either way but it’s ridiculous how y’all take that one Petty quote a few months ago as though the King was involved with team operations.
@Zander9 I know Petty was nothing but a figurehead mascot and wasn’t trying to imply his leadership or anything was of value. However, Murstein and now Gallagher need that mascot to attract sponsors. Petty is one of the 3 names the average person is likely to recognize in NASCAR, you can’t push that kind of free marketing out the door without a concrete plan to replace it and draw sponsors which Legacy have shown this year they do not have.
You can’t call Johnson a “bus driver” as Charles Barkley called Durant a bus driver. Johnson has actually accomplished tons being the main guy, Durant needed Steph, Klay, Draymond… You got to give Johnson time, a couple of years, and let’s see how their Toyota partnership works before we crucify the guy, got to imagine they are getting no support from Chevy whatsoever.
@MLGProSwag69 I’ll tell you something most fans seeminly don’t like to hear, sponsors deciding to sign checks for millions too a race team dgaf about the Petty name. If they did they wouldn’t constantly get poached by better performing teams or pull out overnight like Focus Factor. The last time Richard was notably involved with sponsors was Smithfield which didn’t end well.
Jimmie Johnson having a Neverending nightmare right now
To say that i’m living in a nightmare would be a massive understatement. This is an implosion unlike anything else i’ve ever seen in my life. 2024 can’t get here fast enough.
As Gragson agrees lol. Never heard. A driver say half way thru the year I can’t wait till next year….
I feel for Erik, he doesn’t deserve these shitboxes he’s getting right now.
Seriously that guy deserves better
They will be a good team next gear Toyota will help them more
@Dalton Moon Toyota’s historically struggled having more than a couple teams look competitive, it’s usually 2 good to decent teams and a bunch of also rans.
He should come back to Toyota. I’d love their partner again
Eh I think Erik is overrated, he’s not bad but definitely not deserving of a top ride like he had at JGR. He’s a mid driver who isn’t at the level of the Kyle Larson’s and Busch’s of the sport. He’s in a mid car, maybe a little worse this year.
Anyone still find it very weird how all three LMC cars went to the garage under the same caution in the 600?
Jimmy crashed, and the other 2 hit the same piece of debre putting a hole it both radiators lol
@VKED23 full representation of how disastrous this years been
Noah Gragson’s interview sums up Legacy Motor Club’s season
In other words: Diabolical
Last year it was all about Jones.. and Ty Dillon got the short end of the stick, this year has been all about chaos. Something isn’t clicking long before they get to the track
Ty Dillon didn’t get the short end of the stick. He simply sucks as a driver and we all know it.
@Massachamp08 His cars often broke before the races even got going, that’s the short end of any stick,
@Tristate_Urbanmining Not really, he had plenty of chances during races to perform and got thoroughly destroyed by Erik Jones. It should not be a surprise to anyone that he wasn’t good. It’s been known for years. He is subpar at best, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. He doesn’t deserve a spot in the Cup Series.
@Massachamp08 Everyone knew his employment was a condition of the alliance with RCR
I think them losing Factor health as a sponsor hurt them significantly as they covered most of the 43 car races last season. I think the timing of Jimmie joining the team hurt them as well. Hopefully the move to Toyota helps them as both of the drivers deserve better.
How did it hurt them? Jimmie probably brought in the highest paying sponsor with him. He has wrecked a lot of cars but he’s paying for them also.
@William Wagoner he only brought sponsorship for the 500 unless they’re going to be back on the car for Chicago race.
@John Haas Really? I thought Carvana had been on the car, I knew last week was Wyndham.
As an F1 fan in addition to NASCAR, Legacy Motor Club is almost the NASCAR version of Williams, a team with a famous history that has struggled mightily in recent years. With Williams it’s only been in the last 11 years (after their last win at the 2012 Spanish GP) that they have been absolutely terrible. They haven’t even been a mid pack team in F1 during this time and are regularly battling with Haas to avoid finishing last in the standings every season. What makes the Williams situation even worse than Legacy Motor Clubs is that no members of the Williams family are involved in the day to day operations of the team anymore due to Frank (the team founder) & his daughter Claire selling their ownership stake back in 2020 to an US based investment group Dorilton Capital. Frank passed away in 2021 & the team he built is the joke of the F1 grid & will likely go away in the next few years. At least with Legacy Motor Club, Richard Petty is still around to help with PR & mentor the drivers.
The cars and races are so different now idk how much a guy like Richard can mentor a driver. Johnson on the hand can be a great mentor to young drivers.
Eh, Williams wasn’t that terrible from 2014 to 2017. They were 3rd, 3rd, 5th and 5th. 2018 was the year were they became really awful and haven’t recovered since.
That was funny when Gragson said he’s counting down the days till the offseason lol
Ok, theory: richard has talked about how their last few years was almost entirely focused on short term success but when jimmie came in it sudden changed. Is it possible that they are sacrificing short term success for a higher chance of long term success?
Maybe, but the business model as a third Toyota team never lasts. Especially if they partner with JGR. Though I guess Jimmie has more funding than Leavine or FRR, so that may help.
@Easy E Network well, currently they are the 4th Chevy team at best, behind Hendrick, Trackhouse and RCR, and they might even lose that 4th team status to Kaulig. So I say better 3rd at Toyota than 4th or 5th in Chevrolet.
The pain I am having as an Erik Jones fan this season….
It’s been pain since JGR dropped him for the shiny new model
Switching to Toyota is a smart move… Three big Chevy teams get all the support and that would be Hendrick, RCR and TrackHouse… Toyota probably has enough to support Legacy Motor Club
Legacy (Petty) released Ty Dillon and lost all information support from RCR when they did, and that was devastating to the program
They may be part of it but Jimmie Johnson has some role in this too..
I expected Noah to go through some rookie growing pains this year, but man this has been quite tough to watch. Hope the results & performance pick up next year, with Toyota.
To say that Legacy Motorsports is having such a difficult season, would be a massive understatement….. I knew this team was headed down the drain once Richard Petty gave up his majority ownership stake and made Petty GMS Motorsports, Legacy Motorsports Club….. 2024 couldn’t come soon enough