Legacy Motor Club
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Legacy Motor Club

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Legacy Motor Club is an American professional stock car racing team competing in the NASCAR Cup Series, owned by Jimmie Johnson with minority stakes held by Richard Petty, Maury Gallagher, Knighthead Capital Management, and Darius Rucker. The team fields three Toyota Camry entries: the No. 42 full-time for John Hunter Nemechek, the No. 43 full-time for Erik Jones, and the No. 84 part-time for Johnson. The team has a technical alliance with Toyota Racing Development. In 2024 the team also competed in the electric off-road racing series Extreme E.

On December 1, 2021, Maury Gallagher purchased a majority interest in the former Richard Petty Motorsports for US$19 million. The deal included both of RPM’s charters; the No. 43 continued with its charter while the second charter — previously leased to Rick Ware Racing for the No. 51 from 2019 to 2021 — was transferred to a new No. 42 entry. Following the purchase, the team was renamed Petty GMS Motorsports.

On November 4, 2022, seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson purchased an ownership stake in Petty GMS. Following the 2022 season, Richard Petty sold all his shares to majority owner Gallagher.

On January 11, 2023, the team announced a rebranding to Legacy Motor Club, marking the first time since the founding of NASCAR in 1949 that the Petty family name was not on a team in NASCAR’s top series. On February 18, Petty announced that Johnson had taken control of day-to-day operations. On May 3 the team announced it would switch manufacturers from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2024. Matt Kenseth was named Competition Advisor in October 2023, succeeded by Trevor Bayne in January 2024.

On January 27, 2025, Johnson was named majority owner, with Knighthead Capital Management purchasing a minority stake and Gallagher stepping back into an ambassador role. On March 25, 2026, Darius Rucker was named co-owner.

Ty Dillon drove the No. 42 in 2022, finishing eleventh at the Daytona 500 and ending the season twenty-ninth in points. Prior to the Pocono race, the car was docked 35 driver and owner points for an L1 penalty related to the rocker box vent hole. Beginning at Kansas, the No. 42 started using pit crew members from Joe Gibbs Racing.

Noah Gragson was signed to drive the No. 42 in 2023 on a two-year contract. He was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR in August for violating Section 4.4.D of the NASCAR Rule Book after liking an offensive meme related to the murder of George Floyd. Multiple drivers filled the seat that season: Grant Enfinger at Sonoma, Josh Berry at Michigan, Mike Rockenfeller at Indianapolis, Watkins Glen, and Charlotte Roval, and Carson Hocevar for the final stretch. Hocevar posted back-to-back top-twenty finishes and a career-best eleventh at the Bristol night race. John Hunter Nemechek drove the No. 42 at Homestead.

Nemechek was announced as the full-time driver from 2024 onward. Travis Mack was named crew chief for 2025.

Richard Petty Motorsports signed Erik Jones to a multi-year contract in October 2020. Jones was retained when Gallagher purchased the team.

In 2022, Jones scored thirteen top-ten finishes, including third at Fontana and fourth at Atlanta. He won at Darlington Raceway, giving Petty GMS its first victory and delivering the No. 43 its first win since the 2014 Coke Zero 400 and its 200th overall win. Jones signed a multi-year extension on July 30, 2022.

In 2023, Guns N’ Roses sponsored the No. 43 for the Daytona 500. Following a post-race inspection at Gateway, the team was issued an L1 penalty: sixty driver and owner points and five playoff points docked, crew chief Dave Elenz fined US$75,000 and suspended two races, after illegal greenhouse modifications were found. Jones earned seven top-ten finishes that season, including a third-place result at Kansas in a late overtime battle involving Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick — LMC’s first top-five finish as an organisation.

Prior to 2024, Jones secured sponsorships from AdventHealth, Dollar Tree, and subsidiary Family Dollar. A hard crash at Talladega on Lap 156 left Jones with a compression fracture in a lower vertebra; reserve driver Corey Heim substituted at Dover and Kansas. Ben Beshore moved from the No. 42 to become the No. 43’s crew chief after Elenz departed in October 2024.

Jones started 2025 with a twelfth-place finish at the Daytona 500. Following the spring Martinsville race, he was disqualified after the car failed the minimum weight requirement.

On January 11, 2023, Legacy Motor Club announced that Jimmie Johnson would run a part-time schedule driving the No. 84. The number is an inverse of Johnson’s long-associated No. 48 at Hendrick Motorsports; Johnson also chose it because he had 83 wins at the time and one more would tie Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for fourth all-time.

Johnson made the 2023 Daytona 500 field by posting the fastest lap among non-chartered teams, then finished 31st after wrecking in the first overtime attempt on Lap 203. He also started at COTA (38th, first-lap crash) and the Coca-Cola 600 (37th, two spins, 115 laps). Johnson withdrew from the Chicago street race following a family tragedy involving his in-laws in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and did not race again that season.

In 2024, after LMC switched to Toyota, Johnson ran parts of the season — the first time he drove a non-Chevrolet in NASCAR. He started at Daytona (28th), Texas (29th), Dover (28th), Kansas (38th), Charlotte (29th), and Indianapolis (33rd). Crew chief Jason Burdett and several No. 84 team members were released in July; performance director Gene Wachtel took over as crew chief for Kansas.

In 2025, Johnson finished third at the Daytona 500 — his highest finish as an owner-driver — and made his 700th career start at the Coca-Cola 600, finishing 40th after a lap-111 accident. For 2026, Johnson qualified for the Daytona 500 via the Open Exemption Provisional and is scheduled to run the Coronado street race.

Beginning with the 2024 Toyota transition, LMC hired a simulation and reserve driver each season. For 2024, Corey Heim filled the role — also serving concurrently for 23XI Racing — and substituted for Jones at Dover and Kansas following Jones’s back injury. Kaz Grala replaced Heim for 2025.

In February 2024, Legacy Motor Club entered the Extreme E electric off-road racing series for the 2024 season with Johnson as lead driver. Travis Pastrana substituted for Johnson — committed to the Daytona 500 — in the first two rounds alongside Gray Leadbetter. Extreme E male championship reserve driver Patrick O’Donovan partnered Leadbetter for Rounds 3 and 4. The team finished sixth in Rounds 1 and 2 at the Desert X-Prix and scored its first Super Sector in Round 2. In September 2024, Extreme E announced the cancellation of the planned Sardinia and Phoenix rounds. LMC did not continue when the series became Extreme H in 2025.

On April 1, 2025, LMC filed suit against Rick Ware Racing over the sale of a charter. An agreement signed March 3, 2025 had RWR selling a charter to LMC; RWR subsequently claimed the agreement would take effect in 2027, while LMC maintained terms had been changed to 2026. A North Carolina judge initially granted LMC a temporary restraining order but subsequently denied the injunction.

The dispute centred on which of RWR’s two charters was involved. LMC’s attorneys argued the contract specified Charter 27 (leased to RFK Racing for the No. 60 car in 2025); RWR’s attorneys maintained Charter 36 (used by the No. 51) was the subject. On June 18, 2025, RWR filed a countersuit. In July, courts granted LMC permission to depose RWR following the revelation that T.J. Puchyr intended to purchase RWR. LMC also filed a separate suit against Puchyr for tortious interference and violation of North Carolina’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. On July 31, a judge granted LMC a temporary restraining order preventing RWR from closing the sale to Puchyr for ten days.

On September 19, 2025, LMC and RWR announced a settlement, with RWR selling the charter to LMC on undisclosed terms.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.

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