2025 has been fairly good to Legacy Motor Club. Both Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek have found their footing in Jimmie Johnson’s Toyota team. Jones’ 3 top tens and 2 top fives and Nemechek’s 6 top tens testify to the fruitful results of teamwork. Aside from a short scuffle in Watkins Glen between the two drivers, things seem hunky dory on the racetrack. However, off the track, LMC is heavily embroiled in a legal dispute.

In April 2025, Jimmie Johnson and Co. filed a lawsuit against Rick Ware Racing. The crux of the issue was a lack of agreement about the dates of selling RWR’s charter, and also which charter to sell. Currently, Johnson has ramped up his line of offence, spelling dire consequences for Ware’s future.

Jimmie Johnson seeks to offer no respite

Well, things had been spiralling from the beginning. Earlier this year, RWR had apparently agreed to sell one of its charters to LMC. However, the lack of clarity about when to sell it (2026 or 2027) and which charter (the No. 36 or the No. 27) led to a fallout between the two parties. In a season when two Cup Series teams are already suffering the impact of racing as open teams, the tensions about a charter sale are higher. Now, the presence of a third party has complicated matters more – T.J. Puchyr, co-founder of Spire Motorsports. Puchyr had originally brokered the deal between LMC and RWR. But in June, reports of Puchry taking over RWR and expanding it to a three-car team by 2027 exacerbated the problem.

Jimmie Johnson filed another lawsuit against T. J. Puchyr in mid-July. At the end of July, Legacy Motor Club won a 10-day temporary restraining order, posting a $5 million bond to block the sale. In the latest court hearing on 13th August, Johnson’s team further sought to make things harder for its legal opponent. LMC fought for a preliminary injunction that would bar Rick Ware from selling the charters until trial in January. Journalist Sydney Haulenbeek updated on X: “Legacy Motor Club and Rick Ware Racing argued before a Charlotte judge Wednesday over a preliminary injunction request that would tie up Rick Ware Racing’s charters.”

Keith Forst, counsel for Legacy Motor Club, urged Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Clifton Smith to freeze the sale of both charters. According to Forst, if T.J. Puchyr acquires RWR, then Jimmie Johnson may not be able to get his team’s charter without court intervention. On the other hand, however, RWR’s attorney, Mark Henriques, said that this makes things difficult for RWR. Rick Ware’s son Cody drives under one charter.

Henriques asserted that Jimmie Johnson is trying to block the sale of not only one but both charters. “How can they say that there is clear and convincing evidence that it (the contract) is both 27 and 36? We were allowed to do it and said we wanted to do it,” he said in regard to the sale.

Clearly, the impasse between Jimmie Johnson and Rick Ware is growing worse. Meanwhile, however, Johnson finds respite from his legal troubles in reflecting on his disciplined life.

Defining fitness in the sport

In motorsports, athletes do not undergo the same rigorous workout regimes as their more physical counterparts. Nevertheless, good fitness is essential for driving in heavy stock cars. Most NASCAR drivers train like endurance athletes in order to withstand the heat in the cockpit and the high G-forces that stock cars produce. The individual who became a paragon of discipline, aside from his jaw-dropping NASCAR achievements (7 Cup Series titles), is none other than Jimmie Johnson. He went from being a run-of-the-mill gym guy to a high-performance triathlete. Triathlons helped him cope with the stress and difficulty of driving in a race car for hours on end.

Jimmie Johnson spoke on The RACER magazine’s YouTube channel to reflect on his fitness goals. “I just made better decisions during the week. From what I was eating, my rest, I was up earlier, I was more efficient during the day, got deeper into my notes, deeper into engineering, and all these different elements.” Then the Legacy Motor Club team owner also recalled a time when a triathlon event rejuvenated him after a tiring race. “We raced a July race in Daytona, and then the next morning did a sprint-distance triathlon in Charleston, South Carolina, and I was just hooked, man. It was like another form of racing.”

Jimmie Johnson’s disciplined routine helps him focus on his NASCAR goals. Meanwhile, however, he will need a lot of focus to deal with the RWR legal dispute.