The Legacy Motor Club has been paving the way towards success since 2024, with a major revamp to the entire team structure. In 2024, the first change occurred when the Legacy Motor Club appointed Ben Beshore as the new crew chief for Erik Jones. Beshore served as the crew chief for his teammate Nemechek previously. Later, in November 2024, Legacy Motor Club appointed Travis Mack as Nemechek’s crew chief. Then the ultimate change happened, Jimmie Johnson became the LMC club owner after acquiring the majority of its shares.

Now, the shift from Chevy to Toyota hasn’t been completely smooth. Both Jones and Nemechek have struggled to find consistency; they missed the playoffs last year. And it looked like the script would repeat this year, but then came the Texas race, and for the first time in 2025, both LMC cars finished inside the top 10. The two-time Southern 500 winner since then has notched consistent race finishes inside the top 20, and the Atlanta race last weekend was another shot in the arm for the #43 team. Now, 39 points adrift of the cutline, Jones can still reach the playoffs, but what is the plan for the team moving forward?

Erik Jones is banking on his strength and consistency

Jones, while speaking ahead of the Chicago Street race, opened up about his plans to advance to the playoffs. “We’re kind of in a tough spot, right? We’re [49 points] out of the Playoffs, which is kind of eight really good races. Obviously, a win would be great, but I feel like there’s a couple of tracks we really have to target hard on what places we can win at. So for us it is to keep doing what we’re doing. If we keep running the way we have been since Charlotte, we’ll point out way in barring another obscure winner.”

For the last three weeks, there have been first-time winners. SVG in Mexico, Chase Briscoe in Pocono, and Chase Elliott in Atlanta. The wins by Briscoe and Elliott don’t shuffle the equation because they were already ahead in points. But a win by AJ Allmendinger or Michael McDowell could stir the pot, and Jones is aware of the situation. However, the LMC driver is taking one step at a time with the races coming up ahead.

“That’s the plan, right now, is just to keep running well and keep racking these points up, I hope it goes well again this weekend. Kind of three strange weeks: here [Chicago], Sonoma, and Dover, so it’s going to kind of make-or-break us. You know, one bad race – if we have a race where something goes wrong, don’t score any good points, I mean it’s kind of over unless a lot of other people have bad races too,” Jones explained during the interview.

Well, Jones hasn’t finished better than P16 at the Chicago Street course in his last two attempts. Moreover, his last three starts at Sonoma Raceway don’t include a single top 10 result. So, the driver knows that a lot of things need to fall into place for him to continue on this positive momentum. With eight races remaining in the regular season, the #43 team is expected to give it their all, and also hope that things fall in their favor if the playoffs race goes down to the wire.

Jimme Johnson is looking to expand LMC to a three-car operation

Ever since the seven-time champion has taken over the role of majority owner, he has been eyeing expanding the team. Currently, the team fields two full-time entries, the #43 car driven by Erik Jones and the #42 John Hunter Nemechek. However, the ambitious drive by the team owner suggests they will be fielding a third car and they have been active in the charter market.

“It’s our intentions and ambitions to put a third car on the grid in 2026. Worst case scenario, 27 but we’re working hard to make 26 happen,” Johnson said on the Never Settle podcast. They were on schedule to get a third charter and had a deal in place with Rick Ware Racing. But the two teams have been in a legal tussle over the sale of the charter and argue about the timeline for when the charter was going to be transferred.

The likes of Jesse Love, Corey Heim and Connor Zilisch are some of the talented drivers in the Cup Series, and one of them could land at LMC when they complete their expansion drive. Johnson and his team will also be keeping an eye out for the NASCAR vs 23XI Racing lawsuit; more charters could be on the sale in the outcome of this lawsuit.