Legacy MC brands Toyota move with Jimmie Johnson on board as a ‘perfect marriage’

Legacy MC has huge ambitions going into the TRD garage.

Legacy MC brands Toyota move with Jimmie Johnson on board as a ‘perfect marriage’

Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson (Via IMAGO)

The 2023 NASCAR Cup season marked a big manufacturing change. Legacy Motor Club, co-owned by Jimmie Johnson and Moury Gallagher, announced they will join Toyota Racing Development in 2024. They will field Camry instead of Camaro ZL1 from 2024, joining Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing.

The team is moving on from Chevy, seeking better opportunities. According to the CEO, Cal Wells III pointed out that they weren’t given the top-tier treatment they deserved and were treated like a tier-3 team, despite them having Johnson and Moury, who have won a lot for General Motors. Legacy MC was surprised by this and decided to move on.

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While further detailing the move, Wells pointed out that Legacy MC sees the Toyota move as a perfect marriage with someone with such a big brand value as Johson with them. He also pointed out that Toyota has two strong teams in their garage who could help Legacy build a better future together.

FS Video
…Jimmie filled the voids that weren't had in his operation as it related to sponsorship development, as it related to certain other relationships that Jimmy could bring, and it ended up the view was it would be the perfect marriage. You've got individuals that are good in their own swim lane, and now you could build a crossover. That's that's how it came about.
Wells III told Autoweek.

Legacy MC didn’t always get the right information from GM

Wells went on to point out that the support Legacy MC got from GM could have been much higher. He pointed out that they were given limited information initially despite GM knowing the team’s evolution under the new owners. GM wanted to cater to teams under them with whom they have had big investments.

Jimmie Johnson (Credits: X)
Jimmie Johnson (Credits: X) 
Unfortunately (GM) just didn't feel that way. And they left (LMC) at what I would consider a tier three, where the information was very limited and intentional…they had tier one teams that they had made huge investments in and they were wanting to appropriately support their other true key partner teams.

While they have made the Toyota move, it will be a challenging journey for them. They will be competing against two teams with championship ambition at TRD, and Toyota doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to having multiple teams under them. It will be on Jimmie Johnson and his team to prove they made the right call with the move.

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