Jimmie Johnson is now majority owner of Legacy Motor Club (Image: Getty)
In NASCAR, speed is the name of the game. Jimmie Johnson has always been pretty good at it, to say the least.
He was fast to rise through the ranks to the Cup Series, then fast to become a race-winner and championship contender. After he won his first championship in 2006, he was fast to move from one to five in as many years, eventually winning a record-equalling seven titles.
With that in mind, it’s no surprise that he’s found the biggest challenge of crossing the fence from driver to owner the feeling of going slow.
“It’s been an interesting transition,” he tells at Legacy Motor Club headquarters in Statesville, North Carolina.
“I’m so used to being in the car. Everything is such a fast-pace and as a small little unit within the team you can change direction very quickly.
“I don’t know. There’s just a lot more speed, whereas on the ownership side it takes a lot of strategic planning. Things move slowly.
“We spend a lot of time on the revenue side, trying to find partners. You meet someone that shows interest then it’s months and months and months before you’re simply able to put a sticker on the car. It’s a big difference in that respect.”
It’s fair to say that while things have proved slower than hoped off the track, the same applies on the track, too. After making a bold switch from Chevrolet to Toyota, Legacy Motor Club struggled in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series.
Drivers Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek finished 35th and 29th respectively in the Cup Series standings, and the transition proved more troublesome than hoped.
Johnson is still driving a part-time schedule with two races planned in 2025 (Image: Getty)
But that is all in the past. Last Monday, in a special team event launching this season at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, team leadership led by Johnson outlined their vision for the season ahead.
The focus is on the details. How each member of the team, in every department, can deliver their role to the best of their ability. If they all do that, they know their drivers will be put in the best position possible to weave through the field.
Given how his own career panned out, and his level of expertise, it is no surprise that Johnson has supreme confidence that, while the process may feel long and arduous, the results will come.
“We’re winners,” he declares. “We know we will be winners. It’s just a matter of getting all the right processes in place.
“Last year was just much more difficult than we ever anticipated or bargained for. There was a lot on our side to learn and understand, then I think Toyota bringing on a new team, there was a little bit in that as well.
“But where we’ve come in the last 12 months, especially the last three or four months since the season has ended, it’s pretty impressive.”
Johnson has John Hunter Nemechek driving the No.42 car (Image: Getty)
Johnson knows as well as anyone that it has been a struggle on the race track. Driving the No.84 car in nine races last year, he had a season-high finish of 29th place.
This year, he’ll take part in just two races – the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. And he knows qualifying for the first of those races poses a challenge in itself.
Simply put, Johnson needs the hard yards of the off-season to instantly pay off. If not, he could face not making it to the start line for the Great American Race. These days, it’s not just his own reputation, but financial implications at stake.
“Daytona is so fun,” he says. “It’s going to be really stressful. Last year was stressful enough trying to get into the show, and this year with more quality cars, it will be even more difficult.
“We have a huge promotion [NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal will design his car after winning a free-throw contest]. It’s going to be a lot of pressure to get into that race, so nothing like going deep into the pressure cooker straight away!”
Johnson will once again be aiming to qualify for the Daytona 500 (Image: Getty)
If there is anyone that can deal with the pressure cooker, it is Johnson. Last year, he snuck into the race via the final lap of the Dual.
But his expertise has never really been on full display in the NextGen car, a machine which has not been kind to Johnson and his limited schedule since being introduced in 2022.
It is a completely different car to the one he dominated in. He simply has not driven it regularly enough to make any inroads.
“When I was driving these cars all the time, you just naturally get into a feel and rhythm of it. I think I’ve been in 10 or 11 races with the new car and they’re spread out months apart. Plus we’re a new and growing team, so we haven’t had our cars as competitive as they need to be.
“But for me, just from a pure sensation stand point, they drive much different to the days I was driving.”
When he steps back behind the wheel, he is in a field “so much tighter now than it was. I thought it was pretty tight back then!”. He highlights a less forgiving tire as “one of the biggest character traits”, explaining how the car “just behaves differently” as a result of a combination of the tires and the aerodynamic package.
Has the competitor in him ever been tempted to give it a full crack and see if he can win in the NextGen car? “No,” he bluntly admits. “I slowed down in 2020 and went to IndyCar races and slowly started ramping up my races. I think I had 26 races in 2022 and it was just too much.
“Trying to manage life and all the various elements, including family. It’s not for me. Those days have passed.”
Nonetheless, if not for the changes he grapples with when he gets behind the wheel, becoming an owner simply would not have been possible.
“It’s so much different now,” he says. “The fact we’re not manufacturing cars. We’re basically buying all these parts and assembling them and there’s nowhere to work.
“You’re racing in different areas of much smaller margins that you’re chasing. So it’s a lot different.
“That being said, if this was still the manufacturing era, I’m not sure that I would have the ability to come in and be a part of it. It was just so big and so expensive that it just wasn’t the right environment for myself.
“Ultimately, NASCAR has been very mindful of the expense and trying to create longevity and bring in new owners. So this format, although it’s not the way I spent my career racing, it’s been a great opportunity as an owner.”
Johnson is a seven-time Cup Series champion (Image: Getty)
The sport now has a level of parity it has never quite seen before, one which likely means Johnson’s run of dominance – seven championships in 11 years including five in a row – will never be repeated.
“Man, it is so unpredictable,” he says. “With the parity in the sport, it’s just smashed everyone together.
“I think just the evolution of motorsport, it’s more and more difficult for that type of consistent success to happen. It doesn’t matter if it’s NASCAR, Formula One…it’s just harder and harder.
“But as Richard Petty told me when I pulled off to win my seventh championship that day, he said ‘records are made to be broken’, and that’s just such a great way to look at it. We’ll see if someone does, and I’ll be there supporting them.”
It was Petty who’s record he equalled with title No.7, all of which came under the guidance of another of NASCAR’s legends, Rick Hendrick, who he says became “like a second father” during his career.
“I’ve learned so much from Mr Hendrick,” he reflects. “You know, I wish I would’ve kept some better notes from the owners standpoint!”
While he may wish he paid closer attention, the “family feel” Hendrick created and “how he interacts with people” is something Johnson is keen to foster in his own ownership style.
“You’re motivated by the fact you don’t want to disappoint him,” he explains. “Because he cares so much for you, you care so much for him. He’s just a highly relational man. It doesn’t matter if its his employees, his drivers or his partners and that’s something I’m trying to carry forward for sure.”
Even as ownership moves at a slower pace than anticipated, Johnson still finds a way to be quicker than most – just as he did on the track. A five-year plan to become majority owner was recently sped up as Maury Gallagher stepped away from Legacy Motor Club, while Johnson, fresh from a stint living in London, has brought on board Knighthead Capital LLC with fresh investment.
“Ultimately, Maury (Gallagher) and I, we had a plan for kind of a five-year evolution where at the end of the five years I would become a majority owner,” he explains. “But life changes, and everything that Maury is so occupied with and busy with from the Allegiant side and other businesses he has and runs, plus just family time and trying to be around for his family.
“This opportunity came around a little bit earlier. Ironically, my time in London has allowed me to be around some extremely interesting and sports-focused individuals including the Knighthead folks. That was where I was really able to get to know them.
“As we started this process to find the right strategic partner, the alignment with Knighthead has just been incredible. I think there’s some short-term opportunities that will stand out quickly, then I believe over the years to come they’ll continue to grow the Legacy Motor Club brand.”
Taking full control has happened faster than planned, now NASCAR’s most successful driver of the modern era hopes that speed will translate to the track and get him back in Victory Lane as an owner.