Last season proved to be a tough row to hoe for every Legacy Motor Club driver, as the transition from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2024 left the entire outfit struggling to find its footing. The growing pains were so pronounced that the team’s sophomore slump looked worse than its rookie campaign in 2022. But lately, the tide appears to be turning, with both Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek beginning to hit their stride.
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Speaking ahead of the Chicago weekend, Jones acknowledged the uphill climb that remains. Sitting 39 points outside the Playoff cutline, he knows the math is simple but unforgiving: eight strong runs or a win could swing the door open, but there’s little margin for error. Jones noted that there are a couple of tracks they really need to zero in on, places where they’ve got a real shot to win.
As for his current game plan, it’s all about staying the course:
“For us, I mean, it’s just doing what we’re doing. If we keep running the way we’ve ran since Charlotte, we’ll probably point our way in, barring another kind of obscure winner farther back in points.”
“So, that’s the plan right now, 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.”
Still, Jones remains wary. One misstep, one race where things unravel and the points haul slips through their fingers, could send the No. 43 Toyota tumbling out of contention unless a bunch of others stumble, too; that’s a wrap.
Momentum, however, has been on their side. “We’ve been on a great roll, tons of momentum. It’s easy to look at it right now and say it’s going to keep going, but you don’t know how things ebb and flow. Pointing our way in is the number one goal, but we’re banking hard on a couple of races that we can win, too,” he added.
Jones season so far tells the story of two halves. Through the first nine starts, he came up empty on top-10s and top-5s, though he did finish four top-20s. In the nine races, the script has flipped. He’s landed three top-10s, including a pair of top-5s, and eight finishes inside the top 20. The races are finally clicking, but the margin for error remains thin for him.
“We’re in the magic zone,” Erik Jones says on what’s missing in the team
The team has begun stringing together top-10 and top-5 finishes, but when Erik Jones was pressed on what separates them from contending with the heavy hitters, he didn’t sugarcoat the complexity of that final leap. “We’re in the magic zone…,” he said.
“So, in racing, I think if you’re running 30th, like we were last year, it’s not easy to get better to run in the top-15 or top-10, but it’s a lot easier to get to that point than it is to go from top-10 to top-five, to winning.”
“So, this is kind of where that magic starts to happen, and it takes some really good people to find some really minute things in race cars, and then it comes down to the drivers as well.. And execution, making it happen in the seat, so yeah, I wish I could just tell you what that is. I think we’re right there, a step away of being up there with the Penskes, JGR, Hendrick (Motorsports). We’re real close to that mark, but it definitely takes some magic.”
Jones currently sits 16th in the standings with 379 points. On the other side of the garage, John Hunter Nemechek has quietly pieced together a solid campaign of his own. Although he finds himself on the outside looking in, sitting 23rd in the standings, he’s already posted six top-10 finishes this season, including a strong top-5 showing in the Daytona 500.
