One of the more interesting stories coming out of the NASCAR Cup Series last year was when Jimmie Johnson’s team Legacy Motor Club announced they would be shifting to Toyota from the 2024 season. Now that the team has entered a new era, that transition seems to be a work in progress. Recently, while speaking with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Dave Elenz (Crew Chief of the #43) shared details about the progress regarding the transition, eight races in.
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Elenz stated, “It’s been really interesting for us getting going with Toyota here. I think everybody had higher expectations in what our results have been so far. So that’s been it’s been challenging for us.”
“There’s a lot of things we have to work through just from processes and engineering side of things that they take time to get through and understand all the capabilities that Toyota has and understand how we can utilize those into our process.”
The crew chief further mentioned that they have been adjusting how they operate as a team every week as they try to maximize what they can learn about the race car. The environment within the team has been fast-paced so far but they have been able to understand where they need to be as a team. They were also happy with the recent string of finishes this season.
“Hopefully, that continues here into Texas, but it’s going to take more time for us to get to where we want it to be,” he concluded.
️”Everybody had higher expectations than what our results have been […] it’s going to take more time for us to get to where we wanted to be.”@DaveElenz describes how @LEGACYMotorClub‘s transition to Toyota has gone 8 races into the season.
→ https://t.co/WGRTG5gVtL pic.twitter.com/jp7vp24vew
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) April 11, 2024
How is Jimmie Johnson’s team performing so far this season?
It’s been eight races so far in the Cup Series and unlike a year prior, the seven-time Cup Series champion’s team has been doing pretty decent. The team currently has a lineup of Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek in a full-time capacity and Johnson joining in on select races in a third car.
Looking at the points table, Jones sits 20th in the standings with 154 points and one top-10 finish. Meanwhile, his teammate, Nemechek sits 19th with 157 points and two top 10s.
While in the top 20s, there’s a lot they can achieve as things get stronger at the LMC garage. This is considering that it will still take some time for them to complete the transition phase.
