Jimmie Johnson and Legacy Motor Club make big changes to the racing team

Jimmie Johnson and his Legacy Motor Club board are making moves on the competition side this week. The NASCAR Cup Series organization is parting ways with Joey Cohen and bringing Bobby Kennedy on board.

Joey Cohen, who served as competition director, is no longer with the team. Bobby Kennedy, a former crew chief and longtime smart guy on the competition side, will become general manager.

Legacy Motor Club is making the changes in the midst of a season that was more than lackluster. The team had hoped the switch from Chevy to Toyota would be fruitful. Now they’re looking for other answers.

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports shared the news on X.com, formerly known as Twitter.

Legacy Motor Club names Kennedy, who most recently served as crew chief for Michael Waltrip in 2015, as general manager in hopes he can provide some leadership to the organization.

This season has not gone as LMC probably hoped. Results weren’t showing at the start of the season and then Erik Jones, their flagship rider, was injured with a broken back. He has just one top 10 finish this season and is 28th in the overall standings.

Jones’ teammate John Hunter Nemechek has two more top-10 finishes than Jones, but is 30th in the points standings. Neither driver has truly lived up to expectations in 2024, whether injured or not.

It will be interesting to see if Jimmie Johnson and Maury Gallagher can get this organization back on track. It won’t be easy.

Problems facing the Legacy Motor Club

There are a number of reasons why Legacy Motor Club is in a tough spot. They just switched to a new manufacturer. They are the third Tier 1 Toyota team in the Cup Series. But they are not allied with Joe Gibbs Racing in the same way that 23XI Racing is.

Denny Hamlin has been open about how the data exchange with JGR is a two-way street. They get the data from 23XI, but his team can essentially skip a lot of steps and use all of the Gibbs data as well. That’s a big reason why 23XI Racing has had early success in its fourth year of operation.

The Legacy Motor Club creates its own records. They want to do that themselves, and that’s fine. However, the growing pains will take longer and hurt more.

I think it’s a good sign that Legacy has no problem moving people around or even leaving others and hiring new staff. If it becomes a revolving door, we may need to talk. Right now the team is growing and trying to find the right combination to make it all work.