Happy Birthday Jimmie!: On Tuesday, September 17, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB co-owner, Jimmie Johnson will celebrate his 49th birthday!
Happy Birthday!: David Marin, mechanic on the No. 42 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE driven by John Hunter Nemechek celebrates a birthday on race day at Bristol.
Bristol 1 Recap: The spring Bristol race saw a lot of drama throughout the race. During each run, there was a fine line of how long the tires would last. John Hunter Nemechek had a strong day throughout the afternoon in his LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota Camry XSE – with top-five finishes in both stages and a sixth-place finish – which gave the North Carolina-native a career-best NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) finish.
It was a slightly different race for the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team and Erik Jones. A solid qualifying effort saw him start in 15th, and when the race was complete, he finished in 20th.
JHN Stats Nemechek has ten starts at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Truck Series – eight on concrete and two on dirt. Of the eight on concrete, he has four top-five and six top-10 finishes, a 12th-place finish, and a 29th-place finish. On the Bristol dirt, he has one pole position, a third-place finish, and one DNF. The North Carolina-native also has four NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) starts on his resume, with three top-five finishes. He will make his fourth NCS start this weekend, in his previous three starts, he scored his current career best NCS finish of sixth-place. In all of his total 17 starts at Bristol Motor Speedway, Nemechek has an average finish of 10.1.
Beshore’s 100TH Race: At the Bass Pro Shop Night Race at Bristol, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB crew chief, Ben Beshore will be calling his 100th career race as a NCS crew chief. The York, Pa.-native got his start in NASCAR in 2007 at Roush Fenway Racing (now RFK) as a race engineer. He moved over to Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in 2014. He called his first race as a NCS crew chief in 2017 at Pocono Raceway with Kyle Busch as the driver. In his debut race, the team sat on the pole. In 2024, Beshore followed John Hunter Nemechek to serve as the crew chief on the No. 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota Camry XSE entry.
EJ Stats: Jones has 15 NCS starts, five NXS starts, and one NASCAR Truck Series start at the Tennessee track. Jones has two wins in the NXS at Bristol Motor Speedway – one in 2016 and one in 2017, both in the spring of the respective year. He earned one top-10 in the Truck Series in 2015 – his first and only full-time season. In the NASCAR Cup Series, the Michigan native has accumulated six top-10s and four top-5s – one top-10 coming from the “Bristol Dirt” race in 2021. Of note, his best Cup Series finish was a runner up in 2017.
Elenz Stats: Crew Chief Dave Elenz has also visited Victory Lane at Bristol Motor Speedway. He has earned one win in the NXS with Noah Gragson in 2021. Elenz has nine NXS starts during his full-time tenure in the Xfinity Series obtaining five top-10s. Elenz teamed up with Jones in 2022, and the duo has earned one top-15 at the “Bristol Dirt” version of the race in 2023.
Appearances: Jones and Nemechek will be tag-teaming the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB merchandise hauler in the fan zone at Bristol Motor Speedway at 3:30 P.M. ET on Saturday.
Testing: Earlier this summer in July, the No. 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB with Nemechek behind the wheels was one of six participants in a NASCAR Goodyear tire test at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Anytime I can come to Bristol and get some laps in is super exciting and being able to be a part of this test and try and learn something and figure out what we need when we come back later in the year is the goal. We will go back and debrief and talk about it,” shared Nemechek regarding the test. “I know I am probably one of the few, but I really enjoyed the spring race (Food City 500 in March), it made the driver have to save tires instead of going all out every lap and try to predict where the falloff was going to be and there were crew chiefs making strategy calls, like whether to pit under green. Some people say it’s chaos I guess, but overall, I thought it was a great race. From a spectator standpoint I went back and watched the race (on TV). I thought it was great. The temperatures definitely play a factor in the racetrack and how much it changes your balance in the car. I feel like when we come back, we will have a little cooler conditions and we may have a little bit different of a race track,” added Nemechek following the test session.
Going for G.O.L.D.: Partners Dollar Tree Family Dollar has a “Go for G.O.L.D.” (Grand Opening Look Daily) program. Each week throughout the season, the No. 42 and No. 43 will feature one of the local stores on the decklid of the Toyota Camry XSE.
John Hunter Nemechek, Driver of the No. 42 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE:
“I’ve been good (at Bristol) – it’s just been a track that has suited me well throughout my career. I’ve always had fast vehicles there. I’ve finished third (seven times) and should have won a couple times but haven’t been able to break through…yet. It’s a fun place and I love going there. I enjoy moving around by running the bottom and top and with tire wear, it falls back into what I used run with Late Models and try to conserve and makes them last. I’m going in with no expectations — don’t want to disappoint myself.”
Ben Beshore, Crew chief of the No. 42 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE:
“Sounds like NASCAR is not going to do anything different so I wouldn’t expect anything different than what we had in the spring. We didn’t lay rubber in the test (in July) so I wouldn’t expect for us to lay any rubber down this time around. You got what you got – it’s going to be a game of managing tires and holding your position without hurting your tires. We have enough tires for about every 50-laps or so; you’re going to have to play it if we get a longer run, you’re not the first one to fall off a cliff and burn through your tires. John Hunter did a great managing tires – we were one of the six guys that got to go to the test and work on some stuff and get even more of a feel for what we’re going to have this weekend – so yeah, we’re optimistic and hopefully match the success we had in the spring.”
Erik Jones, Driver of the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE:
“It’s tough to tell at Bristol, it seemed like the concrete in the past there was not much wear on the tires and you could really run aggressive and hard for the entirety of the run and tires weren’t a lot. Obviously in the spring we saw a really different race than we’ve probably ever seen at Bristol with a lot of tire wear and fall off and guys blowing tires out from so much wear in a pretty short amount of time – 60 to 70 laps. I think everybody is a little unclear on what this race is going to look like in that sense, but the management is definitely going to be a big part of this game if it’s similar to the spring again.
Racing at night is a little bit different at Bristol, grip level is definitely higher and it seems like the track takes a little bit longer to widen out sometimes to get to the top side. The atmosphere is probably the biggest difference. I think everybody really looks forward to the night race from the drivers to the fans, so the atmosphere is really pumped up for the night race.”
Dave Elenz, Crew chief of the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE:
“Being a concrete track, the surface is more abrasive and tends to be harder on tires. That is, until it takes rubber. What’s been interesting about Bristol this year is it did not take the rubber like we’re used to expecting. It remained that abrasive, concrete surface that created a lot of tire wear for us. So that made it a challenge for us, we had to be really good at saving tires throughout the run. I think you saw the guys that went hard early and got the track position and then saved tires later they probably came out the best in the situation. You have to have track position to save tires so we’re going to work hard to get up front and then worry about saving tires from there.
I don’t feel like anyone can win Bristol. I think guys that are good getting into a rhythm and fast pace type driving – those are the guys that are going to be good there. I think Erik’s really good there… there’s just a handful of guys that really get a good feel for the track and understand the rhythm and can really excel at that place. You either have it or you don’t, it seems like at Bristol, and fortunately we have a guy that has it.”
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