The championship race at Phoenix marked the tip of the season for almost all of Cup Sequence groups however for Legacy Motor Membership, it used to be best the start of a hectic offseason.
The 2-car Cup workforce co-owned via Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson will make the transfer the Toyota Racing Building over the offseason. The group should make a lot of adjustments as a part of this procedure, beginning with prepping apparatus for a six-car producer take a look at at Phoenix in December.
“We need to do what we will within the offseason,” Erik Jones mentioned forward of the season finale at Phoenix. “We’ve got were given a month. We’ve were given to chop our bodies off, exchange engines over to come back again and take a look at right here in a month. So there is a ton of labor to be completed on that facet of items.”
Making ready for the Phoenix take a look at is just one merchandise at the to-do listing. The engineers can even paintings with a brand new crew of folks as a part of the transfer to Toyota Racing. They’re going to have to be told a brand new simulation program after being with Chevrolet for a number of seasons.
Legacy MC introduced the approaching transfer to Toyota in Would possibly, the day after the rain-delayed race at Dover. The timing put the group in a state of affairs the place it misplaced one of the crucial gear up to now to be had via Chevrolet. Although Legacy MC endured to make development because the season improved.
Jones best had two top-10 finishes and a median end of 20.45 prior to the announcement. Rookie Noah Gragson had no top-10 finishes and a median end of 27.55.
Jones scored 5 top-10 finishes and one peak 5 throughout ultimate 25 races of the season. His reasonable end used to be 20.4. Jones ended the season having spent 2,930 laps within the peak 15. This used to be 31.8 p.c of the season.
Carson Hocevar had a median end of 23.13 in his 8 begins for Legacy MC whilst changing Gragson, who won a suspension for liking a racially insensitive put up on social media. Gragson and Legacy MC parted techniques in August so he may center of attention at the reinstatement procedure.
Hocevar scored the No. 42’s best possible end of the season at Bristol via crossing the end line eleventh.
Hocevar had 5 of the No. 42’s 8 top-20 finishes this season. Gragson had two. Mike Rockenfeller had one.
“I feel we roughly went again to fundamentals just a little,” Jones mentioned in regards to the development. “We misplaced a handful of our gear that we had early within the season with our bulletins, so we roughly needed to pass on our personal.
“Were given some just right notes we had and in reality simply take and refine the ones. And in reality, it is simply one of the crucial guys. I imply, simply just right folks in just right puts, employed some just right engineers that got here in and helped us so much.”
Legacy MC will goal to construct upon this late-season development whilst benefiting from the gear made to be had via Toyota Racing. The drivers for 2024 – Jones and John Hunter Nemechek – should paintings on development their relationships with TRD and with every different.
There may be extra paintings for Jones taking into consideration he has been with Chevrolet because the get started of the 2021 season. Nemechek moved to the Toyota pipeline that very same season after 365 days in Cup with Ford Efficiency.
Jones, who received a Truck Sequence championship with Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2015, does no longer have a lot revel in operating with Nemechek. He used to be within the Toyota pipeline whilst Nemechek used to be riding for Chevrolet and Ford groups.
Jones has labored with more than one teammates as Richard Petty Motorsports changed into Petty GMS Motorsports after which Legacy Motor Membership.
Ty Dillon drove the No. 42 in 2022. Gragson made 21 begins within the automobile this season. Grant Enfinger, Josh Berry, Hocevar, Nemechek and Rockenfeller all made begins within the No. 42.
As Jones defined, this ever-changing driving force lineup used to be no longer just right for the two-car operation.
“You wish to have a teammate this is operating neatly, is making this system higher, is pushing us all to be higher,” Jones mentioned. “When one workforce is on an island and operating neatly and the opposite workforce is suffering, it is in reality tricky on each groups.
“It isn’t tricky best at the suffering workforce. It is tricky at the workforce that is operating neatly to check out to band support and lend a hand the workforce that is suffering. So we’d like continuity.”
Nemechek taking up the second one automobile with the transfer to Toyota Racing will potentiall give Jones the continuity he wants. The next move will probably be development upon it and making Legacy MC extra aggressive on a constant foundation in order that one – or each – vehicles contend for spots within the playoffs after a season of struggles.
“We’re clearly in reality excited for subsequent 12 months,” Jones mentioned. “However we had objectives we needed to perform this season that, frankly, we did not achieve however we nonetheless put our best possible foot ahead.”
