Legacy Motor Club parts ways with Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief Jason Burdett, other crew members
Jimmie Johnson has not had much success during his sporadic appearances in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024, and it’s led to some major changes within Legacy Motor Club.
When Johnson does run the third car for his team, his crew chief has been Jason Burdett, but that changed following the Cup Series’ trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Following a P33 finish, Legacy released Burdett, along with some other members of the No. 84 team.
“Legacy did release members of the 84 team including crew chief Jason Burdett earlier this week,” Pockrass posted on X. “Johnson still will run Kansas, Vegas and Phoenix later this year. Any 2025 plans still tbd.”
As Pockrass noted, Johnson is still slated to run at least three more races in 2024, but his plans for 2025 are unknown. It’s always a pleasure seeing the seven-time champion suit up, but it’s no secret that he’s found it hard to compete when on the track while driving for his own team.
There’s a myriad of reasons for why Johnson may be struggling, from adjusting to the NextGen car, to a lack of seat time and Legacy’s overall struggles, as Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek haven’t had the best seasons either. Still, Johnson’s competitive nature won’t allow him to accept the performance he’s shown in 2024.
Time will tell what the future holds, but Jimmie Johnson and the No. 84 team are shaking things up in a surprise move, as Legacy Motor Club looks to spark their organization over the second half of the 2024 campaign.
More on Jimmie Johnson, Legacy Motor Club struggles
Moreover, there are a number of reasons why Legacy Motor Club is in a tough spot. They just swapped to a new manufacturer. They are the third, Tier 1 Toyota team in the Cup Series. But they aren’t allied with Joe Gibbs Racing in the same way 23XI Racing is.
Over the course of the season, Denny Hamlin has been open about how sharing data with JGR is a two-way street. They get 23XI data, but his team basically gets to skip a lot of steps and take in all of the Gibbs data as well. That is a big reason why 23XI Racing, in year four of existence, has had early success.
Legacy Motor Club is building their own data sets. They want to do this by themselves, and that is fine. The growing pains are going to last longer and hurt more, though.
Alas, it’s a good sign that Legacy doesn’t mind moving people around, or even moving on from others, and adding new personnel. If it starts to become a revolving door, then maybe a re-examination is in order. Right now though, the team is growing, all while trying to find the right combination to make it all work.
On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.