Toyota GAZOO Racing – John Hunter Nemechek
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
AUSTIN (March 1, 2025) – LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver John Hunter Nemechek was made available to the media on Saturday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of the Americas.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Do you expect the early success you’ve had in superspeedway racing will carry over into other tracks?
“I sure hope so. I think that the first two races for us this year were about survival and putting ourselves in good spots to have good finishes and have shots to contend for a win. I think that for us, coming into COTA there’s a lot of unknowns. I feel like last year, we really struggled at road courses. That’s probably one of the areas that we lacked speed the most and the cars didn’t drive very well, didn’t have very much speed. It just wasn’t very good for us. But, with the changes over the offseason there’s a lot of new personnel and a lot of new ideas. Different cars I would say. Hopefully, faster race cars than we had last year. I’m looking forward to seeing where we stack up as far as the road course program goes and how much improvement and gains we’ve made over the offseason. To answer your question, I hope that we’re able to carry that speed over and have another a solid top 10 run and be able to have speed in our LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota Camry XSEs but that’s still to be determined. These next three weeks are race tracks that are circled to figure out how far we’ve come in improvements at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB over the offseason car build-wise, process-wise, personnel – and we’ll see where we stack up with all of the changes.”
How do you feel as a driver coming into this season?
“Man, 2024 was probably one of the most trying years of my personal and professional life. A lot happened in 2024. I had to overcome a lot both personally and racing side. I won’t get into too many details. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Let’s put it that way. 2024 was definitely a year that I learned a lot of lessons, a lot of valuable lessons. But, yeah, a lot affected racing on Sundays and that shouldn’t have been that way, but in the end you overcome that. You learn and you grow as a person. I feel like being 27 now, at times you’ve got to grow up really fast, you’ve got to mature. You’ve got to learn the good, the bad and the ugly and how to overcome certain things. I feel like coming in to 2025, I feel like I’m a completely different person when it comes to that. My mindset has shifted and personality a little bit. There’s a lot of things that have changed for me in the matter of the last let’s say three or four months. I feel good about 2025. I feel like I’m in a really good place. I’m excited for this year. I’m excited for all of the changes that LEGACY has made over the offseason. Yeah, that stat is not one to be proud of that’s for sure. All in all, all we can do is go onward and upward. Can’t get much worse than last year.”
Are there any trouble spots that you’re concerned about on the track this weekend?
“Man, (turn) 6A is going to interesting for sure with how tight it is. When you’re coming off the high speed esses I think it’s going to be really hard to pass through there. I think you’re going to throw a late dive bomb if you’re going to try and pass through there. Then the asphalt being so old compared to the new asphalt and being super slick. We just got done with the track walk and it’s a significant difference on the section from 6A to 6B. I think it’s going to be really hard to pass through there. I think your angles are going to be really difficult with how tight it is. It reminds me in a different way, but similarities to turn 4 at Chicago – the little short shoot there that’s really tight. You didn’t really see a lot of passing happen there and if you did it was more or less being out-braked getting into turn 4 rather than through there. I think it’s going to be really hard to pass through 6A, 6B. A lot of guys I guess thought it was going to be an improved passing zone, but I think time will tell. I think that this race is going to come down to track position and really having your car tuned up and executing on restarts and putting yourself in good spots.”
How important is it to have Jimmie Johnson being so devoted to the race team?
“I think for any company that’s super important to have someone that is involved that wants to take the team or company to the next level and wants to succeed. I haven’t found anything other than free throws with Shaq that Jimmie (Johnson) absolutely sucks at. He’s pretty good at about everything so I’m hoping that transfers over to the ownership side as well. Jimmie has been great to me over the last year. He’s helped me through a lot of different situations. He’s been someone that I can rely on and ask those hard or tough questions and get a straight answer. He’s been a great boss so far, a great mentor. I’ve always kind of looked up to Jimmie through my childhood, growing around the race track and seeing what he wants to do and the vision he has behind LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. For myself, of deciding to go Cup racing last year with LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, some of that decision that was involved with that was that this was going to be growing LEGACY MOTOR CLUB and the vision that Jimmie had kind of sold me on that. So, I’m looking forward to kind of seeing where we stack up here with the changes that were made over the offseason. I know that Jimmie is definitely excited as well and pushing everyone to be better every single day. I think that’s a huge testament to who he is and just how humble he is and how he wants this place to run and how he wants this place to succeed. I think with him moving back and being involved, and talking to myself and Erik (Jones) almost every day. Being able to shoot each other notes and having him here in person more I think is going to be even more beneficial as we move forward here. So, I’m looking forward to spending a lot more time with Jimmie as the year goes on.”
What’s it been like getting to work with your new crew chief Travis Mack to start the season?
“At first, I didn’t know how to take Travis (Mack, crew chief). Have you seen the movie Up? You know the dog that has a collar on and it’s like squirrel, squirrel. Just random thoughts that pop into his head. I kind of relate to Travis that way. Just super full of energy, great guy, down to earth, not afraid to speak his mind. I feel like it’s good for me. It’s pushing me to be better and focus on the things that we feel like we need to focus on at times. Hopefully, he doesn’t get offended by my Up comment, but it’s been really great being able to work with him and the whole 42 group. There’s only two guys, one mechanic and my PR guy, Colby, that is the same from last year on the 42 team. Literally everyone else is new to the 42 team. Some have been at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB just in different roles. I feel like everything has gone well over the offseason. I feel like the communication standpoint has gone well. I feel like kind of everyone is gelling and working together. We’re all working and pushing to achieve the same goal. All of us want it and you can definitely see that in our team. We were able to move some spots around and implement some better procedures and processes and things of that sort. I feel like working with Travis has been really good so far. I’m looking forward to continuing – we’re technically only three races in with the Clash. I feel like we’ve kind of hit it off. I feel like we’ve been able to communicate well. Our debriefs have been really good as far as sitting down and figuring out what each other need differently on the radio and figuring how to communicate better to make the cars go faster. At the end of the day, Travis and I can have a great relationship, or we can have a love hate relationship, right? We’re going to push each other to be better every single day. We both have that same mentality, so I feel like it’s good for us.”
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