LEGACY MOTOR CLUB: POCONO RACEWAY PRE-RACE ADVANCE
EVENT: The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA.COM
DATE: June 22, 2025
RACE: NASCAR Cup Series 18 of 36
TRACK: Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, Pa. | 2.5-mile triangle shaped oval
CLUB MINUTES:
NEMECHEK BEST YET: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB showed improved pace compared to the performance in 2024, with John Hunter Nemechek reaping the rewards during Sunday’s race in Mexico City. After starting deep in the field in 32nd, Nemechek charged to a sixth-place finish—matching his best career result on a non-superspeedway track.
Nemechek ran quietly through the first two stages, a bold strategy call from crew chief Travis Mack changed the game. Mack kept Nemechek on track at the end of Stage 2, then brought him to pit road early in Stage 3 – just before a caution shuffled the field. That move allowed Nemechek to cycle forward while others lost track position.
Restarting seventh on Lap 69, Nemechek picked up three spots in the chaos and held strong inside the top 10. He eventually ceded one position to Michael McDowell with two laps remaining but still crossed the line in sixth – an impressive climb and his career best finish on a road course.
JONES MEXICO RECAP: In NASCAR’s first points-paying international race in Mexico City, Erik Jones started an impressive 14th after a solid lap in Saturday’s rain-shortened qualifying session. He started off strong in Sunday’s main event as he ran inside the top-10 in the opening laps. The No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota team finished sixth in the first stage to earn five stage points, and despite some trouble from a flat left front tire near the end of Stage 2, Jones rebounded to run in the top-10 during the final stage before tire wear ultimately had him finish 17th. This was his best road course finish so far this year after a 27th-place result earlier this year in March at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
FAST STOPS IN MEXICO: The LEGACY MC athletes rose to the challenge of backwards stops in Mexico City showcasing speed on pit road. The No. 42 pit crew turned in the eighth fastest average on pit road with 11.35 second average stops, and the No. 43 crew was 10th fastest with an 11.45 second average.
JJ’S POCONO SUCCESS: LEGACY MC co-owner and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson claims 38 career starts at the track known as “The Tricky Triangle.” Despite its nickname, Johnson has been victorious at Pocono Raceway three times in the Cup Series – June 2004, August 2004, and June 2013. He also has four poles, 11 top-fives, 20 top-10s, and 743 laps led at the 2.5-mile track.
KENSETH AT POCONO: LEGACY MC’s competition advisor Matt Kenseth also has a strong record at the 2.5-mile track in Pennsylvania. He owns 40 NASCAR Cup Series starts at the track where he won in August 2015. Kenseth has earned four top-fives, 15 top-10s, and led 100 laps over the course of his career at Pocono.
“THE KING” WINS AT POCONO: CLUB Ambassador and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard Petty is also a winner at Pocono. He has two victories at the track from August 1974 and August 1976. As a testament to his strong runs at Pocono, Petty also owns eight top-fives, 12 top-10s and led 497 laps.
NEVER SETTLE: Join ESPN’s Marty Smith and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s co-owner Johnson for their weekly podcast, “Never Settle”. This week’s guest is LEGACY MOTOR CLUB competition advisor Matt Kenseth. The podcast airs live on SIRIUS XM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90 at 2 p.m. ET every Wednesday and can be downloaded wherever fans source their podcasts.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
NO. 42 PYE-BARKER FIRE & SAFETY TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JHN’S HISTORY AT POCONO: John Hunter Nemechek has three NASCAR Cup Series starts at the triangular-shaped, 2.5-mile track of Pocono Raceway. He earned his best finish of 19th in his first start at the track in June 2020. Nemechek has three starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he earned a best finish of seventh in June 2018.
TRUCK TRIANGLE WINNER: In the NASCAR Truck Series, Nemechek made five total starts at Pocono. His most successful trip came in June 2021 where he started seventh and led 12 laps enroute to a 1.337 second margin of victory over Kyle Busch. Nemechek has one win, three top-fives, and four top-10s in his five Trucks Series starts at Pocono.
TMACK AT POCONO: Crew chief Travis Mack has six Cup Series starts under his belt at Pocono. His best finish being a third-place finish with driver Daniel Suarez in July 2022 after the team started ninth. In addition to his starts in the Cup Series, Mack has called two Xfinity Series races at the “Tricky Triangle” with Michael Annett in 2019 and 2020. Both outings resulted in top-10 finishes. His best was the team’s fifth-place result in June 2020.
POINTS POSITION: The NASCAR Cup Series has a close battle for the NASCAR Playoffs with only 10-races to go until the regular-season finale in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway on Saturday, August 23. Over the past couple of weeks, the battle for the cutoff has tightened up even more. Despite some bad luck prior to Mexico that slipped Nemechek back to 25th in points after Michigan, he’s now 23rd, 74-points below the playoff cutline.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTE:
“We have some work to do from where we ran at Pocono last year, but our cars have been better this year. Hopefully, on a positive note, we can continue our speed and have a better showing at the Tricky Triangle.”
TRAVIS MACK QUOTE:
“We’ve been digging into Pocono for a while. The tunnel turn is really tricky, and you have three different corners. You need to get through the bumps in Turn 2. Turn 1 is similar to the intermediate tracks that we’ve been going to, so we feel good about that, but we need to get off Turn 3 to get down the long straightaway, but trying to tie all three corners together is a little tricky.”
ERIK JONES
NO. 43 FAMILY DOLLAR TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JONES POCONO STATS: Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA.COM at Pocono Raceway will mark Erik Jones’ 14th NASCAR Cup Series start at the 2.5-mile triangular track. In his 13 prior starts, he owns five top-five finishes and eight top-10s. His best finish of second came in July 2019 where he finished just 0.341 of a second behind his then-teammate Denny Hamlin. Jones has not finished worse than 14th at the track since his 31st place result in the second of the Pocono doubleheader in June 2021. Jones has an additional four starts outside of the Cup Series at Pocono – one in the Xfinity Series and three in the Craftsman Truck Series. In his lone Xfinity Series start, Jones started from the pole in June 2016 but ultimately finished second to Kyle Larson under caution. His best finish in the Trucks Series came in July 2018 after starting 31st to finish second just 1.469 seconds behind Kyle Busch.
BESHORE AT POCONO: Crew chief Ben Beshore owns five starts at Pocono on top of the pit box in the NASCAR Cup Series between 2017-2024. He earned three top-10s during this time including a runner-up result in first race of the June 2021 doubleheader with Kyle Busch. The duo proceeded to win the second race of the doubleheader the next day. He has three Xfinity Series races under his belt at Pocono as well. The best of these finishes was a 22nd-place result in June 2019 with Jeffrey Earnhardt.
BESHORE’S HOME TRACK: Just two weeks after Jones returned to his home track of Michigan International Speedway, his crew chief Beshore will visit his own this Sunday at Pocono. The 43-year-old crew chief grew up just over two hours South of Pocono in the city of York, Pennsylvania. Beshore has been a staple at Toyota in the NASCAR garage for many years as he joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2014 and served as a crew chief for Kyle Busch in the Cup Series, and then John Hunter Nemechek and Harrison Burton in the Xfinity Series. In 2024, he moved over to LEGACY MC to crew chief the No. 42 team before moving over to the No. 43 team this season.
ERIK JONES QUOTE:
“Pocono is honestly one of my favorite tracks on the schedule. I feel like it’s somewhere where the No. 43 team has run really strong at in this NextGen car and before. With where we’ve been running well this year, I feel like it’s really going to play into our hands to have another fast Toyota Camry XSE. I’m really just excited to get there and hopefully continue our climb through the points. We really are kind of scratching and clawing our way into the playoff picture here the past few weeks. Pocono’s really a great place to have a good run and even possibly challenge for the win. We have to have a good strategy, and I think we will. I’m looking forward to it.”
BEN BESHORE QUOTE:
“Pocono tends to drive more like an intermediate track despite its size. Fortunately, I had a good run with the No. 42 last year at Indianapolis, which is a similar type of fast, flat track with a similar package. I would say that we’ll lean on those notes a lot as we prepare to go back to Pocono. That’s another race where it can really play out by strategy, similar to Michigan. You have to work the race backwards, kind of like we do road courses, but we have to try to put ourselves in the best position at the end of the race. Even if that means sacrificing position earlier in the race to get there. We’re going to try to play the strategy right so we can get Erik out front to have a shot at the win.”
CLUB APPEARANCES:
Jones will be signing autographs and doing a Q&A session for the young NASCAR fans in the Pocono Raceway Kids Zone at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday morning prior to qualifying.
Nemechek will make a stop at the NASCAR Classics Merchandise hauler in the fan midway on race day at 11:00 a.m. to meet with the fans and sign some autographs.
TUNE IN:
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to The Tricky Triangle of Pocono (Pa.) Raceway on Sunday, June 22 for The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA.COM. The race broadcast will take place on Amazon Prime, MAX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90) at 2 p.m. EDT.
ABOUT LEGACY MOTOR CLUB: (LEGACY MC) is a premier auto racing organization co-owned by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and 2024 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, Jimmie Johnson and Knighthead Capital Management, LLC. Drawing from a rich tradition of success, LEGACY MC is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of motorsport and setting new standards of excellence. The CLUB competes under the Toyota Gazoo Racing banner in the NASCAR Cup Series with the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE piloted by Erik Jones and the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE driven by John Hunter Nemechek. Johnson also races on a limited basis in the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE. With NASCAR legend and Hall of Famer Richard Petty, “The King”, serving as CLUB Ambassador, LEGACY MC blends timeless racing traditions with a new forward-thinking vision. As an inclusive community for motorsport enthusiasts, LEGACY MC honors both its storied past and the promising future of its members, always striving for victory and championship glory at the pinnacle of NASCAR competition.
