LEGACY MOTOR CLUB: DOVER MOTOR SPEEDWAY PRE-RACE ADVANCE
EVENT: Dover 400
DATE: July 20, 2025
RACE: NASCAR Cup Series 21 of 36
TRACK: Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway | 1-mile, concrete oval
CLUB MINUTES:
TNT IN SEASON BRACKET: This week’s race at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway marks the final four drivers in TNT’s In-Season Tournament Challenge. After barely nudging out his teammate Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek advances to this round to face Ty Dillon to move onto the finals next Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If Nemechek can best Dillon this weekend, he’ll have a chance to face either Ty Gibbs or Tyler Reddick to win the $1 million prize.
PLAYOFF PICTURE WITH SIX TO GO: The NASCAR Playoffs kick off on Aug. 31 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. With only six races to go, the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB drivers are on the hunt for a spot in the playoffs. Jones is currently 21st in the playoff standings, only 68 points below the cutline while Nemechek is 25th, 75 points below the cutline.
PIT CREW PERFORMANCE: LEGACY MC had another top-10 pit crew performance last Sunday at Sonoma (Ca.) Raceway. According to Asphalt Analytics, the No. 43 pit crew was ranked eighth for the day on pit road with a 9.26 second average. This is their fourth top-10 ranking in the last seven races.
JJ DOMINATED DOVER: LEGACY MC co-owner and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson has dominated at the 1-mile concrete oval of Dover Motor Speedway in his career. In his 39 starts, Johnson has won 11 times and scored 18 top-fives and 27 top-10s in addition to his 3,113 laps led at that track alone. His first win came in his debut at the track in June 2002 by .478 of a second over Bill Elliott, which he then followed up with another win September 2002 by .535 second of a second over Mark Martin. The most recent victory at Dover came in June 2017, which was his 83rd win, which tied him for sixth all time on the NASCAR wins list. It was Johnson’s final trip to Victory Lane as a full-time Cup Series driver as he defeated Kyle Larson for the trophy.
KENSETH AT DOVER: LEGACY MC competition advisor Matt Kenseth has also found success at the track nicknamed “The Monster Mile” as he secured three NASCAR Cup Series victories in his 41 career starts. He scored his first victory in June 2006 by a .787 of second margin over Jamie McMurray. In May 2011, Kenseth found victory lane with a 2.122-seconds margin over Mark Martin. His third victory at the track was in the May 2016 race where he finished .187 of second ahead of Kyle Larson. In total, he owns 17 top-fives and 24 top-10s at Dover with 905 laps led.
KENSETH’S FIRST RIDE: In September 1998, Kenseth made his first NASCAR Cup Series career start at the 1-mile oval of Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. He had attempted to make the April Talladega race earlier that year but did not qualify for the event. A couple months later, he had another chance to race as he filled in for Bill Elliott who had to miss the race for personal reasons. Kenseth started 16th in the No. 94 car and finished an impressive sixth in his first career start.
THE KING’S WINS AT DOVER: LEGACY MC ambassador and “The King” Richard Petty had a successful career at Dover as well. Like Johnson, Petty won in his first two NASCAR Cup Series races at Dover in July 1969 and September 1970. He went on to win the October 1971, September 1974, September 1975, September 1979, and May 1984 races at Dover for a total of seven victories. He earned 16 top-fives and 26 top-10s to go with his 2,206 laps led at Dover.
NEVER SETTLE: Join ESPN’s Marty Smith and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s co-owner Jimmie Johnson for their weekly podcast, “Never Settle”. The podcast airs live on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90 at 2 p.m. ET every Wednesday and can be downloaded wherever fans source their podcasts. This week’s guests are LEGACY MC drivers Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
NO. 42 HERTZ TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JHN AT DOVER: Nemechek has three starts at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series, with two top-20 finishes—one in 2020 and another in 2024. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, he has made seven starts at the track, earning four top-10 finishes, including one top-five in 2023. Nemechek also has four starts at Dover in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, with his best finish being sixth in 2014.
T-MACK DOVER STATS: Sunday’s race will be crew chief Travis Mack’s seventh NASCAR Cup Series race at the Monster Mile. His first outing came in 2017 with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who earned a seventh-place finish, Mack’s highest at Dover. He returned in 2018 with Kasey Kahne, where he earned a 17th-place finish. In 2021, Mack returned to the top of the pit box at Dover in the Cup Series with Daniel Suárez, where the duo competed for three years in a row, with their highest finish being ninth in their first year. Last year at the Monster Mile, he earned a 13th place finish with AJ Allmendinger. In the NASCAR Xfinity series, Mack has four starts at Dover with Michael Annett, and earned top 10 results in each race, with the highest in 2019 where they finished sixth.
HERTZ JOINS THE CLUB: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB announced that Hertz will be the primary sponsor of Nemechek’s No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway on July 20. The black-and-gold Hertz livery will return to NASCAR, highlighting the growing partnership between LEGACY MOTOR CLUB and team co-owner Knighthead Capital Management, LLC. Knighthead who also co-owns the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA in the FIA World Endurance Championship, aligning both programs under a unified global motorsports strategy.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTE:
“Dover is a really neat race track. You can definitely move around quite a bit, you can run the bottom, you can run the top. Dover is a really challenging place, it’s a lot of physical abuse on the driver. Jimmie was probably one of the best there, so I’m going to pick his brain before going back there. He had a strong run going there last year as well in the Next Gen car, and Travis has had some success there in the past as well. Hopefully we have a really good Toyota Camry XSE with Hertz on board. We’re excited to have them on the No. 42 for their first race, and we’ll see what we can do.”
TRAVIS MACK QUOTE:
“We’re in the Final Four of the In-Season Challenge at Dover, which is really exciting. John Hunter has run really good at Dover in the other series, and we’re just going to keep capitalizing on our downforce setup and intermediate package. We had a decent car at Bristol, so I feel like we could carry everything right over into Dover. We’re ready to go to Dover and have a great race and make it into the final round at Indy.”
ERIK JONES
NO. 43 DOLLAR TREE TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JONES DOVER STATS: Sunday’s race at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway will mark Jones’ 12th NASCAR Cup Series start at the 1-mile, concrete oval. In his 11 prior starts, the Michigan-native has earned one top-five and three top-10s. He earned a best finish of fourth in October 2018 after starting 16th. He has an additional six starts outside of the Cup Series at Dover – five in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and one in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Jones earned a third-place finish in his one and only Truck Series start after starting second and leading 50 laps. He earned two top-10s at Dover in the Xfinity Series including his win in the May 2016 race by a 1.434 second margin of victory over Bubba Wallace.
WINNER AT DOVER: Jones has already defeated Miles the Monster once in his career. In his one and only full-time season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2016, Jones had already won once in the April 2016 Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway race and was ready to tackle another shorter oval on the schedule. Jones qualified third for the 120-lap event. He initially took the lead on lap 12 from Ty Dillon and then again for a second time on lap 78 to the end. In total, he led 76 laps at Dover to claim his Monster Mile trophy in victory lane.
BESHORE AT DOVER: Crew chief Ben Beshore has been on top of the box for three prior races at Dover in the Cup Series. He earned a best finish of seventh in May 2022 with Kyle Busch who started 10th and led 103 laps of the race. Beshore has been the crew chief for an additional five Xfinity Series races – highlighted by two fifth-place results – August 2020 with Harrison Burton and April 2023 with (John Hunter) Nemechek.
ERIK JONES QUOTE
“Dover has always been a fun track in my career. For me though, it’s been a track where we’ve had some ups and downs. We’ve done well, but we’ve also struggled there a bit as well. That’s kind why it’s been a feast or famine at Dover. With where our cars are right now and our aero package right now, I think our Dover package will be strong. I’m excited to get there. The track always moves around a ton during the race – from the bottom to the top. You have a lot of options there and you can try some different stuff to find a ton of speed if your car isn’t doing exactly what you want. So can’t wait to get there and see how it goes, but I feel good about it.”
BEN BESHORE QUOTE
“Dover is one of those one-off type tracks. It’s a mile which we typically run either shorter or longer tracks, so it’s different being right at a mile. The concrete surface is unique – you can get a lot of tire wear there. You can have a lot of part failures from the high banking and whatnot. So it’s very unique. Throughout the race you might see guys start moving to the top, but that’s one of those risk versus reward situations. You’re making good lap time up there, but you’re also really wearing the tires out. You can make speed for a while but fall off on the backside of a run. The seams in the concrete will build rubber up so it can get bumpy and rough so you’ll have to figure all of that into your set up to have a good car for the race.”
CLUB APPEARANCES:
Nemechek will stop by the Fan Zone and visit various displays on Saturday, July 19 at 11:30 a.m. local time. He will also visit the NASCAR Classics trackside merchandise rig to sign for fans at 11:00 a.m. local time, and the Speedway Children’s Charities Dunk Tank on Sunday, July 20.
TUNE IN:
Fans can tune in to watch the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 20 at 2 p.m. ET on TNT, MAX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
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.
