LEGACY MOTOR CLUB:
DAYTONA PRE-RACE ADVANCE
EVENT: Coke Zero Sugar 400
DATE: August 29, 2026
Race: NASCAR Cup Series 26 of 36
TRACK: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway | 2.5-Mile Oval
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
NO. 42 PYE-BARKER FIRE & SAFETY TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JHN AT DAYTONA: John Hunter Nemechek has seven starts at Daytona International Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series. He earned his highest finish at the track of fifth in last year’s DAYTONA 500. Nemechek is also the best average finisher at Daytona among active drivers (13.14). In the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, he accumulated six starts at the track during his career, earning three top-10 finishes and a best finish of second in February 2023. Nemechek also has six starts at Daytona in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, earning two top-five finishes with a highest finish of fourth in February 2017.
T-MACK AT DAYTONA: Saturday night’s race will be crew chief Travis Mack’s 13th NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona. His first outing came in February 2018 with Kasey Kahne. After a short gap, Mack was back at Daytona in February 2021 with Daniel Suárez, where the duo competed for six total races between 2021 and 2023, with their highest finish being seventh. He returned in the February 2024 DAYTONA 500 with AJ Allmendinger, where the pair finished sixth. Mack followed that up in August 2024 with Shane Van Gisbergen, who finished 35th. His highest finish came with Nemechek in February 2025 when the duo finished fifth after starting 18th. In the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Mack has four starts at Daytona with Michael Annett, where the duo took home the race win in their first start together in February 2019 after starting third.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTE:
“I’m really excited to get back to a superspeedway. Daytona is always a fun one, and we’ve been really good there and led some laps. The new package will definitely bring some uncertainty, but I’m looking forward to a strong run to turn things around after the past few weeks.”
TRAVIS MACK QUOTE:
“We’ve had really good superspeedway cars. The new package is going to create new opportunities and struggles. Trying to understand what the new package is going to do when we’re racing is very interesting. I don’t think the field is going to know until the drop of the green flag, so we’re going to have to adapt during the race to work on the handling issues and speed of the car. It should make for a good race, handling is going to be a lot more important, which could play into our favor. It’s a good combination of needing downforce and also needing to be trimmed out from drag, so there’s still a lot of work to be done for Daytona.”
ERIK JONES
NO. 43 ENERGIZER/DOLLAR TREE TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JONES DAYTONA STATS: Erik Jones has 19 starts at Daytona in the NASCAR Cup Series. In total at Daytona, he’s earned one win, three top-five, and five top-10s at Daytona, including his fifth-place result last August. Jones has an additional seven starts outside of the Cup Series at Daytona – six in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and one in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, he earned a best finish of eighth in July 2015. He finished second in his one and only Craftsman Truck Series start in February 2015, finishing just 1.73 seconds behind race winner Tyler Reddick.
WINNING AT DAYTONA: Jones is a winner at Daytona in his career. In the July 2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400, Jones was starting 29th in his fourth Daytona NASCAR Cup Series career start in his second fulltime NASCAR Cup Series season. He led just one lap of the race – the final and most important lap of the race – to score at win in the summer race. He finished .125 seconds ahead of former teammate Martin Truex Jr.
ADVENTHEALTH AT DAYTONA: While the Florida-based AdventHealth will not adorn the hood of Erik Jones’ No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE this weekend at Daytona, they will have a massive activation and promotional weekend between a night at the Daytona Tortugas and a school visit in the local community. As the Healthcare partner of Daytona International Speedway, AdventHealth will also be working the care centers located all around the property providing medical services to the NASCAR garage and fans throughout the weekend.
THURSDAY NIGHT AT THE TORTUGAS: On Thursday, Jones will make a pit stop at the Daytona Tortugas baseball game at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach. Jones and his family will have the opportunity to interact with the players prior to the game before heading to the pre-game autograph session on the concourse. In conjunction with AdventHealth’s involvement with the Daytona Tortugas, Jones will also throw out the ceremonial first pitch at 6:10 p.m. local time in their game against the St. Lucie Mets.
HELPING THE ADVENTHEALTH COMMUNITY: On Friday prior to the start of on-track activity at Daytona, Jones and AdventHealth will make a pit stop at John A. Crookshank Elementary School in St. Augustine, Fla. During their visit they will hold a special #READwithErik for the students and surprise them with a special gift to continue the mission of igniting a passion for reading in young minds.
ALEXANDER – A DAYTONA WINNER: Justin Alexander is not only a Daytona-winning crew chief but a DAYTONA 500 Champion. The accomplished crew chief was making the calls on top of the box for the No. 3 car of Austin Dillon in February 2018, when he was running second behind Aric Almirola as the race was coming to a close. In the end, Alexander kept his driver on course to cross the finish line in first and earn the crew chief his first DAYTONA 500 victory. In total, he’s been on top of the box for 16 NASCAR Cup Series races at Daytona and won twice – the 2018 DAYTONA 500 and the 2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400.
ERIK JONES QUOTE:
“I always look forward to Daytona. It’s a place where I feel like we always run up front, and we’ve had some really good chances to win recently. I’ve obviously won a couple of races there in the past so I hope we can turn things around. It’s been a bit of a stretch that hasn’t ended how we wanted it to, so we go to Daytona with some really high hopes. The plan is to go there, run up front, and hopefully challenge for a win. It would be a great race to get the final part of the year rolling to try to get the best points finish that we can.”
JUSTIN ALEXANDER QUOTE:
“Daytona is always a race where you have to put yourself in position and execute all the way to the end. With the new aero and engine package this weekend, there are going to be a lot of unknowns in how the cars race together and what that does to the draft, so we’ll have to learn and adapt quickly. We ran well here at this race last year and had a strong car, but we didn’t get the finish we deserved. The goal this time is to build on that performance, be there at the end and go to victory lane.”
CLUB NOTES:
JJ AT DAYTONA: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB owner and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson has 42 Cup Series starts at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. In these starts, Johnson has collected a total of three wins, 13 top-fives, and 17 top-10s as well as 302 laps led at the 2.5-mile oval. His first victory came in the February 2006 Daytona 500 where Johnson started ninth and led 24 laps. He won under caution finishing ahead of Casey Mears. 2013 proved to be a year of success for Johnson at Daytona. In February’s Daytona 500, Johnson started ninth once again and found himself crossing the finish line .129 seconds ahead of runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr. for his second win at Daytona. When the series returned in July, Johnson started eighth and finished .107 seconds ahead of Tony Stewart to win his third race at the superspeedway.
THE KING OF DAYTONA: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Ambassador and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Richard “The King” Petty made 74 Cup Series starts at Daytona throughout his legendary career. Not only does he own the most DAYTONA 500 victories of any driver in the history of NASCAR with seven of his 10 Daytona wins coming in that race (1964, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1979, and 1981). He was also collected 28 top-fives, 37 top-10s and led 1,287 laps at the 2.5-mile oval in Florida.
KENSETH DAYTONA STATS: 2003 NASCAR Cup Series Champion and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Competition Advisor Matt Kenseth owns 37 total Cup starts at Daytona International Speedway. He’s earned two victories in the 2009 DAYTONA 500 and the 2012 DAYTONA 500, plus six top-fives and 14 top-10s. When he won his first DAYTONA 500 in February 2009, Kenseth started 39th of 43 cars. He led the final seven laps to secure his victory. Three years later in February 2012, Kenseth started fourth for the Great American Race and led twice for 50 laps to earn a second victory in the iconic race. Throughout his career, he led a total of 383 laps. Kenseth owns an additional 14 starts at Daytona in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series where he won the February 2000 and July 2013 races.
BAYNE SETS A RECORD: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB ambassador Trevor Bayne is the youngest person ever to win the DAYTONA 500 at 20 years and one day old. In 2011, Bayne was making just his second career NASCAR Cup Series start in the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing. On the final restart in NASCAR overtime, Bayne was deemed the race leader with Tony Stewart on his outside and Mark Martin and Kurt Busch looming behind him. The newly minted 20-year-old driver held off the entire field on the green-white-checkered finish to pull off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the “Great American Race.”
HONORING CANCER HEROS: This weekend at Daytona, LEGACY MC will join the NASCAR Foundation in honoring cancer heroes. The “Honor a Cancer Hero” program has been around since 2020 and has allowed industry members, fans, and sponsors alike to bid for their chance to nominate a cancer hero whose name would ride above the driver side and passenger side doors. In total, the auction has raised more than $500,000 in total since 2020.
This year, John Hunter Nemechek will once again honor Tom Goddard, a cancer hero and father. Nemechek will also carry seven-year-old Noelle Franklin, who fought Osteosarcoma, on the driver’s side of his No. 42 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE.
Erik Jones will honor two names this year on his No. 43 Energizer/Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE. On the driver’s side, Jones will honor Phillip Sceiczina, a two-time cancer survivor from Ormond Beach, Florida. He first overcame prostate cancer in 2023, before a lump on his neck was confirmed to be head and neck cancer. After undergoing two surgeries in 2024 and then completing radiation treatment at AdventHealth in Daytona, he rang the bell as cancer free in November 2024. On the passenger side of his car, Jones will honor Bella Ward. Ward was diagnosed in May 2025 with Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG), an aggressive form of brain cancer. After battling with the cancer for months, Ward passed away on December 22, 2025 after becoming a shining light to the world, her family, and her friends for her courage and determination.
SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT:
The Daytona 500 is more than just a race. It is the buildup, the preparation, and everything that leads to Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.
CLUB APPEARANCES:
John Hunter Nemechek will visit the trackside merchandise trailer for an autograph session on Friday, August 28 at 3 p.m. local time. On Saturday, August 29, he will visit the Grizzly Stage in the Hard Rock Bet Infield Fan Zone for a Q&A session at 4:15 p.m. local time.
Erik Jones will visit the fan midway for a Q&A session at the AdventHealth Fan Zone Display at 3 p.m. local time on Friday, August 28.
TUNE IN:
Fans can tune in to watch the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway on Sunday, August 29 at 7:30 p.m. EDT on NBC, HBO MAX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
LEGACY MOTOR CLUB (LEGACY MC) is a premier auto racing organization 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 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.
