LEGACY MOTOR CLUB: IOWA SPEEDWAY PRE-RACE ADVANCE
EVENT: Iowa Corn 350
DATE: August 3, 2025
RACE: NASCAR Cup Series 23 of 36
TRACK: Iowa Speedway | .875-mile oval
CLUB MINUTES:
GOLFING WITH CLUB WYNDHAM: Prior to heading to Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB drivers John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones joined their team owner Jimmie Johnson and team sponsor Club Wyndham for the 2025 Wyndham Championship Pro Am in Greensboro, N.C. on Wednesday. All three members of the LEGACY MC trio played a round of golf with some PGA professionals to help kick off the PGA Tour event weekend.
PAWSITIVELY INDIANAPOLIS: LEGACY MC has a busy weekend in Indianapolis that not only showed a ton of speed in practice and qualifying but also brought a little extra joy to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield through puppies. After attending a training session on Friday at Ultimate Canine in Westfield, Ind., Jones announced the launch of his latest initiative – the Oscar Plush collectible – with the help of some puppies from Ultimate Canine.
The LEGACY MC team then followed this announcement up by posting the two fastest overall lap averages. Nemechek had the fastest 10-lap average in the entire field, while Jones earned his best qualifying effort of third to start Sunday’s Brickyard 400.
JJ’S SHORT TRACK SUCCESS: LEGACY MC co-owner and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson knows how to find victory lane at tracks less than a mile in length. In 113 total short-track starts, Johnson won 14 times and earned 63 top-10 finishes while leading 4,307 laps in his career. In total he earned three wins at Richmond Raceway, nine at Martinsville (Va.) Raceway, and two at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. He has an average finish of 12.7 on short tracks in his career.
JJ BEST AT IOWA IN INDYCAR: Johnson achieved his career-best finish of fifth place in the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 after leading 19 laps on the day on July 24, 2022. His performance at Iowa included 57 on-track passes, making him one of the most active drivers in that race. Johnson also has an 11th place finish at Iowa in INDYCAR which came in the same weekend. Despite a strong season, Johnson later announced his decision to step back from a full-time INDYCAR schedule for 2023.
KENSETH – A SHORT TRACK WINNER: LEGACY MC competition advisor Matt Kenseth has had his own share of success at short tracks in the NASCAR Cup Series. In 115 starts, Kenseth won six races and earned 53 top-10s. He won four races at Bristol Motor Speedway and two at Richmond Raceway.
THE SHORT TRACK KING: LEGACY MC ambassador and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard Petty was “The King” when it came to winning on short tracks. Of his 200 total wins in the Cup Series, 107 of them came at short tracks. In 448 starts, he also earned 259 top-fives and led 30,984 laps on the smaller tracks. He has an average finish of 8.4 on short tracks in his legendary career.
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 guest is Mark Pantoni, the General Manager, Player Personnel at Ohio State University.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
NO. 42 DOLLAR TREE TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JHN AT IOWA: Last year’s race at Iowa Speedway was John Hunter Nemechek’s first time at the track in the NASCAR Cup Series, where he finished 26th. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Nemechek has made five starts earning two top-fives and four top-10s, with a highest finish of third in July 2019. In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Nemechek five starts at Iowa. During those five starts, he earned a pole in June 2016 and won in June 2017 with a 1.652 margin of victory over Johnny Sauter.
T-MACK IOWA STATS: Sunday’s race will be crew chief Travis Mack’s second NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa. His first outing was in the inaugural June 2024 NASCAR Cup Series race at the track with AJ Allmendinger, who earned a 36th-place finish after an early-race wreck. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Mack has two starts with Michael Annett in both the 2019 races, where he finished ninth and 10th, respectively.
SPEED IN INDY: The No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE showed lots of speed last weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In Saturday’s practice session, the No. 42 had the fastest overall lap average, fastest five-lap average, fastest 10-lap average, and the fastest 15-lap average. Nemechek was second overall in practice. During Sunday’s Brickyard 400, Nemechek drove from the rear up to 12th place, ultimately gaining 24 positions.
100 CUP SERIES STARTS FOR NEMECHEK: This weekend’s race at Iowa Speedway is a career milestone for Nemechek. The Iowa Corn 350 will mark his 100th NASCAR Cup Series start. He made his first start in NASCAR’s premier series in November 2019 at Texas Motor Speedway where he started 29th and finished 21st.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTE:
“Iowa has been a really good place for me in the Truck and Xfinity Series. We’ve had some really strong runs there. We had a decent car last year in the Cup race, so I look forward to getting back there. The new tire is going to be pretty interesting for us. Another year on the new asphalt that they laid down in the corners is going to be interesting as well. Hopefully, we can take the momentum and speed we had at Indy and roll it over into Iowa.”
TRAVIS MACK QUOTE:
“We’ve been putting a lot of effort into improving our short track program to match the strength of our intermediate package, so we’re trying some different stuff this weekend. The No. 43 tested at Gateway a couple of weeks ago, and we tried some different packages there to help with short tracks, so I feel good about this weekend. We’re excited to continue our momentum going forward.”
ERIK JONES
NO. 43 TRI-STATE MASSEY MOTOR FREIGHT TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JONES IOWA STATS: Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 will mark Erik Jones’ second NASCAR Cup Series start at Iowa Speedway. He participated in last year’s inaugural event where he started 32nd and finished in the same position. He has four total NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the track where he won in July 2016, four in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series where he never finished outside the top-10 with two victories in July 2014 and June 2015, and an additional start in the ARCA Menards Series in July 2012 where he finished 11th after starting sixth.
WINNER AT IOWA IN XFINITY: Jones visited Iowa like many of his competitors before the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race last season in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series. Not only did he race there though, he’s also a winner at Iowa in Xfinity. In four NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, he earned two poles in May 2015 and June 2016, three top-10 finishes, and one win. In his final Xfinity Series start at the track in July 2016, Jones qualified second for the race. He led the opening 42 laps of the race, and another three times throughout the race for a total of 154 laps led. Jones bested his full-time competitor Ty Dillon with a 3.533 margin of victory.
JONES’ GOES BACK-TO-BACK AT IOWA: In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Jones went back-to-back on his wins early in his career. Jones has never finished outside the top-10 at Iowa in his Truck Series career. His first victory came in July 2014 when he was only running a part-time schedule in the Truck Series. Jones started second and led 131 laps on the way to a .629 of a second margin of victory over Ryan Blaney. He followed that up when the series returned in June 2015 during Jones’ championship season. The Michigan-native started from the pole and led 112 laps to find victory lane with a 5.860 second margin of victory of runner-up Brandon Jones.
BESHORE AT IOWA: Sunday’s race at Iowa will be Crew Chief Ben Beshore’s second in the NASCAR Cup Series at the track. He sat on top of the box last season with John Hunter Nemechek as the No. 42 team finished 26th. Beshore has also been the crew chief for two Xfinity Series races at Iowa. He finished fourth in June 2019 with Harrison Burton and then followed that up with a 13th-place result in July 2019 with Riley Herbst.
MONDAY IN DETROIT: After flying back to Charlotte on Sunday night from Indianapolis, Jones hopped back on a plane Monday morning to attend a day full of fun in his home state of Michigan. He started the morning at the Detroit Lions training camp practice in Allen Park, MI. Jones was able to go down on the field and meet a few of the players from his favorite NFL team before getting a tour of their stadium. After a few media interviews, the driver of the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE crossed the street to Comerica Park to get a tour of the field and cheer on his Detroit Tigers for the start of their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Click HERE for a full photo recap of his day in Michigan.
THE OSCAR PLUSH: Last weekend at Indianapolis, Jones announced the launch of his latest project – the Oscar Jones collectible plush. Designed after his beloved canine companion, the Oscar plush started to be sold last weekend after a collaboration with Ultimate Canine LLC in Indianapolis. A portion of the sale of the plush will go back to the Erik Jones Foundation to support the funding of grants for its animal welfare pillar. Since its launch in 2021, the Erik Jones Foundation has given away more than $40,000 in grants to organizations promoting animal welfare and supporting the training of working animals. Fans can purchase their own Oscar plush at ErikJonesRacing.com or at the NASCAR Classics trackside merchandise hauler.
ERIK JONES QUOTE
“Iowa was definitely good to me the few times I won there in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series. It’s a fun track though. I like Iowa a lot, and it’s obviously changed a lot from my other races there with the repave in just a couple of lanes and not the whole track. So, I think the race last year was just really different than from what I remember. It’s really a neat track – a short track but also it kind of races like an intermediate. At the end of the day, it’s definitely a short track though. It’ll be interesting to see how those repaved patches have worn over the year. It seems that they look a lot more worn out than they were a year ago, so it’ll be interesting to see how that changes the racing.”
BEN BESHORE QUOTE
“I mean Iowa had that semi-repave where they repaved the corners, but not the whole track. It’s sort of like a Richmond, but the repaving changed it up a bit where parts of the track are a higher grip than these other short tracks that we go through – especially compared to some of the shorter tracks like Loudon, New Hampshire, and Richmond. Honestly, the shorter tracks have been a weaker spot for us in our program, but we’ve been putting a lot of effort into it and have been trying to get an improved package together for Iowa.”
CLUB APPEARANCES:
Jones will be in the fan zone on Saturday, Aug. 2 at the NASCAR Experience Stage for a Q&A session at 8:30 a.m. local time. He will also visit the NASCAR Classics trackside merchandise rig to sign for fans at 8:50 a.m. local time on Saturday.
Nemechek will visit the fan zone on Saturday, Aug. 2 to participate in Family Feud at the NASCAR Experience Stage at 11:00 a.m. local time. He will also be at the NASCAR Classics trackside merchandise rig to sign for fans at 11:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, Aug. 3.
TUNE IN:
Fans can tune in to watch the Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway in Newton on Sunday, August 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA, 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.
