EVENT: Cook Out 400
DATE: August 16, 2025
RACE: NASCAR Cup Series 25 of 36
TRACK: Richmond Raceway | .75-Mile Oval
CLUB MINUTES:
JJ WINS AT RICHMOND: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB co-owner and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson has 37 Cup Series starts under his belt at Richmond Raceway. In these starts, he has secured three victories, seven top-fives, and 16 top-10s as well at leading 461 laps. His first win came in May 2007 when Johnson started fourth and won with a .732 margin of victory over Kyle Busch. He followed that up a couple months later in September 2007 when he started on the pole and led 104 laps to his second win where he beat Tony Stewart by 3.007 seconds. His final win at Richmond came in September 2008 when Johnson started third, led 32 laps, and bested Stewart once again by .365 of a second. Johnson has an additional five starts at Richmond in the NASCAR Xfinity Series where he earned a best finish of 12th in May 2000 and May 2001.
KENSETH RICHMOND SUCCESS: LEGACY MC competition advisor Matt Kenseth is also a winner at Richmond Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has a total of 38 starts in the series at Richmond which resulted in two wins, six top-fives, and 16 top-10s. Kenseth led a total of 1,013 laps throughout his career. His first win came in September 2002 when he started 25th, led 134 laps, and bested Ryan Newman by 6.184 seconds. His next victory came in September 2015 when he started second, led 352 laps, and bested Kyle Busch by .951 of a second. Kenseth has an additional 21 starts at Richmond in the NASCAR Xfinity Series where he collected 12 top-fives and 16 top-10s. He earned a best finish of second three times – May 2000, September 2001, and May 2007.
THE KING OF RICHMOND: Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion and LEGACY MC ambassador Richard Petty owns 63 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond Raceway in his career. The King earned a total of 13 wins, 34 top-fives, and 41 top-10s in his career at the short track. His first victory at Richmond came in April 1961 where he started on the pole and led 182 of 200 laps. His final win at the .75-mile track came in February 1975 where he once again started on the pole and led 444 of 500 laps to find victory lane.
TOYOTA DOMINATES AT RICHMOND: Toyota has a winning history at the short track of Richmond Raceway. Since 2015, Toyota has won 10 of the 19 NASCAR Cup Series races at Richmond. In total, Toyota has won 17 Cup Series races at the .75-mile oval.
DOLLAR TREE VENDOR SPOTLIGHT: Dollar Tree will serve as the primary partner on the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE, driven by Erik Jones, at Richmond. The Dollar Tree scheme will hit the track alongside support from vendor partner Dove Men’s Care, showcasing a strong collaboration for the race weekend across LEGACY MC’s social platforms.
PYE-BARKER SIGNS EXTENSION: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB sponsor Pye-Barker Fire & Safety announced today that it would extend its partnership with the CLUB for the 2026 season. Pye-Barker is the nation’s largest full-service and fully integrated fire protection, life safety, and security services provider. The renewed agreement will expand the company’s involvement in hospitality, employee engagement programs, and community outreach as well as allow Pye-Barker to serve as the primary sponsor on the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE for 14 races in 2026.
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 Andrea Brimmer, the Chief Marketing and Public Relations Officer of Ally Financial.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
NO. 42 PYE-BARKER FIRE & SAFETY TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JHN AT RICHMOND: John Hunter Nemechek has three starts at Richmond Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series, with his highest finish being 25th in March 2024. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, he has made six starts at the track, earning three top-three finishes and a best finish of second earned in his last two races at the rack in April 2022 and April 2023. Nemechek also has two starts at Richmond in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series where he won in April 2021 and finished second in August 2022. He has led a total of 115 of the 500 total laps he’s run at Richmond in the series.
WINNER AT RICHMOND: Nemechek knows how to find victory lane at the short track of Richmond. In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, he never finished worse than second at the .75-mile oval. In his first start at the track in April 2021, Nemechek started 18th after the lineup was set per the NASCAR rulebook. Nemechek first took the lead from Kyle Busch on Lap 100 and did so an additional two times to lead a total of 114 of 250 laps in the race. He passed Chandler Smith for the lead one final time on Lap 234 to capture the checkered flag by .307 of a second ahead of his team owner Kyle Busch.
T-MACK RICHMOND STATS: Saturday’s race under the lights will be crew chief Travis Mack’s 11th NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond. His first outing came in September 2017 with Dale Earnhardt Jr. who finished 13th, Mack’s best finish at the track. He returned the following year in April 2018 with Kasey Kahne. After a short gap, Mack was back at Richmond in April 2021 with Daniel Suárez, where the duo competed for six total races between 2021 and 2023, with their highest finish being 16th, earned twice in April 2021 and April 2022. In the NASCAR Xfinity series, Mack has five starts at Richmond with Michael Annett, where they duo never finished worse than 14th and earned a best finish of seventh in the September 2020 doubleheader.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTE:
“I look forward to going to Richmond. I feel like we’ve made gains in our short track program based off Iowa and the results and speed we had there. I’ve had a lot of success at Richmond in the Truck Series and Xfinity Series. I should’ve won multiple races in the Xfinity Series there, but it has always been a good racetrack for me. I’m looking forward to this weekend.”
TRAVIS MACK QUOTE:
“We’ve put a lot of effort into improving our short track program, and each race has taught us something new. The team has been making solid progress, and I’m feeling really good about where we’re heading. I’m looking forward to keeping that momentum going and seeing what we can do this weekend at Richmond.”
ERIK JONES
NO. 43 DOLLAR TREE TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
12TH AT WATKINS GLEN: Jones rallied last weekend after starting 29th in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen in Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. While he initially stayed running in the late 20s for position, Jones found speed and a solid strategy in Stage 2 where he was in the running for stage points on the last lap. Contact with another car unfortunately sent him off course and forced him to settle for a 18th-place result in Stage 2, but he was determined in the final stage to overcome this issue. He restarted the final stage in 37th but wasted no time in his pursuit. He was running 10th just 14 laps into the final stage and then used his pit strategy to stay out and run as high as third before taking his final stop. In a steady run toward the front in the final laps, Jones raced his way from 27th to 14th by the time he saw the white flag. On the final lap of the race, he avoided chaos among the cars in front of him to gain another two spots and finish 12th at Watkins Glen.
JONES RICHMOND STATS: Saturday night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway will mark Erik Jones’ 16th NASCAR Cup Series start at the .75-mile oval. In his prior 15 starts, Jones earned a best finish of sixth in September 2017 after starting 10th. He has an additional four starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Richmond where he earned three top-five finishes. He never started worse than seventh in his Xfinity Series career at Richmond, earning the pole in April 2016. His best finish of second came in September 2016 where he finished 6.453 seconds behind Kyle Busch after starting fourth.
BESHORE AT RICHMOND: Crew chief Ben Beshore has been on top of the box for six prior NASCAR Cup Series races at Richmond. In his first four races there in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Beshore never finished outside the top-10 with his driver Kyle Busch. He has an additional five races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Richmond where he earned four top-10 finishes. His best result of second came in April 2023 with John Hunter Nemechek who finished .298 of a second behind race winner Chandler Smith after leading 11 laps.
EJ LATE MODEL RACING: In a month full of late model racing for Jones, he returned back to Michigan this week to take on Berlin Raceway for the Battle at Berlin. This will be Jones’ second start at Berlin in his late model this season. In June, he took on the Money in the Bank 150 at Berlin Raceway where he won the pole and finished fourth. This is the second of three late model races that Jones will run in August after racing at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna. Fans can watch the late model race tomorrow night on FloRacing.com.
THE OSCAR PLUSH: Jones announced the launch of his latest Erik Jones Foundation project last month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – the Oscar Jones collectible plush. Modeled after his four-legged best friend, the Oscar plush started to be sold at Indianapolis after a collaboration with Ultimate Canine, LLC. 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 foundation has gifted more than $40,000 in grants to organizations promoting animal welfare and supporting the training of working animals. Fans can still purchase their own Oscar plush at ErikJonesRacing.com or at the NASCAR Classics merchandise hauler at the racetrack.
ERIK JONES QUOTE
“Richmond has always been an interesting place for us. It’s a very difficult short track that is very slick and really worn out, so it’s not easy to get your car driving good. It’s always a challenge, but now with the soft tire, it’ll be interesting. We’re limited on the sets that we get, so I don’t really know if there are enough for the race with how fast they’ll wear so we’ll have to do a lot of tire management to make it through the whole race. That should throw in a different kind of curveball for the race, but it should be fun to try to get through and manage that to see where you end up in the end.”
BEN BESHORE QUOTE
“Hopefully for Richmond, we can build on some of the things we learned at Iowa a few weeks ago. I know it’s a little different on the tires since Richmond has a ton of tire fall off. Strategy is going to come into play there. You’re typically on the fence of how many times you’re going to stop in each stage, so trying to play to how much tire fall of there is versus the amount of time you’re giving up on pit road. Whether the lap time gained is enough to overcome the pit stop time. There’s also always the risk of an untimely caution at a certain point in the race. We’ll be looking at all of that a lot. It’s a little bit of an unknown as they’re using that option tire from last year, but now we’re running it the whole race. You’re really going to have to manage your tires – so you can’t just fire off and go as hard as you can on new tires. If you do, you’ll wear your stuff out in 50 laps and be paying for it the last half of the run. The key is pacing yourself and having a car that is handling good so you’re not having to run hard to keep up. You want to be able to pace yourself a bit to have some tire at the end of the run to hopefully pass those guys that had to go too hard early.”
CLUB APPEARANCES:
Nemechek will visit the fan zone on Friday, Aug. 15 to participate in Family Feud at the NASCAR Experience Stage at 3:00 p.m. local time. He will also be at the NASCAR Classics trackside merchandise rig to sign for fans at 3:30 p.m. local time before visiting the Toyota Gazoo Racing display for a Q&A session at 4:20 p.m. local time on Saturday, Aug. 16.
TUNE IN:
Fans can tune in to watch the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, August 16 at 7:30 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.
