John Hunter Nemechek will return to the NASCAR Cup Series next season and will pilot the No. 42 Toyota Camry for Legacy Motor Club.
It’s a full circle moment for Nemechek, who last competed in the Cup Series for Front Row Motorsports in 2020 but reset his career over the past three seasons with Toyota across Kyle Busch Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing in Trucks and the Xfinity Series.
Nemechek, like his father Joe before him, came up racing for modestly funded teams, including their family owned NEMCO Motorsports and the reset amounted to creating a pathway to driving cars that could compete for wins.
Toyota Racing Development holds Nemechek in high esteem and was keen to find the 26-year-old a competitive Cup Series ride. One pathway could have been with Joe Gibbs Racing, but Martin Truex Jr. decision to return for another season last month left only one ride with Legacy Motor Club.
Toyota inked a deal with the team owned by Maury Gallagher and seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson in the spring. The No. 42 became available last month when first year driver Noah Gragson was suspended by both the team and NASCAR after it was public the driver liked a post on Instagram that made light of the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
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John Hunter Nemechek’s NASCAR return
All told, the deal allows Nemechek to join a team that should run closer to the front than where he was with Front Row back in 2020, especially once it partners with Toyota. The manufacturer gets to lock down a driver it has supported over the past three years and believes can eventually compete for wins and the championship.
Legacy Motor Club enters next season with a pair of drivers in Nemechek and Erik Jones who are stronger organizational fits than Gragson with Johnson and Gallagher. The team is coming off its best weekend of the season at Darlington with Jones contending for a top-5 and Carson Hocevar finishing 17th in his debut appearance for the organization, all despite its lame duck status with Chevrolet.
Hocevar will continue to drive the No. 42 over the next two weeks at Kansas and Bristol.
Nemechek is set to race for the Xfinity Series championship over the next nine weeks as he currently leads the division in both wins and playoff points. He is poised to be the top-seeded driver once the Xfinity playoffs begin next Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.