Longtime NASCAR Cup Series crew chief Chad Johnston has joined Legacy Motor Club and will serve as Race Engineering Manager.
Johnston, who most recently served as crew chief for Ryan Preece at Stewart-Haas Racing is the latest hire by the Jimmie Johnson and Maurice Gallagher owned Cup team as it tries to respond to its dreadful first season under the Toyota banner. Johnston will report to fellow new hire Brian Campe and Jacob Canter, who came from Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing’s engineering departments, respectively.
“Chad is a great hire for us at Legacy Motor Club,” said Campe in a press release. “His decades of experience and extensive knowledge will make him a huge benefit to the CLUB. We have a lot of work to do this off-season and Chad’s expertise will help us accomplish our goals.”
Over the course of his over 20-year motorsports career, the Cayuga Indiana native has experience across several marquee teams — Chip Ganassi Racing, Gillett-Evernham Motorsports, JTG-Daugherty Racing, SHR, Michael Waltrip Racing Morgan-Dollar Motorsports.
For those teams he has run the programs of some of the most successful names in motorsport, including Bobby Labonte, Harrison Burton, Jeff Burton, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Marcos Ambrose, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith and Preece.
In the 13 years Johnston has been a crew chief in NASCAR’s Truck and Cup Series, the 44-year-old has overseen over 400 races with seven seven Cup wins, another in the Truck Series, 70 top-5s, 140 top-10s and 11 poles.
“I am excited to join Legacy Motor Club and start a new journey in my career and am thankful to Maury (Gallagher), Jimmie (Johnson), and Cal (Wells III) for this opportunity,” said Johnston. “I look forward to the challenges ahead and hope with my experience and knowledge I can help build Legacy Motor Club into a top tier winning organization.”
Erik Jones most recently won a race in 2022 for the team but has yet to win since. He finished 28th in the standings and teammate John Hunter Nemechek was 24th. Both drivers have been winners at every level before this and the hope is that an engineering turnaround will give the drivers what they need.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.