For the first time since the two-week Olympic break, Jimmie Johnson and the No. 84 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota Camry XSE will return to the racetrack, competing in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet at Kansas Speedway.
The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will have someone new calling the shots on top of the pit box after it was confirmed in July that Jason Burdett was no longer with the two-car organization. Burdett has since joined TRICON Garage in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Gene Wachtel, the Director of LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s Vehicle Performance Group, will take over as the crew chief of the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE, the organization confirmed to TobyChristie.com.
Wachtel’s working experience in NASCAR comes from various simulation, design, and data acquisition engineering jobs over the last two decades, working for championship-winning organizations like Hendrick Motorsports (2006), Stewart-Haas Racing (2007-2009), and Joe Gibbs Racing (2014-2017).
It’s been a difficult return to NASCAR for Johnson, who returned to part-time competition in NASCAR’s premier division for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, the organization that he co-owns with successful businessman Maury Gallagher, after two years away to compete in IndyCar.
Jumping in a full season behind the full-timers, Johnson has had some difficulty adjusting to the seventh-generation racecar, a vehicle starkly different from his time in the NASCAR Cup Series. In nine starts, the NASCAR legend hasn’t finished better than 28th — twice, at Daytona and Dover in 2024.
The 49-year-old driver will have the benefit of returning to the 1.5-mile facility in Kansas for the second time this season, where earlier this year, he secured his NextGen-best qualifying result of 19th, before getting caught up in a wreck and finishing 38th.
