Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway resulted in a major victory for both Erik Jones and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. It’s not the type of victory that NASCAR’s record books will document, but it’s a victory, nonetheless.
Jones carried his pink and white Dollar Tree-sponsored No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE to a fifth-place result in Sunday’s overtime-extended event. It’s the first top-five of the season for the Byron, Michigan native, and the first top-five for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB since switching to Toyota.
For an organization that has spent much of the season struggling, that’s massive.
Even bigger still is the personal victory for driver Erik Jones, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner who has spent the last four years with the organization, as it’s evolved from Richard Petty Motorsports to Petty GMS Motorsports to LEGACY MOTOR CLUB.
In April’s GEICO 500 at Talladega, Jones was riding in a single-file line of Toyota-affiliated teammates when a push gone awry saw the No. 43 Toyota get hooked head-on into the Turn 3 SAFER Barrier in a gnarly-looking crash.
Initially, Jones was checked and released from the infield care center, but returned a short time later, where an x-ray discovered that he had suffered a compression fracture in the accident, which would keep him out of the racecar for two weeks.
That was more than five months ago. Since that accident, Jones has run two superspeedway events at Daytona and Atlanta, but to return to the racetrack that sidelined him earlier this season, and to conquer it with a top-five, has to be the sweetest victory for himself and the entire LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team.
Making it even sweeter was the fact that the performance itself was a scrappy one after Jones got collected in the massive 28-car pileup at the end of the backstretch, which occurred inside the final five laps of the race. Jones and crew chief Dave Elenz made the decision to stay on track for NASCAR Overtime, which netted them a strong result.
“We had an okay car. We lacked in speed, but it drove good,” said Jones after the race. “Kind of lucked out in the last wreck there. Felt the damage wasn’t bad enough that we needed to come in [to the pits]. Happy to get the Dollar Tree Camry a good run. We’ve just had a rough year and struggled the last two weeks, so it’s nice to finish up front.”
After making a couple of moves to get to third place in the outside lane, including shucking out Kyle Busch after the No. 8 attempted to make a three-wide move, Jones was in contention for the victory, but the field remained primarily double-file, not allowing for any major runs to develop beyond the front two rows.
Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Jimmie Johnson, and the entire LEGACY MOTOR CLUB organization will look to capitalize on the momentum gained from Sunday’s top five result, as the team looks to improve for the final five races of 2024, and into next season.
