Rumor Mill: Are These the Top Candidates For Legacy Motor Club’s Expansion?
What’s Happening? The NASCAR rumor mill is heating up as a new rumor suggests that a former series champion and an…
We’ve already looked at the longest driver losing streaks in NASCAR, but, today, it’s time to look at race teams as a whole. Sometimes, an entire race team has to go through an incredibly long dry spell between wins, and some of those are in the Cup Series. Today, we look at who those race teams are, and why it has taken so long for them to find victory lane again.
RCR snapped their losing streak dramatically at the fall Richmond race. Austin Dillon, winless himself since late 2022, was in victory lane after last-lap contact with Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. This was the team’s first win in 44 races, 434 days since Kyle Busch won at Gateway in 2023.
JTG-Daugherty Racing began this streak with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s triumph at the 2023 Daytona 500, the most significant trophy of them all. This was their second win as an organization, and their first since A.J. Allmendinger’s 2014 win at Watkins Glen (302 Races). It was a big win for them, and it probably secured Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s seat for a while.
JTG-Daugherty snapped their losing streak at it’s 66th race at the Yellawood 500 at Talladega. Stenhouse survived not only pack racing, but the largest wreck in NASCAR history, winning his second race at Talladega.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s losing streak began at Richmond in 2022 with Kevin Harvick, who accounts for more than half of the organization’s 70 all-time victories. While it was SHR’s 14th consecutive season with at least one trophy, the team had slowed considerably in recent years. After Harvick alone had won at least 4 races per season every year between 2018 and 2020, SHR had only won 4 races as an organization between 2021 and 2022. We did not know it at the time, but SHR was at the beginning of a steep decline.
With the team set to shut down operations at the end of the season, and the Haas Factory Team rising from its ashes, Chase Briscoe won the NASCAR Playoffs cutoff race at Darlington. Not only was this a streak breaker for SHR, it broke a 94-race losing streak for Briscoe.
Legacy Motor Club’s last win came in the 2022 Southern 500 with Erik Jones, which was back when the team was still named Petty-GMS. This was their first win since 2014 with Aric Almirola at Daytona (296 Races) back when it was still Richard Petty Motorsports. A lot has changed with this organization in recent years, and that’s part of why they have not won much recently.
Jimmie Johnson bought into the ownership group, which rebranded the team as Legacy Motor Club starting in 2023. Early in the season, the struggling team announced they would switch from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2024. The lack of support from Chevy was the nail in the coffin for their 2023 season, but, things are looking up as they are now a current “Tier One” Toyota team. Time will tell if it results in consistent performance on track.
Spire Motorsports proved in 2019 that it is indeed possible to win a NASCAR race by sheer happenstance. Justin Haley just so happened to be in the lead under a caution flag when literal lightning struck. While Haley and the team did put themselves in a position to take advantage of incredible luck, this win was largely a fluke. It’s the only win Spire has to date.
However, Spire Motorsports has made incredible strides in recent years, and they just might be creeping into the territory of genuine contenders for a Playoff spot. Their second win, perhaps a less flukey one, maybe just around the corner for them. This losing streak may be the first on this list to tumble.
The Wood Brothers snapped their losing streak at 262 races, with Harrison Burton at the 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. It was the team’s 100th win.
This was their first win since the Pocono in 2017 with then-Team Penske prospect Ryan Blaney, which was their first win since the 2011 Daytona 500 with Trevor Bayne (122 Starts), which was their first win since 2001 at Bristol with Elliott Sadler (298 Starts), which was their first win since 1993 at Atlanta with Morgan Shepherd (255 Starts). It’s been a pattern with The Wood Brothers for the past three decades to go a long time between victories. Imagine telling someone after Shepherd’s win in 1993 (96 wins at the time) that The Wood Brothers would still be chasing win number 100 in 2024.
Regardless, The Wood Brothers just have not been the same juggernaut over the past three decades that they once were throughout the first four decades of the sport. They’re still a single-car team, which does not generally win races nowadays. They are also not a key-partner team; they now function as a Team Penske satellite operation. Just like JTG Daugherty, The Wood Brothers do not have the resources to compete for wins every week.
These race teams are in the midst of major dry spells. Which one breaks theirs first?
With the NASCAR team Legacy Motor Club set to expand, there are many names in the rumor mill as to who will drive the team’s third car in 2027, but one new name entering the rumor mill could be the biggest surprise yet.
What’s Happening? The NASCAR rumor mill is heating up as a new rumor suggests that a former series champion and an…
During the 2025 season, Legacy Motor Club, which missed the opening to buy one of Stewart-Haas Racing’s three Charters for sale at the end of the 2024 season, was aggressively pursuing a third charter for its NASCAR Cup Series team.
This mission took the team to court, where it battled Rick Ware Racing over a Charter sale gone awry, with hopes of getting this charter ahead of the 2026 season.
While this goal never came to fruition, per a settlement between the two parties, LMC will have a third Charter for 2027, as RWR will sell the charter currently leased to RFK for their No. 60 at year’s end.
Now that all the excitement has leveled off, it’s decision time for LMC, as they search for a driver to fill this new seat ahead of the 2027 season.
The rumor mill concerning this third seat is heating up, as two names floated through the NASCAR community earlier this week, when a post from a well-known rumor mill account listed Riley Herbst and Jesse Love as potential candidates to drive for LMC in 2026.
Herbst, for one, is facing the loss of his ride at 23XI Racing with the rumored (and all but confirmed) promotion of top prospect and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion Corey Heim to full-time status in 2027.
Love, on the other hand, seems destined for a Cup Series ride as the reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series Champion, alongside this rumored spot at LMC, could see a spot open up at his current home, Richard Childress Racing, depending on how Kyle Busch’s 2026 season shapes out.
But, not even three races into the 2026 season, the rumor mill is still spitting out potential candidates for this third car.
What’s Happening? NASCAR Hall of Famer and Seven-Time Champion Jimmie Johnson’s Legacy Motor Club is suing Rick Ware Racing over a…
This time, the online rumor mill is heating up for a potential return to the Cup Series, with rumors pointing to former Wood Brothers Racing driver Harrison Burton as another potential candidate to join LMC in 2026.
Burton, the son of former Cup Series standout turned NBC Sports analyst Jeff Burton, most recently raced full-time with WBR in the Cup Series in 2024 before losing his ride at year’s end, moving to AM Racing for the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, and eventually jumping to Sam Hunt Racing (and Toyota) for the 2026 NASCAR OAP Series season.
While Burton’s return to NASCAR’s second-highest division has not produced any wins, the 25-year-old still maintained a solid effort in 2025, granting AM Racing its first-ever run in the playoffs on points alone.
Much like Herbst, Burton has a winning resume in the OAP Series, and, most important of all, loyal sponsorship, with brands like Dex Imaging sticking with him throughout most of his development, time in the Cup Series, and his return to the OAP Series.
Burton is the type of driver that fits the LMC mold, as, if he were to return to Cup, he would have taken a similar path back to the top that fellow second-generation driver and LMC Cup Series talent John Hunter Nemechek took before landing with LMC in 2024.
A potential return to the Cup Series would also mark an ironic turn in Burton’s career, as he was once a top prospect for Toyota, even making a Cup Series start with the manufacturer before jumping ship to Ford in 2022.
Of course, many fans would say that, given a choice, they would pick Love over Burton, but, then again, LMC may not have a choice, and a driver as experienced as Burton could be a safe bet to get this third team off the ground at the very least.
As always, these are just rumors, and it’s important to note that neither party has expressed plans for the still very, very far away 2027 season. Furthermore, as most NASCAR fans know, even rumors that may seem like a done deal can change at the very last second.
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An email sent by former Joe Gibbs Racing Competition Director Chris Gabehart claims that resentment towards him from members of the Gibbs family made him feel that the future of JGR was a “no-win situation.”
Last week, Joe Gibbs Racing filed a lawsuit against former Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart, claiming that the former Daytona 500 Champion had schemed to steal vital information from the team in the lead-up to his departure from JGR for Spire Motorsports.
Not even ten days since JGR filed this lawsuit, the two have continued to trade barbs and accusations back and forth through the court system.
In a filing earlier this week, Gabehart accused the team of misleading him in his duties as competition director in 2025, and specifically calling out JGR’s No. 54 team, driven by Joe Gibbs’ grandson Ty, alleging that the team received “differential treatment.”
Friday, an email sent to JGR CFO Tim Carmichael by Gabehart in November 2025 (released as part of this lawsuit) showed just how uncomfortable he had grown working at JGR during his tenure as Competition Director, with the industry veteran stating that Ty Gibbs and his mother, Heather, held “resentment” towards Gabehart.
The now former Competition Director went on to say in this email that, as the two were the future bosses of JGR, “I’m afraid that leaves me in a no-win situation.”
These exchanges, including the claims made by Gibbs in his filing earlier this week, have swept fans into a whirlwind of sorts, with the two sides even meeting in court today for the lawsuit’s first official hearing.
Of course, Gabehart’s claims about the state of operations at JGR pale in comparison to the accusations made by the Gibbs team in their initial lawsuit.
On Tuesday, the team even added Spire Motorsports, Gabehart’s current employer, as a co-defendant, and requested the court force Gabehart to sit out at least the 18 months since his termination before doing any work in NASCAR similar to his role at JGR.
The team is also asking that any information procured by Spire from Gabehart be returned, though the CEO of TWG Motorsports, which owns Spire, Dan Towriss, told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports Friday that “Spire doesn’t want data from Joe Gibbs Racing. It doesn’t have data from Joe Gibbs Racing. No point in time has it had data from Joe Gibbs Racing.”
Alongside Spire, Gabehart adamantly denied any wrongdoing in a post to social media last week, saying, “I feel compelled to speak out today and forcefully and emphatically deny these frivolous and retaliatory claims.”
What’s Happening? Former Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart has filed a new response slamming JGR as…
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A few years ago, I looked at the racetracks preserved on iRacing that no longer exist in real life. After digging deeper, I expected to find one common reason they all shut down. Instead, each one tells a completely different story — from booming cities and land value spikes to ownership changes, broken promises, and even mysteries that still don’t have clear answers.
Some tracks were pushed out by urban development. Some lost the one person fighting to keep them alive. Others faded due to declining support — or were never meant to last forever in the first place. No two closures are the same, and that’s what makes this deep dive so fascinating.
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