There’s no doubt that Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway was, from start to finish, the best performance of John Hunter Nemechek’s career in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The fourth-year driver from Mooresville, North Carolina collected a career-best-matching fourth-place result in his No. 42 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, after starting inside the top-10 and pacing the field for a race-high 42 laps.
It’s a continuation of speed that LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, owned primarily by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, has found this Summer, which has allowed Nemechek’s teammate, Erik Jones, to catapult up the standings, from nearly 70 points below the cutline into “The Chase” with 10 races left in the regular-season.
“Yeah, really solid day,” Nemechek said post-race. “Thankful for Pye-Barker, Toyota, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB – everyone is working really, really hard, right now. It gives us the solidification that we are working in the right direction; we are working in the right areas. The last few weeks, both the No. 42 and No. 43 have had good speed.”
It’s just the second top-10 result of 2026 for Nemechek and the No. 42 team, led by Travis Mack, the first of which came at the road course of Watkins Glen International. That road course speed could be critical for both teams, as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Naval Base Coronado and then Sonoma Raceway in back-to-back weeks.
Aside from eventual race-winner Denny Hamlin, Nemechek had the second-best average running position in Sunday’s event at Pocono Raceway and was legitimately in contention for the victory in the late stages – until Hamlin and Byron scooted away during the final fuel run of the race.
“It is nice to finally put a decent result on paper, but overall, it was nice to lead laps today and be able to run up front all day. I don’t know if we necessarily have had that type of day at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB yet and just hats off to all the men and women at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. Thankful for them, and just grateful to be here.”
The speed for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB wasn’t exclusive to Nemechek, either, with Erik Jones recording a sixth-place finish for the organization, allowing the No. 43 to jump above the cutline for the first time this season. For Jones, it continues a run of four straight finishes inside the top-13, and back-to-back top-six results.
“It’s nice for the No. 42 [John Hunter Nemechek] to finally get the result,” Jones said post-race. “They’ve been fast and haven’t been able to put the race together, so happy for them to get some momentum rolling.”
Jones heads to back-to-back road course events with a four-point advantage over the cutline.
“It was a good day. It was clean, nothing great, nothing really bad. Just a good day. Everybody executed well,” Jones added. “I thought we finished the best that we could. I thought we were a little bit better than the No. 5 [Kyle Larson] at the end, but it was just really hard to pass. Good to keep the momentum rolling. We’ve got two challenging weeks ahead in San Diego and Sonoma that we really have to hammer through and get a result out of both of them. Proud of the effort and hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
John Hunter Nemechek sits 26th in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, 78 points below the cutline with 10 races left in the regular season. While it may seem unlikely, his teammate just made up 69 points in five weeks.
Both drivers will continue to race hard towards capturing the first victory under the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB banner, before the team expands to a three-car operation in 2027, with the addition of the No. 84.
At San Diego, LEGACY will have Nemechek and Jones joined by team owner Jimmie Johnson in the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE. Coverage of the Anduril 250 will take place on Sunday, June 21 at 4:00 PM ET on Prime Video.
