CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY | RACE RECAP
CONCORD, N.C. (May 25, 2025) – The NASCAR Cup Series raced its longest race of the year Sunday night celebrating Memorial Day weekend with a “home” race. When 600 miles were complete, the driver in Victory Lane was Ross Chastain, who picked up his first victory of the 2025 season.
Below is a look at how the three LEGACY MC entries fared:
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK | NO. 42 DOLLAR TREE TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
The Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race of the season, is a Memorial Day weekend tradition at Charlotte Motor Speedway. For this grueling 600-mile event, John Hunter Nemechek and the No. 42 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE team started strong, rolling off from sixth on the grid.
In Stage 1, Nemechek was pleased with the handling of his car, despite it being a little tight in the center and loose off the corners, he managed to maintain track position. Just before the end of the 100-lap opening stage, he passed the No. 17 car to secure a fourth-place stage finish.
After a pit stop during the stage break, Nemechek restarted in sixth but got bogged down and slipped back to eighth, the lowest he had run up to that point. He quickly regained ground, climbing back to fifth by lap 139. As day turned to night, the balance of the Dollar Tree Toyota shifted to the loose side, making it difficult to get the power down on corner exit. Nemechek was among the first to pit during the green-flag cycle on lap 148, gaining track position with fresher tires. Once the cycle completed, he emerged in second but faded slightly to finish Stage 2 in fifth.
After the traditional moment of silence to honor fallen service members, the team made a four-tire stop with a slight air-pressure adjustment and added fuel to prepare for the second half of the race. Now deeper in the field, Nemechek battled through dirty air, which affected his car’s balance. Spotter Hayden Reeves kept him focused, reminding him of the car’s strength and the length of the race. Though running back in traffic, Nemechek turned top-five lap times and closed out Stage 3 in 14th.
In the final 100-lap stage, with the entire team pushing to finish strong, misfortune struck. On lap 339, Nemechek got loose and made contact with the outside wall. He brought the car to pit road and reported steering issues as a result of the impact. Despite a promising start and competitive pace, the damage hampered the team’s efforts, and Nemechek ultimately crossed the finish line in a disappointing 27th place.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTABLE:
“We had a fast No. 42 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry for Stage 1 and 2, we just got behind, losing track position, and got stuck. We ended up getting loose there at the end and got into the fence. Promising day, solid speed, just not the result that we want.”
TRAVIS MACK QUOTABLE:
“We had a good car; we just needed to execute better. We made gains, we’ll go back to the drawing board and figure it out.”
ERIK JONES | NO. 43 ADVENTHEALTH TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
After qualifying 27th for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Erik Jones had to drop to the rear of the field at the start due to an unapproved adjustment on the No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE after Saturday’s qualifying session. He wasted no time moving forward as he worked up to 35th by lap 3 after starting 40th. Despite dealing with a very tight car, Jones was able to move up to 23rd in the following laps. When the caution came out on lap 42, he was 22nd. The No. 43 team opted to pit under the yellow for four tires, fuel, and an air-pressure adjustment. He restarted 16th on lap 52.
While he struggled on the restart, Jones recovered and was running 15th on lap 60. He commented that his car was unpredictable and that he had trouble with handling in Turns 1 and 2. As the stage continued under green, he told the team that he kept getting tighter on the long runs. When the caution came out on lap 97 to end the stage under caution, he was running 16th. During the stage break, the No. 43 team took four tires, fuel, and a wedge adjustment. A fast pit stop by the team gained Jones four spots to restart 12th for the second stage.
Jones was already up to eighth by the time the caution came out four laps into the Stage 2 run. He fell back on the next restart to 11th but quickly regained his spots. He was seventh by lap 127. Jones was extremely tight in the first two turns of the 1.5-mile oval still. He pitted on lap 152 under green for four tires, fuel, and another air pressure adjustment. As the rest of the field also pitted under green, Jones cycled through to seventh once again. His Toyota Camry XSE continued to build tight as the stage finished on a long green flag run. Jones finished Stage 3 in eighth, earning three valuable stage points.
He restarted 12th for the third stage and found himself in 10th just four laps after the lap 208 restart. He ran in that position until the caution on lap 238 when he was able to pit for four tires, fuel, and another air-pressure adjustment to help aid his still-tight car. He restarted 10th and was running eighth when the caution came back out on lap 246. Jones continued to tell the team that he had no turn. He fell back to 17th on the lap 252 restart. The driver of the No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE finished 18th in the third stage. During the stage break, the team pitted for four tires, fuel and to undo all their last adjustments.
For the fourth and final stage, Jones restarted 17th in the No. 43 Toyota. Jones found himself running ninth in just one lap after the stage’s second restart. He continued to run in the top-10 as the stage stayed green. On lap 348, green flag pit stops started for a majority of the field’s final stops of the race. Jones visited his pit stall on lap 352 for four tires and fuel plus another round of adjustments. When the field cycled through, Jones was 15th. The 600-mile race ran green until the checkered flag where Jones brought home a 13th-place finish for the No. 43 AdventHealth team.
ERIK JONES QUOTABLE:
“Honestly, we just dealt with the same issues pretty much all race long. Just consistently way too tight and couldn’t seem to get it better with any of the adjustments we made. It was still a solid day thought to finish 13th after some issues throughout the race. This is the longest race of the season, and a big success is just surviving it. We did just that and walked away with some things we can work on for next week at Nashville.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON | NO. 84 CARVANA TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
After taking NFL champion Tom Brady for a ride in an INDYCAR before the Indianapolis 500, Johnson flew to Charlotte to for his 700th NCS start. He rolled off 17th and during Stage 1, Johnson said the No. 84 was tight in the center. The first opportunity to pit came during a caution on 43. Johnson had already fallen down a lap to leaders but gained the lap back.
Late in Stage 1, he tagged the wall in Turn 4 and said the No. 84 was very tight off despite the adjustments from the pit stop. Johnson finished Stage 1 in 36th.
Crew chief Chad Johnston made more changes to help Johnson with the same handling conditions at Lap 100.
On Lap 111, Johnson got loose and hit the wall in turn three, knocking the right suspension out of the car, and would have to retire early, finishing 40th.
JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTABLE:
“Just made a mistake in turn three and hit the wall, unfortunate day for the entire No. 84 team. It was really great to see John Hunter and Erik running so well, so I spent the rest of the race with my owner hat on watching our guys.”
NEXT UP: The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Music City and Nashville Superspeedway for the Cracker Barrel 400 on Sunday, June 1. The race begins at 7:00 p.m. ET and can be seen on Amazon Prime. The radio broadcast will be on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
