MICHIGAN INT. SPEEDWAY | RACE RECAP
BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 8, 2025) – The NASCAR Cup Series visited the Irish Hills and Michigan International Speedway for a Sunday matinée. LEGACY MC teammates, John Hunter Nemechek piloting the No. 42 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE and Michigan-native Erik Jones in the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE started side-by-side for the FireKeepers Casino 400 in row 11. It was Chase Briscoe leading the field to the green flag. At the end of the race, it was Denny Hamlin who captured the victory.
Below is a look at how the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB entries fared:
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK | NO. 42 PYE-BARKER TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
During the opening stage of the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, John Hunter Nemechek took the green flag from the 21st position. At the initial start, the 27-year-old driver got caught in the bottom lane and lost several spots, dropping back to 32nd early in the run.
Despite the setback, Saturday’s practice had shown promise, with the No. 42 Pye-Barker team posting some of the best long-run speeds, a factor that came into play as Stage 1 went caution-free for all 45 laps. Nemechek steadily worked his way forward and climbed back up to 19th at the end of the first stage. He relayed to the team that the car felt neutral, prompting crew chief Travis Mack to call for no adjustments during the first pit stop.
Nemechek restarted Stage 2 from 15th. He initially moved forward but lost a couple of spots before once again regaining momentum. On lap 60, while running in traffic, Nemechek’s car got loose and snapped around, making contact with the outside backstretch wall. He was able to bring the car to pit road for the crew to assess the damage.
With limited time to make repairs, the No. 42 team got him back on track quickly. Nemechek reported that the car felt okay, though there was damage to the splitter. Just a few laps later, a multi-car accident brought out the red flag, giving the team an opportunity to further strategize repairs.
Unfortunately, while running at the tail end of the field, Nemechek’s car snapped loose again and made additional contact with the outside wall. This time the damage was more severe, and the No. 42 was towed to the garage. The team tried to make extensive repairs but wasn’t able to make it back out on the track.
In a disappointing end to a promising weekend, Nemechek and the No. 42 Pye-Barker team were credited with a 34th-place finish, as the team took its first DNF of the season.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTABLE:
“Unfortunately, it was a tough day. Not really sure what happened, our car just snapped around on me without warning. I hate this for all the men and women who work very hard to give us fast race cars. We’ll regroup and try to get this monkey off our back.”
ERIK JONES | NO. 43 DOLLAR TREE TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
Erik Jones was excited for his return to his home track at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400. After starting the race in 22nd, Jones found speed in the initial laps as he worked his way up to 16th by lap 10. As the stage continued green, the Michigan-native told the team that his car was good, and he just needed a bit of assistance with his entrance to the corners. The entire first stage of 45 laps went green, and Jones ended up finishing 16th.
During the stage break, his team opted not to make an adjustment as the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE started to come to Jones on the long run. They pitted for four tires and fuel to restart Stage 2 in 18th.
Jones found speed from the drop of the green flag for Stage 2. Despite starting 18th on lap 53, he entered the top-10 by lap 59. He lost some handling in the next few laps to fall back to 19th when a wreck brought out the red flag on lap 61. When the red flag was lifted to yellow, the No. 43 team pitted for right side tires and fuel to make it to the end of the stage. He restarted 20th.
As the stage continued, Jones found that his car went to the tight side in dirty air and fell back to 24th. He resurged as the stage had a long green flag run to work his way up inside the top-20 again by lap 96 and was running 16th when the caution came out again on lap 110. Jones reported at this time that he was happy with his car overall and felt like it continued to get better. During the caution, the team pitted for four tires and fuel to stay out at the stage break. Jones restarted 12th with seven laps to go in the stage.
While falling back on the initial restart, Jones raced his way three-wide to find himself in 10th with just four laps to go in the stage. He held off Kyle Busch in the closing laps of the stage to finish there and bring home one stage point. The No. 43 team kept Jones on the track during the stage break to restart eighth on lap 127.
When the final stage went green, Jones won a three-wide and four-wide battle to hold his eighth-place position on the restart. He was combating a loose racecar as he fell to ninth. The team hoped the cloud cover coming in would help tighten up the Toyota Camry XSE.
The caution came out again on lap 146 while Jones was running 10th. Crew chief Ben Beshore brought his driver down pit road for four tires and fuel during the caution as the team felt they could make it on fuel at that point. He restarted 15th as he waited to get some extra fuel on his pit stop.
As Jones struggled on the restart, he fell back to 22nd. He continued to battle though and worked his way back into the top-20 as his car started to come to him by lap 165. From there, he began his drive forward As the rest of the race went green, Jones steadily passed cars. He ultimately ran out of time though and finished just outside the top-10 in 11th.
ERIK JONES QUOTABLE:
“I mean overall it was a solid day for us. We had top-five speed all day but struggled back in traffic. Dirty air was not our friend and that really showed in the second stage. We were able to get some stage points today and would’ve gotten another top-10 with our No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE if we had just had a little more time at the end. LEGACY Motor Club is making good progress these past few weeks. Hopefully we can keep that trend going as we head to Mexico and some of the other races this summer.”
NEXT UP: Holding its first-ever NASCAR Cup Series race, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is set for its debut on Sunday, June 15 for the Viva Mexico 250. The race will begin at 3:00 p.m. EDT with coverage on Amazon Prime, MAX, MRN and Sirius XM.
