TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY | RACE RECAP
FORT WORTH, Texas (May 4, 2025) – The NASCAR Cup Series visited Texas Motor Speedway for the Wurth 400 on Sunday afternoon. Erik Jones, driving the No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE, rolled off 14th, while his LEGACY MC teammate John Hunter Nemechek started 28th in the No. 42 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE. Carson Hocevar secured the first pole position of his Cup Series career, but when the dust settled after 400 miles, it was Joey Logano who took the checkered flag during overtime in Texas.
Below is a look at how the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB entries fared:
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK | NO. 42 DOLLAR TREE TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
START: 28TH | FINISH: 8TH | POINTS: 23RD
John Hunter Nemechek and the No. 42 Dollar Tree team started Sunday’s 400-mile race at Texas Motor Speedway from the 28th position. Early in the race, Nemechek lost a few spots due to a tight-handling race car. On lap 20, the first caution flag waved for a spin, prompting the team to pit for four tires, fuel, and an air-pressure adjustment. Unfortunately, Nemechek was caught speeding on pit road—along with three other drivers—relegating him to the rear of the field for the restart.
A long green-flag run followed, and the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE was mired as far back as 38th. Spotter Hayden Reeves encouraged Nemechek to stay focused. A late caution near the end of Stage 1 saw the No. 42 finish the stage in 30th.
A strong pit stop from the Dollar Tree crew gained Nemechek four positions, and two penalties ahead bumped him up to 24th for the start of Stage 2. Early in the run, a spin by the No. 19 allowed Nemechek to move up to 19th. He continued climbing the leaderboard, and a key two-tire stop on lap 128—called by crew chief Travis Mack—helped the team gain 10 spots. At the halfway point, Nemechek was running in seventh, his highest position of the race. As Stage 2 wore on, the No. 42 grew tighter during the long green-flag run, and he slipped back a few spots before the stage concluded.
Stage 3 began with the Dollar Tree Toyota in 18th after a fuel-related delay on pit road. On the first lap of Stage 3, a multi-car crash in Turn 3, Nemechek dropped low and avoided trouble and jumped to 13th. By lap 193, he was still running in 13th and turning top-five lap times in pursuit of the lead pack. On lap 201, Nemechek re-entered the top 10, with teammate Erik Jones just behind in 11th.
As the race neared its conclusion, Nemechek reported the car was feeling “pretty decent,” though slightly tight. He made his final pit stop under caution on lap 221, ready to battle for a strong finish in the closing laps. With 15 laps to go, Nemechek restarted in 10th with his eyes on another top-10 finish. The top-10 cars were battling hard for position. With two laps to go, the No. 71 hit the backstretch wall, setting up an Overtime attempt, and Nemechek lined up ninth. Nemechek held strong and brought home his Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE in eighth place, his third top-10 of the 2025 season.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTABLE:
“It means a lot. We unloaded with speed this week, which was nice, in practice. Had good long run speed – guys brought a fast Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE. It was an up-and-down day for us. Just kind of all over the place with what we had. Glad to come home eighth. The last couple of restarts were tough with the positions that we were in. I’ve got to get better from a driver’s standpoint racing up towards the front, but I haven’t had any chances at that, so progressing and learning.”
ERIK JONES | NO. 43 ADVENTHEALTH TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
START: 14TH | FINISH: 5TH | POINTS: 29TH
After his 14th-place qualifying effort on Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Erik Jones continued to show his speed as he held his position for the opening laps of the race. Jones pitted for four tires and fuel on Lap 21 and restarted 17th. He went three-wide on the restart with his No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE to advance all the way to 12th in just one lap. Despite dealing with an increasingly free car, the Michigan-native was able to silently work his way up into the top-10. When the caution came out with five laps to go in Stage 1, Jones found himself running 10th. The stage finished under yellow, and the team earned one stage point.
Stage 2 brought the No. 43 team some trouble on the first pit stop as they were handed speeding penalty during the stage break that sent him to the rear of the field. Jones persevered and quickly worked his way into the top-20 by lap 122. He felt like his Toyota Camry XSE was handling well when the field regrouped during a caution on Lap 124. During the caution’s pit stop, Jones received another penalty for equipment interference after contact with the No. 9 while leaving his box. Despite once again being sent to the rear of the field, a determined Jones went to work and found himself in 21st when the caution flag came out with two laps to go in Stage 2. As the stage finished under caution, he told the team that he felt like his Toyota Camry XSE was running well, but it was getting harder to tell as the rest of the field improved on their cars. The team pitted for four tires and fuel during the stage break and restarted 19th for the final stage.
Jones’ luck started to change at the drop of the green flag for the final stage. He avoided a large wreck on the opening lap and found himself in 14th when the caution came out. He was happy with his Toyota Camry XSE and found himself in 12th with 64 laps to go. Just 10 laps later, Jones found himself back in 10th as green flag pit stops started. A lucky caution caught him on lap 219, and after a quick pit stop, Jones restarted seventh with 42 laps left. As cautions ensued in the final laps, the race went into a green-white-checkered finish where Jones fought hard to earn a fifth-place result, his first top-five of the 2025 season.
ERIK JONES QUOTABLE:
“It was a sloppy day in a lot of ways. We had two pit road penalties, but just happy to come back from it and get a top-five. It would have been pretty disappointing to have a car this good, kind of our first car this year that’s been pretty strong to throw it away. I thought we were headed that way, but it turned out well. Thankful for AdventHealth, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, and Toyota to get a good run and hopefully we can get rolling. I would love this to be the start of our summer stretch and just keep it going.”
NEXT UP: The NASCAR Cup Series continues its 2025 season at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, May 11, with the AdventHealth 400. The race is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on FS1 and MAX, with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
