KANSAS CITY, Kan. – There is an announcement every now and then in the NASCAR Cup Series that comes out of left field, and Legacy Motor Club’s switch to Toyota on May 2 was an announcement that took everyone by surprise.
The news was so well-kept that the Cup drivers for Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing were not informed until the moment before the announcement went public.
“I was bumfuzzled by that announcement,” Bubba Wallace said. “It was crazy, I didn’t expect that. We were told about an hour before.”
LMC’s move to Toyota is expected to expand Toyota to eight Cup teams in 2024, pending any expansion by 23XI. LMC’s current drivers, Erik Jones and Noah Gragson, are not new to the Toyota umbrella either; Jones raced under the Toyota and JGR umbrellas from 2013 to 2020, while Gragson raced part-time in the Xfinity Series and full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series for the manufacturer in 2017 and 2018.
Tyler Reddick, who’s in his first year with Toyota and 23XI Racing, was excited for the move and the ability to work with more teams under the Toyota banner in Cup.
“We all got told [the news] at the same time, but yeah, I’m really excited about it, obviously,” Reddick said. “The more of us that we have out there on the racetrack certainly really helps at the superspeedways, but just having a larger pool of drivers and crew chiefs and minds that can share information with one another and work together.
“[…] I guess I don’t know how that’s going to work out. I don’t want to say anything for it yet, but that’s certainly, on the driver’s side, getting to work with Noah [Gragson] is going to be a lot of fun. Me and him worked together a lot when we were at Chevy, and Erik [Jones] is familiar with the Toyota camp and has had a lot of success with Toyota as well.”
Martin Truex Jr., last week’s winner at Dover Motor Speedway, echoed the same sentiments as Reddick.
“I think it’s good for us,” Truex said. “Anytime we get more cars in the Toyota camp, it’s more information, it’s more ideas being thrown around. And when we go superspeedway racing, it’s more partners for us that we struggled to not have. I think it’s good on all fronts.”
As one of the biggest Toyota prospects to rise through the NASCAR ranks, Christopher Bell was teammates with both Jones and Gragson in the Xfinity Series between 2017 and 2018. Like Wallace, he too was surprised by the timing of the…
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