erik jones said LEGACY MOTOR CLUB is in a strong run with the No. 43 car and is already looking at a three-car future next season. The move would add another full-time entry, but Jones said the biggest hurdle is staffing it with roughly 60 people in a tight NASCAR market.
Jones On The No. 43
“We are on a great stretch with the 43, and we are making a lot of points and running well,” Jones said Saturday in Brooklyn, Michigan, before the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway. He said the No. 43 team is running right at the backside of the top 10, which he called a step up for the group.
Jones drives the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, and that recent pace is the backdrop for the organization’s expansion plans. Going from two cars to three full-time teams next season would give the group another data point on race weekends, but it also means adding people before the on-track product can grow again.
LEGACY Motor Club Staffing
“I think going to three cars, at the end of the day, it is a value. It is another data point, but the caveat to that, the challenge of it – we need to hire 60 people, approximately, if not more,” Jones said. He added that finding that many people in today’s NASCAR climate is not easy.
He also said the biggest challenge is not just hiring, but integrating the new team, new driver and new crew chief. That makes the staffing push just as important as the car count, because the expansion only works if the pieces fit quickly enough to support the added entry.
San Diego Track Work
Jones said the team has spent the last month doing a large amount of simulator work on the finalized San Diego track. “Quite a bit since we’ve got the finalized track over the last month, we’ve done a large amount of sim,” he said.
He described the layout as similar to Chicago in some ways, but bigger, with more turns and a couple of good passing zones. Jones also said the track is extremely rough and that it took him a long time to memorize it and get up to speed in the simulator.
That preparation sits alongside a lighter part of his schedule. Jones said he is looking forward to spending bonus time close to home next week and racing at Berlin with his late model program, which he said runs only three or four races a year. He said the car tested there about a month ago was really good, even though racing against the regular Berlin drivers is never easy.
