Jimmie Johnson scuffled in his first 2 years as NASCAR team owner. Can he make Legacy a winner?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The vision of his true NASCAR future crystalized for Jimmie Johnson at last year's season finale. He climbed into his Toyota at Phoenix for his ninth, nondescript race of the season when he spotted them on pit road, the corporate bigwigs on their way to a suite where Johnson should have been schmoozing in his role as team owner, rather than take the wheel for a meaningless race.

The pull of driver vs. owner responsibility Johnson wrestled with for two years at last had a decisive winner.

"I still want to be behind the wheel," Johnson said, "but it's really … I need to come here with a different agenda."

Johnson stayed true to tightening his commitment at Legacy Motor Club, and is now the majority owner under an offseason restructuring in which a private equity firm bought into the Cup Series team. He's Legacy's final boss, and yeah, the 49-year-old seven-time NASCAR champion still knows how to turn a fast lap, locking himself this week into Sunday's Daytona 500 in the first round of qualifying.

"It's a big weight lifted off, to say the least," Johnson said.

Don't worry, there's still quite a load for Johnson the Businessman to handle in the boardroom.

The overhaul at the top, that included bringing Knighthead Capital Management aboard, is all part of Legacy's plan to make the leap this season into respectability. It's been an arduous grind into relevancy since Johnson came aboard ahead of the 2023 season. Legacy has no wins, just two top-fives and 13 top-10s in two seasons. While no one expected Johnson to drive like a champion in his few spot starts each season, his nine starts in 2024 where he failed to finish better than 26th surely aided in his push to kick himself upstairs full-time.

Johnson scaled back to two races this season, with only the Coca-Cola 600 in May left on his plate.

As for how much time Johnson the owner will spend at the track, he said it depended on "demand and need."

"What's been interesting in this journey so far is, I have been much more focused on business (operations), on revenue, on sponsorship, that I ever did on, or thought on, the competition side," Johnson said. "We're really catching our breath here at the revenue side, much more under control. I do know that I want to get deeper into the competition side, and I believe that'll have me at the track."

Legacy this season will field two full-time cars, the No. 43 Toyota for Erik Jones - two top-fives in two seasons with the team and a finish of 28th in the Cup Series standings - and the No. 42 Toyota for John Hunter Nemechek. Neither driver made the playoffs.

"Erik is that steady, calm thing for us," Johnson said. "Erik has been so patient with the organization, going through different ownership changes and promises about making things better. We feel a deep obligation towards him to get it right."

Nemechek finished 36th in the standings last season.

"As far as he's concerned, in his first year with us last year, we didn't have our act together in our obligation to John Hunter," Johnson said.

Johnson did his part for the third straight Daytona 500 to land a big-time - like, really, really big - partner for one of the Legacy cars. After working with rock bands Creed and Guns N' Roses each of the last two seasons, Johnson’s paint scheme in the No. 84 Toyota for the Daytona 500 was inspired by retired NBA great Shaquille O’Neal’s career.

Johnson, a member of the 2024 class, skipped NASCAR’s Hall of Fame ceremony last Friday to shoot hoops and promote his car and the Daytona 500 at a carnival-themed Super Bowl party thrown by O’Neal. Johnson and O’Neal ripped the cover off the car with cameras on them - good luck getting " Entertainment Tonight " to Daytona - and engaged in a free-throw shooting contest.

Hey, even the good times come with their own trials, like trying to get Shaq into the car.

"We couldn't get his shoulders through the car, he's so wide," Johnson said, laughing. "He actually found a way in, but I had to pull him out. I was hanging onto his foot trying to rip him out of there."

No matter the ride, Johnson will have a shorter work commute this year. Johnson, who has been living in Britain for more than a year, will return to Charlotte to be hands-on in his larger role with Legacy. His wife and two daughters will follow at the end of the school year.

After several false starts, including walking away from NASCAR for a brief dalliance in IndyCar, the final curtain seems poised to finally drop on Johnson’s racing career.

"With my new position, it's becoming much harder," he said. “So, staying focused on the growth of the team, our partners, prospects, OEM, management, drivers. It's really tough to give the driving piece a chance right now."