Jimmie Johnson will make his return to the NASCAR circuit on Sunday when he drives backwards in the Daytona 500, but how he presented himself to his race team is something that didn’t sit well with stock-car racing legend Richard Petty. is sitting
Petty, 85, was essentially stripped of power inside his formerly renamed team, which rebranded and rebuilt after the 2022 season ended. Petty became an ambassador for the Legacy Motor Club and expressed his dismay at Johnson’s rise to power.
“It’s been weird for me,” Petty said Saturday. “Most of the time, I ran most of the show. Jimmy brought all his people in. His way of running things and my way of running things maybe a little bit different. We probably agree about 50% of what it really is. ” comes down.”
Legacy Motor Club was known as Petty GMS Motorsports until January. Johnson bought an ownership stake in the group in November.
“They don’t run the racing, they run the front office,” Petty said. “With the sponsorships, the appearances and all those things, Jimmy’s mob is controlling it in a way. It’s something I’ve never had to do, I guess.”
He said: “He’s basically going to shut down the show completely in four or five years. He’ll probably be the majority owner or the owner of our operations. He’s looking at things in a completely different way.”
Petty and Johnson are the only seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champions.
Johnson told The Associated Press that he was “disappointed” after hearing Petty’s remarks.
“For starters, they haven’t expressed them to me,” Johnson said. “Honestly, there are a lot of moving pieces to this. Business decisions are being made between Mr. Gallagher and the Petty family before I come in. Those are the details that I don’t have to say.
“But a lot of what Richard is speaking out is based on business decisions that he and his family have made and they are not relative to my involvement.”
Legacy Motor Club will run two cars full time and one car part time. Noah Gragson and Eric Jones are full-time drivers and Johnson is a part-time driver.