Erik Jones' crew chief, Justin Alexander, has made it clear that Legacy Motor Club's recent resurgence in NASCAR cannot be attributed to a single breakthrough. Instead, what he posits is that they have been working toward it for months.

The background of these comments is based on Jones' excellent performances at Michigan, where he secured a runner-up, followed by a sixth-place result at Pocono, signaling that the Jimmie Johnson-owned organization may finally have found its stride.

When asked about what had changed in a recent conversation with SiriusXM Radio, Alexander strongly pushed back against the idea of a one-size-fits-all approach.

“We haven't done some magic pill that we've taken overnight to get to where we're at,” he said. “If you kind of look at our results over the past, say, starting at maybe Texas or maybe a little before then, we've just slowly been kind of knocking down top 15s and running inside the top 15.”

He explained that the team then “made another step” and “ran really well at the All-Star Race.” In fact, if we look at the stat sheet, Alexander's comments seem to be backed up. The No. 43 team was showcasing a consistent pace even before Michigan.

Alexander also spoke about the team's improved performance in qualifying, which gave them better options to work with in the race.

“When you get on the good side of that (qualifying) metric, it tends to help you out,” he explained. “We had some rainouts, and we got some good starting positions. Even when we had to start in the rear at Michigan, we still had a good race.”

But before a definitive claim is made to all NASCAR fans, let's take a look at the above-mentioned stat sheet and how it stands in light of Alexander's comments.

Legacy Motor Club's Summer Surge Built on Consistent Results

LMC's improvement in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season now consists of a series of breakthrough performances. Take, for example, Nashville, where Erik Jones finished 11th, followed by the aforementioned runner-up finish at Michigan and a sixth-place result at Pocono.

However, even before this recent surge, Jones had recorded two 10th-place finishes in Phoenix and Darlington.

At Pocono, even teammate John Hunter Nemechek added a career-best-tying fourth-place finish and led a career-high 42 laps, the most of any driver in the race at Pocono.

This resulted in the LMC Toyotas managing to finish inside the top 10 while amassing 82 points on race day. Due to this exact performance, Jones' recent form, after previously struggling outside playoff contention, has moved him into a points tie for 15th in the standings with Austin Cindric.

These numbers support Justin Alexander's claims. LMC is showcasing speed that cannot suddenly be attributed to a breakthrough. It is the cumulative result of efforts that started trending at Nashville and continued with what was arguably the team's best overall performance of the season at Pocono.

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Written by

Uday Jakhar

Edited by

Yash Kotak