TC Daily Pit Stop: Jimmie Johnson Running Cup Races in Toyota in 2024; Appeals Panel Upholds Young's Motorsports Penalties; Preece, SHR Partner With IUOE; Spire and RAZE Renew

TC Daily Pit Stop: Thursday, June 15th, 2023

Toby Christie

Jun 15, 2023

Photo Credit: Craig White, Racing America

Jimmie Johnson returned to NASCAR in 2023, after a two-season shift to the NTT IndyCar Series. Johnson became co-owner of the newly rebranded LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team, and he was announced as the part-time driver of the team’s part-time No. 84 entry.

The team will swap from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2024, and on Wednesday, it was confirmed that Johnson will drive for the new manufacturer.

“100 percent, yes. You will see [Johnson] in a Toyota,” said Wilson. “That will be very moving and emotional for me personally, professionally, for Toyota. Now I’ll let Jimmie fill in the blank, but I will just say that Jimmie Johnson will be racing a Toyota Camry before he is done as a race car driver.”

National Motorsports Appeals Panel Upholds Window Net Safety Penalties for Young’s Motorsports

Photo Credit: Jonathan McCoy, TobyChristie.com

Youngs Motorsports had a chance to have its appeals heard for penalties stemming from illegal window nets for its No. 02 and 20 teams on Wednesday. After hearing the appeals, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel decided to uphold the penalties.

According to a source, who spoke to TobyChristie.com about the matter, the two Young’s Motorsports teams and the G2G Racing team which had a similar penalty a few weeks ago, had window nets with non-OEM expiration labels that were sewed onto the nets.

Ryan Preece, Stewart-Haas Racing Add Backing of International Union of Operating Engineers

Ryan Preece and Stewart-Haas Racing have reached a new partnership with The International Union of Operating Engineers. As part of the deal, IUOE’s red, white and blue colors will be featured as the primary sponsor of the No. 41 Ford Mustang in two races this season beginning with the Chicago Street Race in July.

The colors will return to the No. 41 machine at Bristol Motor Speedway in September.

Spire Motorsports, RAZE Energy Partner Again For Six-Race Partnership With Ty Dillon

Spire Motorsports and RAZE Energy have reached an extension of their partnership, which will now enter a second season. While last season the RAZE colors were on Corey LaJoie’s No. 7 machine for four races, this season RAZE will move to Ty Dillon’s No. 77 entry for six events. RAZE will highlight its RAZE Tea offerings in three events, while it will feature its RAZE Energy Shots in the other three events.

RAZE Tea will be the primary sponsor of Dillon at Nashville (June 25), Indy RS (August 13), and Charlotte ROVAL (October 8), while RAZE Energy Shots will be the primary at Atlanta (July 9), Darlington (September 3), and Homestead (October 22).

Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery Partners With Stefan Parsons, SS Green Light at Nashville

Let’s play an adult version of that popular kid’s interactive video song series on YouTube from Super Simple Songs… Do you like racing? Yes, I do! Do you like whiskey? Yes, I do! Do you like racing and whiskey? Yes, I do! Yum!

While the kid’s version of this exercise typically pairs two things that don’t go together to illicit a feeling of disgust, SS Green Light Racing announced a new primary sponsorship for Stefan Parsons and the No. 07 team for next weekend’s event at Nashville Superspeedway and the partnership couldn’t be any more perfect!

Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery will serve as the sponsorship partner and they will feature its Tennessee Whiskey brand.