NASCAR Cup Series Silly Season is in full swing, and Legacy Motor Club could be the latest team trying to make moves for the upcoming year.
Legacy and its owner, Jimmie Johnson, have been trying to obtain a third charter for either 2026 or 2027. That much is already known via the pending lawsuits the team is currently involved in with Rick Ware Racing. Those lawsuits all stemmed from a disagreement over what year Legacy would acquire a charter from RWR.
Johnson has also stated on his podcast Never Settle that he wants a third team on the grid in 2026 but would (despite the name of said podcast) settle for the addition the following year.
Jimmie Johnson on a 3rd @LEGACYMotorClub car: "It's our intentions and ambitions to put a third car on the grid in 2026. Worst case scenario, '27, but we're working hard to make 26 happen."
— Jonathan Fjeld (@Jonathan_Fjeld) June 30, 2025
Johnson said he is impressed with Connor Zilisch and Jesse Love specifically. #NASCAR https://t.co/sngg1WPhaK
So when the rumor came out last week that Legacy and Haas Factory Team could be linking up, while it was initially surprising, it does make a lot of sense.
The Instagram account @nascarrumornostalgia posted Aug. 1 that Legacy could be buying or merging with Haas, and it would include the No. 41 charter, currently driven by Cole Custer, and the Haas race shop. The post did not mention what would happen with the Haas NASCAR Xfinity Series team.
A post like that should usually be taken with a grain of salt since it’s a random account on the Internet, where anyone can post any wild thing they dream of. But that account has been accurate about its rumors lately, such as Kaden Honeycutt getting in the No. 52 truck the remainder of the season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, starting at Richmond Raceway.
What gave that post a whole lot more credence, though, was on Aug. 4, when Bubba Wallace spotter and Door, Bumper, Clear host Freddie Kraft acknowledged the rumor. The folks at DBC are pretty in tune with the rumblings in the garage and have been right about quite a few things in the past.
Though he would not say Legacy by name, Kraft said a Cup Toyota team that is not Joe Gibbs Racing or 23XI Racing could be buying or merging with Haas. There’s only one other Toyota Cup team outside of those two: Legacy.
Dirty Mo Media didn’t post a clip from that part of the show, but if you listen to the episode, it’s at the very end.
A few outlets have posted about the rumor as well, but those all used the intel from @nascarrumornostalgia’s post. So it’s unknown if this deal is really happening or whether the two teams have even talked. If they have, then it’s likely just a backup plan for if Legacy doesn’t come away from the RWR lawsuits with a third charter for next year. Johnson’s team would have no reason to buy or merge with Haas if it did land a third charter via Ware.
Court cases can take a very long time, however, and it is possible that if Legacy did strike a deal with Haas, it could drop the lawsuits/settle with RWR. There are still so many things up in the air, but let’s pretend Legacy and Haas did do a deal. What would that look like?
It would then have a third charter, a new shop and a two-car Xfinity operation. Cole Custer, Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed could all find themselves out of a ride, as Legacy and Toyota would have drivers they want in those seats. Sportsnaut noted that Jesse Love could return to Toyota to be the third Cup driver for the team next year.
Corey Heim is perhaps Toyota’s best prospect. While he is under contract with 23XI, the team could loan him out to Legacy to race in either Cup or Xfinity for a year to get him some more higher level experience. Toyota prospect Brent Crews, who turns 18 years old in March, could be another possibility for an Xfinity, as Kraft also said in the same episode that Crews could be going Xfinity racing next year. But JGR is also an option for Crews in Xfinity, unlike Heim.
All of the Xfinity talk could be naught, as Legacy should shutter those two teams if it buys Haas and put all the focus on the three Cup teams.
If it’s a merger between LMC and HFT rather than a buyout, it could kind of be like the rebirth of Stewart-Haas Racing, except you’d swap out Tony Stewart for another NASCAR Hall of Famer in Johnson. If Gene Haas still has a seat at the table, I’d expect Custer’s job to be safe. The Xfinity lineup may go untouched as well, or maybe Heim, Crews or someone else are brought in. The significant change there would be all of the inventory in that shop switching over from Ford to Toyota.
Whether a deal with Legacy happens or not, it’s clear something needs to change with Haas’ Cup program. Custer is currently 33rd in points, and outside of the Daytona 500, he has been invisible out there. The NXS program hasn’t been lighting the world on fire, but Mayer did just win last weekend at Iowa Speedway and has a shot at the regular season title, while Creed is solidly in the playoffs.
If HFT were to sell, that wouldn’t be a good look for NASCAR, as losing Gene Haas would be a big loss in the garage and it would make yet another owner who has left since the charter agreement first started. A merger could boost both teams, but it could also cloud Legacy’s vision and ultimate goals with too many cooks in the kitchen.
The only given is that somehow, someway, Legacy is going to do everything it can to get a third car on the grid in the coming years.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
Interesting.
If Haas wants out, this could happen. If he wishes to stay in, he could write a check for LMC and never bat an eye. He is a Billionaire and makes his money with intricate machine tools, one of the largest in the world. He OWN an F1 team. Not a syndicate-ownership. It’s his team.
So If Haas has a seat at the table, it will be on his terms.
Getting back to the rumor, it makes lots of sense. You can bet if some floor-sweeper has heard something, there are at least low-level discussions.
Regarding the Ware-Legacy lawsuit, the outcome will be determined whether it is filed in State or Federal Court. That will determine the length of appeals. The gum-flapping about it has been thin on details. What were the terms of the contract? When they get to discovery, we’ll find out.
Which state-court, Delaware, North Carolina? The County in NC will determine a great deal if it is in NC State Court.
Federal will be quick. Review of the contract and it will be settled.
Who would have thought NASCAR, of all sports, would be contributing to the coffers of lawyers, who most of the hotshots have utter disdain for our sport.
If Haas “could write a check for LMC and never bat an eye” why was he so quick to sell off two of his charters a year ago?
I think Haas (like Stewart) has grown tired of NASCAR. I suspect the only reason he didn’t sell all three charters last year is because of Joe Custer. As the president of Haas NASCAR, and Cole Custer’s father, Joe needed to find a ride for Cole and Haas threw him a lifeline. Custer may have been successful in the Xfinity Series, but so far he’s fallen short of expectations in Cup. Maybe Haas is tired of carrying him?
Haas may own an F1 team, but for nine years they’ve been a perennial back marker. They’ve never even had a single podium finish. The F1 team seems to have improved since they got rid of the blow hard, self promoter Steiner, but they’re still at best an also ran. Haas spends far less on his F1 team than anyone else. I don’t think Haas even gets close to hitting F1’s budget cap? Maybe he’s planning on using the money he saves from NASCAR, to put more money in the F1 team?
As far as the Legacy-Ware lawsuit(s), I think how Legacy’s suit to stop Ware from selling his team may speed up a settlement. If Ware can’t sell the team and the charter(s), he may be more willing to come to some sort of a settlement. He also may want to settle before the 23XI lawsuit reaches the courts. If six charters suddenly become available, it could really hurt the value of his charters and team.
If Ford wishes to remain competitive in NASCAR (or remain at all), they better make some moves, and make them fast.
I realize the regular season Cup points don’t matter as they once did. Still, they are a good measurement of consistent speed. Currently, Ford has exactly one driver in the top ten, with Blaney in 7th.
Should Haas opt to leave NASCAR, they will lose their only consistently competitive Xfinity team.
As we saw with Logano, the playoffs allow for a subpar team to win the title, but the title won’t make Ford fans tune in every week to see their cars run on the periphery of the top ten, and if there’s still any truth to “win on Sunday, sell on Monday”, they certainly won’t be enticing any buyers. I don’t think there is much if any truth to that adage these days, but apparently the manufacturers have data which says otherwise.