Kevin Harvick says Jimmie Johnson should consider wrapping up the part-time driving portion of his career now that he is the majority owner of Legacy Motor Club.
The 2014 Cup Series champion turned NASCAR on FOX color analyst reacted to the news that Johnson taken over majority ownership of the team from Maury Gallagher and also welcomed a private equity group into the fold.
Johnson is also running two races this season, the Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600, but Harvick thinks the business of the team will be improved simply by Johnson focusing less on any competition elements.
“I think that the sooner he can get out of being in that car, the better off he is,” Harvick said on his Happy Hour YouTube show. “I understand when we had the Xfinity teams of having to drive the car to lure the sponsor. But you know, as far as the marketing side of things, at some point it becomes about performance. I think Danica Patrick was probably the best example of that. At some point, your marketing platform runs out, and I think that performance trumps everything that you can do after its consecutive years of not performing like you need to, and I think that’s what they’re striving for, right?
“They have to get the performance where they need to or sponsorship becomes less and less and harder to sell, and then it becomes harder to sell employees and harder to sell drivers, and everything that you need to run well is all about the people, and if you don’t have the money to pay the people then it becomes harder and harder to get the performance where it needs to be.”
Johnson retired from full-time NASCAR racing after the 2020 season after a 19 year career with Hendrick Motorsports. He spent two years racing in IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing. He then came back to NASCAR in November 2022 as an owner joining Gallagher to rebrand his Petty GMS Racing team as Legacy Motor Club. Since then, he’s made 12 starts in his No. 84 car with a best finish of 26th at Phoenix in November.
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