Legacy Motor Club shines with Pocono effort after dual top-10 day

LONG POND, Pa. -- All is right in the land of Legacy Motor Club lately. John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones combined to impress at Pocono Raceway, with both qualifying inside the top 10 on Saturday and running well enough Sunday to finish there as well. Nemechek wheeled the No. 42 Toyota to a fourth-place finish -- his first top five of 2026, tying his career-best result -- while Jones motored the No. 43 Toyota to a sixth-place finish around the "Tricky Triangle," each earning 41 points in Sunday's contest. MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Pocono Legacy M.C. has flexed its muscle in recent weeks, particularly through a runner-up effort for Jones one week earlier at Michigan, which followed an 11th-place run at Nashville. Pocono felt different, though, with both teams displaying speed Saturday and executing sterling performances Sunday at Pocono. "It's huge," Nemechek told NASCAR.com. "I think that we've seen a lot of potential out of both the 42 and the 43 the last few weeks, probably the last month and a half overall. And it's one team. We're here, we push each other. We all work really close alongside each other. Our processes and procedures that we have in place, there's a lot of things that make this one team, and the culture continues to grow that way. So it's exciting to see speed from the 42 and 43." Nemechek led a career-high 42 laps Sunday after qualifying eighth and capitalizing on strong restarts and track position early. One early restart resulted in a multi-lap battle with Cup Series points leader Tyler Reddick, circling the 2.5-mile triangle side-by-side turn after turn. That experience is invaluable for Nemechek, who, with an average finish of 21.4 this season, typically finds himself in a mid-pack hornet's nest. "It's way different," Nemechek said. "It's just like restarts, right? Like, how to execute restarts up front compared to in the back; how to execute passes when you're side by side, racing for the lead. That was really one of the first instances that I've been able to do that in the Cup Series with the speed and potential that we had in our race car today and how well we executed today. "Definitely still a lot to learn on my side -- not even close to being, I feel like, at the top level to contend for race wins and stuff yet. But we're working on that and being able to run up front and get the experience from running up front, executing restarts, and racing for the lead and how to position your car in order to drag them back and make them tight aero-wise." MORE: Jones: 'Hope we can keep it going' Jones, Nemechek's veteran teammate, has typically done well at Pocono Raceway, even dating back to his days in ARCA Menards Series competition. He made sure his newfound momentum didn't go to waste, scoring 40 or more points in consecutive weeks for the first time this year. His points gain Sunday propelled him three spots to a tie for 15th, placing him inside the provisional 16-driver cutline for The Chase with 10 races remaining in the regular season. "We've got to just keep putting them together, you know?" Jones said. "This was a race where, honestly, we just ran to our ability. It was nothing more, nothing less. I feel like we were maybe a little better than the 5 (Kyle Larson) at the end, but sixth place is kind of where we were. Got a bunch of stage points, which was good, in the second stage, and we're doing what we need to do to work towards these playoffs. Proud of the speed, proud of the effort, continued speed, and continued, just, cars that are driving good right now and hopefully we keep going." The unity Nemechek referred to was top of Jones' mind as well, especially now that both Legacy Toyotas were up front and collected similar data to share in Monday's competition meetings. "It just makes everything in the company simpler," Jones said. "I feel like (when) we're going to have our meeting (Monday), John Hunter's balance is going to be way more similar to what I'm fighting when he's running up front instead of 15th or 20th. That makes everybody's life easier when you're trying to build cars and work on the same things. Not just the momentum and the confidence in the company, the people that work and build these cars put together better race cars, cleaner, nicer, that momentum builds in the shop, too, when everybody's running well."