Four years into the NASCAR Cup Series, Jimmie Johnson’s team, Legacy Motor Club, remains winless. For a driver who won 83 races at this level and seven championships, going this long without experiencing that same feeling as an owner must sting. He wants to win, and he has already identified 2027 as the year when the team can start going for wins. That said, he wants to do it the right way.

Smaller teams pay big money to the behemoths in the garage for technical information through what the sport calls an “alliance.” In a SiriusXM NASCAR interview, Johnson revealed that Legacy Motor Club will continue strengthening its foundations and grow into a top team without one.

“We don’t have an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, and we’ve really been trying to build a partnership with them and do that by hiring the right people and having the right aero engineering group, the chassis engineering group, all these different layers,” the former HMS driver said in the interview.

Having a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, who also drive Toyotas like LMC, one of the strongest teams in NASCAR, would require Legacy Motor Club to pay them $8 million per year. Johnson decided that it’s better to invest that amount internally. By doing so, he’s taking an approach rather different from what the other growing teams in the garage have been doing over the years.

23XI Racing, co-owned by Denny Hamlin, accelerated its rise to contender status through its partnership with JGR, where Hamlin drives. Spire Motorsports has also made enormous strides, with two of its drivers in the Chase this year. The team has an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, the winningest team in the sport’s history. Then there’s Trackhouse, which built its existing infrastructure with support from Richard Childress Racing, and Wood Brothers Racing, which effectively operates as a second team for Penske in the garage.

Johnson doesn’t want to take that expensive route. In an episode of the Stacking Pennies podcast earlier this year, he revealed, “We looked at that number and felt that we could build it. It’ll take a few years.”

He pointed to Furniture Row Racing as an example of why he doesn’t want Legacy Motor Club to rely too heavily on a team like JGR. He even suggested that the rising cost of its JGR alliance eventually helped push Furniture Row out of NASCAR.

When Furniture Row first partnered with JGR, the technical alliance reportedly cost around $3 million a year. But after Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Cole Pearn started beating JGR’s top cars, culminating in the 2017 Cup Series championship, the price went up. Reports and court filings from the 23XI Racing antitrust lawsuit showed that the fee eventually climbed to nearly $10 million a year.

JGR and LMC do have a collaboration, which Johnson revealed in February. However, he made it clear that it is an R&D working relationship rather than a full-fledged alliance. It was a calculated business decision.

Johnson has never shied away from the challenges of running LMC, admitting that his ambition to turn the team into a top NASCAR organization without outside support has cost him sleepless nights. Those close to him, including LMC President Michael Guttilla, have also seen his entrepreneurial side.

“I think Jimmie is probably fairly unique [in team ownership] in the sense that he’s been an athlete, but he’s always sort of been entrepreneur-minded,” he told ESPN. “He’s really humble; he will say he’s a seven-time champion, but that doesn’t translate into meaning ‘I know how to run a business.’ I think he doesn’t give himself enough credit for how instinctually good he is at it, but the beauty of it is he recognizes that.”

Legacy Motor Club has already made strides over the last few months, showing that Johnson’s dream isn’t just empty words. Construction is underway on a brand-new 110,000-square-foot race shop in Mooresville, North Carolina. The team has also brought in Guttilla from JGR as president and will expand to a three-car operation in 2027.

Johnson believes Legacy showed glimpses of race-winning potential earlier in the season itself, but things have become more difficult than expected since then.

Jimmie Johnson reflects on the 2026 season and what could have been

Johnson attributed some of the downturn in form to the nature of racing. But he also acknowledged events where the team simply failed to meet its expectations.

“We really feel like we can win a race with one of the cars this year. We had a couple of looks before the summer. Summer was a little more difficult on us than we expected. Some just bad luck and what happens in racing. A few disappointing events as well where we had higher expectations, but this still isn’t easy,” he said to SiriusXM NASCAR radio.

Erik Jones and the No. 43 team were particularly strong at Michigan, while Josh Berry finished P5 at Atlanta. But consistent speed and performance throughout the season have been missing from the LMC camp. And when you’re up against the best in the business, the climb becomes even more daunting.

The Legacy co-owner insists that the team is playing the long game, and that seems to be reflected in its broader plans. LMC will expand to a three-car Cup Series operation next season, with Josh Berry joining the No. 42 team, Erik Jones recently signing a multi-year extension, and Riley Herbst arriving from 23XI Racing.

According to a team statement posted on NASCAR.com, LMC views Jones as a cornerstone of its long-term plans. Berry, meanwhile, has impressed in his final season with Wood Brothers Racing and the No. 21 team.

Johnson did, however, admit that part of him remains reluctant to make an overly bold prediction while there is still racing left on the current schedule. He said, “I’m trying to be reserved because a competitor in me wants to win this coming weekend. I know it’s out there for us, but we’ll keep building.”

For Johnson, the objective is to build an organization that can eventually stand alongside NASCAR’s established giants. While he believes a victory could still come in 2026, he is keeping his focus on what Legacy can become in 2027 and beyond.