NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson 2024 Daytona 500 entry ruled out?

With longtime sponsor Busch Light moving from Stewart-Haas Racing to Trackhouse Racing Team to sponsor Ross Chastain's No. 1 Chevrolet for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season and beyond, former Trackhouse Racing Team sponsor AdventHealth has moved to Legacy Motor Club.

The health care company confirmed that they are set to sponsor the No. 43 Chevrolet-turned-Toyota of Erik Jones in six races, including the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in mid-February, and they also announced that they are set to sponsor team co-owner Jimmie Johnson in three.

The seven-time Cup Series champion, who left NASCAR after the 2020 season to compete in IndyCar, returned to the series in 2023 as both a part-time driver and a co-owner of Legacy Motor Club, which had been named Petty GMS Motorsports before he arrived.

Prior to a family tragedy over the summer, Johnson had competed in three races throughout the 2023 season, and he had planned to compete in more. He competed in the Daytona 500 as well as the road course race at Circuit of the America and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

AdventHealth not sponsoring Jimmie Johnson in 2024 Daytona 500

The three races in which AdventHealth is set to sponsor Johnson in 2024 do not include the season opener. Johnson's No. 84 Toyota is set to carry sponsorship from the Florida-based brand in the races at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 14; Kansas Speedway on Sunday, May 5; and Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 26.

The Kansas race is appropriately named the AdventHealth 400.

But just because AdventHealth isn't sponsoring Johnson in the Daytona 500 doesn't mean he won't run it. He was, after all, planning on competing in at least four races last year, and the Daytona 500 is one of the three races he ran.

So adding another race -- possibly the Daytona 500 -- to what is currently a three-race schedule is far from out of the question for the two-time winner of the "Great American Race".

Worth noting is the fact that the No. 84 Toyota is not a chartered entry, meaning that Johnson would either have to qualify for the Daytona 500 on speed or in the Bluegreen Vacations Duels. He would not be guaranteed a spot in the starting lineup.

Johnson, who hasn't won a race since 2017 and thus continues his search for what would be an 84th career victory to tie him for fourth place on the all-time wins list with Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison, will be looking for redemption in 2024 following a 2023 season in which he did not finish any of the three races he started.

Legacy Motor Club's lineup also consists of John Hunter Nemechek, who most recently competed full-time in the Cup Series in 2020. He is set to replace Noah Gragson behind the wheel of the No. 42 Toyota after spending the 2023 season competing for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series.