NASCAR team bringing back third car, driver for Dover race

Neither one of the two non-charter cars which competed in this past Sunday afternoon's NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway will compete in this coming Sunday afternoon's race at Dover Motor Speedway.

Both cars were fielded by teams without any charter entries that hadn't competed since February, those being Live Fast Motorsports and Beard Motorsports.

But one non-charter car that did not appear at Talladega is set to return at Dover. That entry is the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota, which is set to be driven by seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson for the third time in 2024.

Johnson competed in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and finished in 28th place, and he returned at Texas Motor Speedway two weekends ago and finished in 29th.

Prior to the Daytona 500, Johnson had not finished a NASCAR Cup Series race since the 2020 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

He made his return to the Cup Series in 2023 as both a part-time driver and a co-owner of the rebranded Legacy Motor Club (formerly Petty GMS Motorsports) after spending the 2021 and 2022 seasons in IndyCar, but all three of his starts resulted in DNFs. His 29th place finish at Texas was his first lead-lap finish since the 2020 Phoenix finale.

Johnson is an 11-time winner at the four-turn, 1.0-mile (1.609-kilometer) high-banked "Monster Mile" oval in Dover, Delaware, with the most recent of those wins serving as the most recent of his 83 career victories in June 2017. The No. 84 Toyota is the only non-charter car on the entry list for Sunday's 400-lap Wurth 400, so he is locked into the race.

Johnson is set to return for next Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway as well. His five remaining appearances this season are scheduled to come at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 26; Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 21; Kansas again on Sunday, September 29; Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 20; and Phoenix on Sunday, November 10.

After competing with primary sponsorship from Carvana at Daytona and primary sponsorship from AdventHealth at Texas, he is set to compete in this Sunday's race at Dover with primary sponsorship from Dollar Tree and Family Dollar.

Legacy Motor Club's full-time driver lineup consists of John Hunter Nemechek behind the wheel of the No. 42 Toyota and Erik Jones behind the wheel of the No. 43 Toyota, though Jones will not compete this weekend after suffering a compression fracture in a lower vertebra as a result of a crash at Talladega. Corey Heim is set to replace him and make his Cup Series debut.

The 2024 season is Legacy Motor Club's first with Toyota after making the offseason manufacturer switch from Chevrolet.

Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, April 28 for the live broadcast of the Wurth 400 from Dover Motor Speedway. If you have not yet had a chance to begin a free trial of FuboTV, do so today and don't miss any of the action!