Legacy Motor Club, co-owned by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, has announced a huge sponsorship extension with Dollar Tree. The $22.3 billion company will be a full-season partner through 2028, providing long-term support for the growing NASCAR team.

Dollar Tree joined Legacy at the start of the 2024 season and signed a multi-year deal to put its branding on the team’s Cup Series cars for all 38 races. 

With the extension, Dollar Tree will continue to sponsor John Hunter Nemechek’s #42 car and Erik Jones’ #43 car and be front and center at NASCAR weekends for years to come.

The renewed deal gives Jimmie Johnson’s team stability as it grows, and Dollar Tree exposure to one of the most loyal fanbases in sports. NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass first reported the news which was later confirmed by the team and the company.

“We’re excited to extend our partnership with LEGACY MOTOR CLUB through 2028,” said Rick McNeely, Chief Merchandising Officer, Dollar Tree.

Stability for Legacy Motor Club

Jimmie Johnson’s Legacy Motor Club has been working on being more consistent in the Cup Series. They rebranded in 2023 and then switched manufacturers from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2024. So the team has been adding pieces to the puzzle on and off track. The lucrative Dollar Tree extension is another step towards building something long-term.

Team CEO Cal Wells III called Dollar Tree “a foundational partner” and said the continued support will allow Legacy to focus on performance and build towards its championship goals.

That’s important. Nemechek in his first full-time Cup ride with Legacy grabbed a top-five at Daytona earlier this season. Jones after an injury early in the year, has been working his way back into form. Both drivers are still on the bubble of playoff contention but showing signs of progress.

With Dollar Tree staying on board the team has more runway to keep improving. And for the retailer the NASCAR platform continues to offer massive reach, especially with fans that closely match its nationwide customer base. Dollar Tree will be on the car this weekend and for years to come.

My love for motorsports started in my childhood in Tunisia, watching races with my family. Fast forward to today, … More about Farah Ben Gamra

For the longest time, NASCAR had just two road courses on the Cup schedule — Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen.

However, the series has rapidly expanded that number in recent years with Cup races at the Indianapolis Road Course, Daytona Road Course, Road America, Charlotte Roval, Circuit of the Americas, as well as events in Mexico City and on the streets of Chicago. 

Some of these tracks have since fallen off the schedule, but the number of road/street courses is currently at six total. NASCAR officials are also close to securing a new street race in San Diego, but those plans have yet to be finalized.

However, not every driver is excited about the prospect of more road and street course events, suggesting NASCAR actually remove some of them from the schedule.

In the past few days, both 2012 NASCAR Cup champion Brad Keselowski and three-time Daytona 500 Denny Hamlin have called for fewer road courses, but neither indicated that their unfavorable opinion of these events has anything to do with Shane van Gisbergen’s recent dominance.

Too many road courses?

Brad Keselowski, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Photo by: Logan Riely / Getty Images

“We went from 2 to 6 road course races, possibly 7 next year,” Keselowski posted on social media. “NASCAR was successfully built as a primarily oval racing series. IMSA was built as the primary road course series in North America. IMSA will always do road racing better than NASCAR and that’s ok … Yes, TOO many road courses in NASCAR.”

Hamlin made his thoughts known on his weekly podcast, Actions Detrimental. “I’m not a road course fan,” he said. “I still believe we have too many of them on the schedule … Six is a lot, considering that we are NASCAR. We’re short track racing, oval racing, full contact type racing.”

However, Hamlin also threw his support behind the Chicago Street Course, believing the event is important enough to keep on the schedule. As for the rest of them, Hamlin said he could “take it or leave them.”

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

A few weeks ago, NASCAR legend Richard Petty also took aim at road courses, but his opinion seemed more focused on how it impacts the championship after SVG’s Mexico win.

“You got somebody that’s 30th in points that’s going to make the playoffs,” said Petty. “Hey man, what happened to the guy that 15th, 16th, or 18th (that’s) been running good and finished good everywhere? You’re making a championship situation by winning a road course, which is not really NASCAR to begin with. From that standpoint, I think they’re going to have to jockey around and change some of this kind of stuff.”

Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications, shared details on the governing body’s review of the incident between Ross Chastain and Joey Logano at Chicago. On the Hauler Talk podcast, Forde said NASCAR was still reviewing the incident as of Tuesday afternoon.

“They have done some research into the audio and reviewed some video,” Mike Forde said. “So that conversation is still going on. “We’re taping this on a Tuesday afternoon right now. So, no word just yet as we continue to look into that. We did hear from Logano, both through the interviews, but he did stop in and talk with us about that situation on Sunday afternoon/evening.

“I would be fairly surprised if we don’t have conversations with both those drivers, whether that’s going to be together or separately in Sonoma to let them know to let them know that our eyes will be peeled on the 1 (Chastain) and the 22 (Logano) to make sure nothing unsavory happens at Sonoma and beyond.”

Shortly after Forde recorded the episode of Hauler Talk, NASCAR confirmed no penalties from the Chicago weekend. That can’t sit well with Logano, who asked NASCAR to fine Chastain for hitting him late in the race. Additionally, Logano said that Chastain told him that he intentionally ran into him.

What happens next with Ross Chastain and Joey Logano?

“He admitted he wrecked me on purpose,” Logano told reporters post-race. “He admitted it — which means he should get fined if he admittedly wrecked someone on purpose. That’s not OK. … It’s just typical Ross. He just sees red and does dumb stuff. That’s all. And that’s twice this year on road courses at the end of these things I’ve been cost by Ross. Just over it.”

The incident happened after the Lap 64 restart. Kyle Larson was sent forward into Chastain, who spun just ahead of Logano. Chastain then bumped into Logano, sending him into Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“Ross better get the f*cking information right before he goes and wrecks somebody. And there’s f*cking six cars behind me wrecking into me, and then he destroys me from four back. That motherf*cker,” Logano said on his radio.

Ross Chastain finished 10th, and Joey Logano finished 11th. The two have won races this year, meaning they will battle each other in the playoffs at the end of August.

THORNTON, CO – July 10, 2025 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) –  Sun Powersports, Colorado’s largest powersports dealer, announced its “Polaris Factory Authorized Clearance” event, offering unprecedented savings on all remaining 2024 Polaris ATVs and side-by-sides. This limited-time event promises the biggest discounts of the year, including massive rebates of up to $4,000.

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Source: Sun Powersports

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Shane van Gisbergen still has half a season left in his first full year of NASCAR Cup Series competition, but the last four weeks have already justified his career change.

Van Gisbergen has won two of the last four races at the Mexico City road course and the Chicago street course. A pair of victories has him clinched in the postseason as a rookie, and one victory shy of being tied for the most in the series. The victory in Chicago made him the winningest foreign-born driver in Cup Series history, and he became the fastest driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2002 to win three races in his first 33 starts.

And all of this because van Gisbergen decided in 2023 to leave a highly-successful career in Australian Supercars to live and compete in the premier stock car series in the United States.

“It justifies, or backs up, why we’ve done it and why Justin [Marks] believes in me,” van Gisbergen said this week. “Justin looks like the smartest guy here after me locking into the playoffs, especially how dismal it looked early in the year. We all kept that belief. 

“Yeah, I feel like I made the best decision ever. I was really hating racing in Australia. I hated driving those cars. Now, I’ve never had so much fun racing, going to the racetrack every single weekend. I really love what I do.”

The success van Gisbergen is having on the road and street courses is to be expected, and it’s where Marks and the sponsors for van Gisbergen are getting their return on investment. But Marks still believes that van Gisbergen, 36, will develop into the complete package of a race car driver who can get the job done on ovals as well as road and street courses. Ovals, of course, make up the majority of the NASCAR schedule, whereas there are six road/street courses. 

Van Gisbergen isn’t exaggerating when he uses the word “dismal” to describe how his season started on the ovals. In the first nine oval races of the season (through Talladega in April), van Gisbergen had an average finish of 30.44 with a best finish of 20th at Darlington Raceway.

In the last seven oval races, however, van Gisbergen has improved his average finish to 22nd. His best finish is now a 14th in the Coca-Cola 600. 

“[Marks is] obviously very patient with me and knows that I’ll get there,” van Gisbergen said. “Obviously, I’ve had to deliver road course results to offset that a little bit, but he’s done what I’m doing. He was a NASCAR driver himself after being a sports car racer, and he knows how difficult this sport is. So he knows what I’m going through, and when I talk with him about my struggles, he knows what I’m talking about. It’s pretty cool to have a boss like that.”

Ovals are a work in progress for van Gisbergen, and that does include feeling like he’s doing a little more work than usual to try and get up to speed at those tracks. 

“Yes and no,” he said. “It’s just comfort. New experiences are always hard. When I went back to Darlington this year for the second time, I struggled there in the Southern 500 (in 2024), but in the race this year, I bent the car in practice, so we qualified badly. But in the race, we just got better and better as we went. It’s just when something is not new to you anymore, you’re more comfortable in that environment. I’m driving the same car every week with the same people, whereas last year I was chugging and changing. 

“This year is comfortable and I’m learning so much more.” 

Van Gisbergen will go for a season-tying third victory Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. A triumph would be a back-to-back feat for him and the No. 88 team.