Cal Wells III has never been one to shy away from a racing challenge, and he’d probably say he’s seen it all in his 40-plus years of leading racing programs ranging from off-road race teams to competitive teams in CART and NASCAR.
This year, the 68-year-old Wells enters his first full season as the CEO of the Legacy Motor Club NASCAR Cup Series team.
This year, due in part to Wells’ leadership and connections, the team is ripping up its old playbook and starting down a different path as LMC moves from its association with Chevrolet and General Motors to a new deal with Toyota. Moving to the Toyota factory stable raised plenty of eyebrows, especially considering Johnson’s and Petty’s long and unparalleled history with General Motors.
Wells came on board at LMC last summer and quickly saw that the team wasn’t where it needed to be on the GM pecking order. LMC wasn’t, Wells insisted, racing with the same “tier one” relationship with its manufacturer as the other GM teams in the NASCAR stable.
Wells, who has had a relationship with Toyota going back to 1982, believes that Toyota will give LMC the attention and technical support the team was lacking with GM.
“When you look at that ecosystem, it was tough for Jimmie—even though he had won seven championships for General Motors. This will always surprise me (that) there wasn’t (more of ) a focus on (LMC). And Maury winning multiple trucks championships for Chevrolet, you would just think that General Motors would say, ‘Jimmie, Maury, look at what we can do. Let’s move them up to be more independent and call them a true tier one.’
“Unfortunately (GM) just didn’t feel that way. And they left (LMC) at what I would consider a tier three, where the information was very limited and intentional”
