Arrow McLaren, Legacy Motor Club join Indy 500 forces on Hunter-Reay entry

Arrow McLaren has partnered with Jimmie Johnson and his Legacy Motor Club NASCAR Cup organization for the Indianapolis 500 with the No. 31 Chevy driven by Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay.

The alliance reunites Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan and Johnson – former Chip Ganassi Racing teammates – and follows the two-year alignment between Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports which featured NASCAR champion Kyle Larson in the car.

Johnson and Legacy MC also bring 2015 Indy-winning race engineer Brian Campe, who was part of the Hendrick/Larson program, to complement the Hunter-Reay entry as race strategist and car communicator, and some of Legacy’s NASCAR pit crew members, who’ve started training and blending with Arrow McLaren’s over-the-wall crew to service the No. 31 Chevy.

Veteran race engineer Olivier Boisson, who joined Arrow McLaren during the offseason and has focused on improving its damper program, will serve as Hunter-Reay’s race engineer, and Indy 500-winning crew chief Didier Francesia will run the car.

The program for Larson on his Indy 500 debut in 2024 and return in 2025 drew immense interest as the Cup champion attempted to complete “The Double” by running the Indy 500 and Charlotte's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, but the project also split its focus as Larson’s efforts to run 1100 miles became a sideshow of its own.

With the program developed for Hunter-Reay, the 2012 IndyCar Series champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner, Arrow McLaren has assembled an all-star cast that could emerge as the team’s strongest entry to pursue its first victory at the Speedway.

“We’re not ******* around,” Kanaan told RACER. “After the Kyle Larson effect, the challenge was, ‘What are we going to do?’ Not to match popularity, but in talent. If you look at the history of that car, it’s had some winners in it before with [Juan] Montoya, myself, and Kyle was as talented a guy you could ever ask for. So finding the right person to take the car and step it up even more was what we needed so it was looking at names to be able to win the Indy 500.

“Ryan’s that guy for us, but then it was looking at how do we surround that car with Ryan with other champions, so that started the conversation with me and (McLaren Racing CEO) Zak [Brown] and then we started talking about Jimmie and it came together with all of us working together for this project. And like I said, we’re not ******* around with this in any way.”

Kanaan – winner of the 2013 Indy 500 – has stockpiled talent within Arrow McLaren since joining the team a few years ago. It made pulling Boisson in to lead the technical side and Francesia to handle the mechanical side an easy maneuver, and with the onboarding of Legacy MC, the return of Campe and the arrival of Legacy’s Josh Leslie to change the outside rear tire and Jake Holmes to assist with that tire and manage the airjack has made for an impressive assembly of talent on the No. 31 car.

“Olivier and Didier were no-brainers for me, honestly,” Kanaan said. “Everybody knows those guys and how good they are. And then we get Brian Campe back, who worked with us with Kyle, and so there’s no losing time getting to know each other; we already work great together. And then you should see the pit stop guys from Legacy. I’m telling you, they’ve been in the shop with us already – I’ve been the guy driving the pit stop car – and they’re like huge guys, but they’re like super fast and they’re doing some things that blows your mind. I can honestly say this is a special group we’ve got together for this car, and then we’ve got Jimmie. I don’t know yet what he’s going to do, but we’ll find something for him to keep him occupied (laughs). I think this collaboration with our two teams could be a pretty powerful thing.”

For Campe, who won the Indy 500 with Montoya at Team Penke before returning to NASCAR, and serves as Legacy’s director of advanced engineering, this isn’t a fun one-off diversion in May.

“We're going to win,” Campe told RACER. “That's the point. Why would you go to Indianapolis without a plan to go win the thing, especially if you've done it before? You go there to win, and then you start stacking the people that are going with you. And it's building a dream team. It's like the NBA; you're calling up all the best players you can put together to go take on the world's best. And I’m taking that approach and try to play my part and prepare as if it was my full time job.

“And just to work with that group of people at Arrow McLaren. And then you add in leaders there like Kyle Moyer and Eric Cowden and we got to work with in the Larson program, and there's a familiarity there. And it all started with Tony reaching out to Jimmie and seeing if we could do something together.”

The connection between Arrow McLaren and Legacy MC is only for the Indy 500, but knowing Kanaan and Johnson and Brown, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they find more opportunities to partner in the future.

“Jimmie has a bit of a saying: ‘Let's go do cool stuff,’” Campe added. “What’s the cool stuff that we're all passionate about? And then let’s do the things that we're passionate about. I went with Jimmie and did the Mint 400, just as a fan more than anything, and got to see that offroad world. And what are the other things that we can do like that? NASCAR is our main thing, but when these opportunities make sense, let's go do them, and to do them with McLaren and Hunter-Reay and Zak and Tony and Moyer and all the people there, it's just a really cool opportunity.”