Trackhouse racing is only four years old, and it is already making big strides in Motorsports. Trackhouse forayed into the NASCAR Cup Series as a one-racer team in 2021 after getting the charter on lease from Spire Motorsports. They brought in the Spaniard Daniel Suarez to pilot their #99 ride. The team was quick to expand to two cars after signing Ross Chastain for the 2022 season. And in his very first season with the team, he made it to the championship 4.
The same year, Trackhouse owner Justin Marks launched his brainchild ‘Project 91’. It is an initiative to field one-off entries in NASCAR featuring star drivers from other racing disciplines. This is how Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen made his Cup debut at Watkins Glen in 2022. Not restricting them to just cars, the team entered MotoGP this year. And have also expanded their Cup Series lineup to three cars in the 2025 season. If all this wasn’t enough, Justin Marks has made big revelations about the team’s further expansion!
Trackhouse Racing has big plans
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Recently the team signed Shane van Gisbergen as the third driver for a full Cup season next year. Gisbergen too was brought by Trackhouse as part of their ‘Project 91’. The 3-time Supercar champion made his Cup debut at the 2023 Chicago street course, where he went on to win the race. Post this, SVG got a full-time ride in Xfinity after Trackhouse loaned him to Kaulig Racing. And is currently en route to his first championships after he bagged three wins in the season. SVG’s NASCAR growth is proof enough for Mark’s brainchild to be a success.
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Banking on that Marks recently revealed his expansion plans on the ‘Happy Hour’ podcast, he said, “I put a lot of value in doing things in a way that captures the interest of fans and it’s newsworthy. It’s something they haven’t seen before. That’s why it was important to me to start Project 91 to bring Kimi Raikkonen in. And to put Shane Van Gisbergen in the car. There’s more of that coming which is just putting things out on the racetrack that are just exciting and people haven’t really seen it before.” We can only guess who is Trackhouse bringing in next.
However, the Trackhouse founder did not stop there. According to him, we might see the team in the Rolex 24 next. He said, “I think I would love to put a Trackhouse in the Rolex 24. I think now that we’ve got sort of a group of athletes to be able to fill out a car. I think that’s a very real possibility.” Marks is naturally drawn towards the 24-hour Daytona as the next expansion opportunity since he himself raced in it. Not only that, he also won the 2009 race in the GT class.
“The 24-hour Daytona, I think, is the greatest race in the world. I am a little biased just because I competed in it a number of years. I think I have raced in it 15 or 16 times. My first time in the 24 hours Daytona was 2001, and I went to the Driver’s meeting and sat between Dale Earnhardt and Allan McNish,” He added.
Marks had a fan moment on his debut and since then, the race has always been special to him. Mark’s ambitious expansion is also headed to the IndyCar Series next.
Trackhouse Racing has IndyCar on its target
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Further in the conversation, Marks dwelled on his plan to have Trackhouse car racing in the Indy500. He said, “It’s not been a secret that the Indianapolis 500 is a race that I think is important for the Trackhouse brand to be at. We are working on that right now.” However, the question is who will drive the car there, Shane van Gisbergen might be a natural choice but Marks has different plans. The philanthropist seeks to partner with an existing team. Maybe he believes that is a more economical choice.
Speaking about his plan, he said, “We have a very unique promotional marketing program built out for doing something like that, so we just have to find the right partner. I’m not going to go buy a car and start an Indy car team. So it’s got to be the right partner. But yeah, those are the types of things that will move the needle for Trackhouse.”
And this might not be the only open-wheel Series track house might be targeting, as Marks has also shown interest in Formula One. If it does expand into F1, it won’t be the first one from NASCAR. Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner, Gene Haas owns a Formula One team. However, the team has struggled in the sport competing against giants like Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes.
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Maybe Marks has a different strategy. While nothing is confirmed yet, he had hinted at this direction. “I think Formula One is interesting, but it’s a bit of a saturation of commercial partners right now. You know, these teams are being invested in by big multi-billion dollar private equity companies. It doesn’t mean that we’re not having conversations. It doesn’t mean that we’re not, you know, talking to people and seeing where there’s where there might be some opportunity,” he said.
Which avenue do you think Trackhouse should explore first? Let us know in the comments down below.