With first win in the books, Trackhouse Racing building momentum
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
When Trackhouse Racing moved into the Chip Ganassi Racing shop after the 2021 season, team owner Justin Marks quickly replaced the Ganassi colors with the black, blue and silver of Trackhouse.
Last week, they added something else new: a race-winning trophy in the lobby, thanks to Ross Chastain’s victory March 27 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
"It’s what we’ve always worked for, and now we’re celebrating it, and I almost feel like I’m in an out-of-body experience," Chastain said six days after the win.
The trophy sits there as the mechanics go about their work, preparing for the next race. It’s a reminder to everyone who enters the building that Trackhouse can now call itself a Cup-winning organization.
The team, co-owned by Marks and international music superstar Pitbull, never had plans to be a one-hit wonder. But that first victory shows how far the team has come and sets it up for how far it can go.
Marks said Pitbull had realistic expectations going in but certainly was happy with a win this early in the team's second season.
"With Pitbull, we didn't talk much about winning," Marks said. "We talked about building a great team of great people and just trying to do a little bit better every week. And he knows how big of a deal it is to win.
"I had him on the phone in victory lane. And he was really, really excited about it. But he was like, ‘Hey, man, it's just part of the journey. Like, it's part of what we talked about, right? We’re trying to do something different.’ And he was like, ‘I knew we were going to win. I knew we were going to win.’"
Is Team Trackhouse a powerhouse?
Marks started Trackhouse in 2021 and made a splash when he announced Pitbull as a co-owner. He didn’t have a building. He could pretty much count the number of employees on his fingers and toes, as his people were embedded at Richard Childress Racing to prepare RCR-built cars for the racetrack.
A former racer, Marks — the son of Michael Marks, a private equity fund manager who once owned a piece of the Golden State Warriors — called Chip Ganassi last year and asked if he could buy the team. Ganassi, whose NASCAR teams were solid but not consistently elite compared to his IndyCar operation, decided to sell to his former driver.
Marks kept the majority of the employees (more than 100). He couldn’t commit immediately to hiring Chastain, who was in his first year as a Cup driver at Ganassi. But he wanted Chastain and eventually signed him to a two-year deal, granting a driver who had been a journeyman in the Xfinity and Cup Series the comfort of knowing he didn’t have to sweat daily over his job.
On the team, Chastain joined Daniel Suarez, who finished 25th in the standings last year in Trackhouse’s first season. Chastain enters Martinsville this weekend ranked sixth in the standings; Suarez is 14th.
They have combined for six top-5 finishes, an important detail following the team's first win. This wasn’t a fluke. Trackhouse had been knocking on the door.
"It truly feels like we are a winning team rather than just a team that happened to win. ... It's an important point," Marks said of the consistently strong results. "And it's what we lean on when we think about how to plan for the future. What got us here is that we're bringing fast race cars, and we're executing well.
"And when you put yourself in that position, eventually you are going to win."
Ross Chastain on his first career Cup win
What does a win mean? For Chastain, he might've extended his career by at least a few seasons. A driver with a win can use that to convince a team owner or sponsor to put him in the car.
The victory also validated his style of racing, which has at times been more aggressive than some of his competition would like. Chastain and AJ Allmendinger traded paint in the final lap at COTA, and a hard shove allowed Chastain to make the winning pass.
Kevin Harvick, who four years ago publicly criticized Chastain’s style after they tangled at Darlington, said Chastain is still aggressive and does all the things he needs to do but has learned how to not put himself in position to total his car.
"That’s important to have that flair and that fire because that's what's going to set you aside from everybody else, having some of that personality and that ‘I don't give a s---' attitude about what happens. And you don't like it? Sorry," Harvick said.
"Having that edge is something that will make him popular because of the way that he races. And he doesn’t have to do anything else — just race like that, and the people will gravitate toward you because it's exciting to watch, and you're winning."
AJ Allmendinger breaks down what happened with Ross Chastain
Obviously, it was exciting inside the walls at Trackhouse.
"When you think about how meaningful the win was for Ross, for me, for everybody on the team, there’s so much at stake, and it’s such a big deal that you just do everything you’ve got to do to win," Marks said.
For his part, Chastain said he is trying to find the happy medium of when to be aggressive and how aggressive he needs to be to make a pass.
"I just want to be better," Chastain said. "Yeah, [that style] got me here, and I’m proud of that, and I wouldn’t trade any of that. To stay here now, I’ve realized that I can’t be that way.
"Of course, then our first Cup win comes the way it does, with controversy. It’s not how I drew it up in my head, but I’ve made a real effort. It doesn’t show from the finish."
For the team, the win means a playoff spot, which earns more bonus money in the final standings — not just for this year but also for the following three years. One of the "buckets" of payouts for Cup teams is based on the previous three years' performance.
"We've had a really great week business-wise since the win," Marks said in the days after the victory. "I've been very measured in how we spend money, too.
"It’s not like we’re blowing the stack for one year and hoping something amazing happens. We’ve been thoughtful about our capital outlay."
Daniel Suarez on missing out on first win for Trackhouse
The win not only helps on the revenue side. It also helps the vibe in the shop, which already is different than it was under Ganassi. With Marks more present and NASCAR his sole focus, an optimistic and confident vibe prevails.
Kurt Busch, who drove for Ganassi last year and is now at 23XI Racing, said the Ganassi employees now at Trackhouse made it through a half-season in 2021 in which everyone knew they were an organization in transition.
"Once the news came out in the summer months that Ganassi was closing the doors on his brand, things changed," Busch said. "But ... it was like this independent [team vibe] — let's just push as hard as we can, and we'll see each other on the other side."
The other side is a Trackhouse team with confidence in not only Chastain but also Suarez. Suarez, who arguably had the fastest car at COTA but whose hopes of winning were dashed when he got caught up in an accident, has predicted all year that he and his team will win.
"I knew we're going to win races," Suarez said. "But I thought it was going to take a little more time. I have definitely been surprised myself a little bit. We’ve been strong early. And that's great."
While maybe not surprised, Marks marveled at where his teams were parked in the NASCAR garage the week after the victory; NASCAR parks the team haulers by organization in order of the standings.
Marks looked to one side and saw Joe Gibbs Racing. He looked to the other side and saw Team Penske.
"We're parked between Penske and Gibbs," Marks said. "I'll take it. That's pretty cool."
But there’s also the reality that even the teams that are among the best in the business won’t always be on top. Every organization goes through the highs and lows of racing, and it's how they handle those that determines long-term success. With the new Next Gen car, which has possibly evened the playing field, the teams with the most depth could eventually pull away.
"We’re not replacing Joe Gibbs at the top of the sport by any means. We know that there's tough days that are coming," Marks said.
"But I think if we continue to focus on what got us here, which is thinking about how we approach the [development of this] car, [and what] has made us good, we have to just stay committed to that."
Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
What to watch for
The Cup race Saturday night at Martinsville is 400 laps instead of the traditional 500.
That means stages of 80 laps, 100 laps and 220 laps instead of 130, 130 and 240. How will that change things?
Well, the shorter early stages could mean drivers will push their cars harder — not only to earn stage points with fewer laps to get in a top-10 position but also because of the possibility of fewer laps on the tires when battling at the end of the stage.
Will the 400-lap race create more urgency and decrease the chances of a strung-out long run, especially in the first two stages? That remains to be seen, but it could create quite the spectacle for a full night race.
Thinking out loud
NASCAR’s Hall of Fame nominating committee determined that Matt Kenseth is eligible to be voted in for the 2023 class. The requirement is for a driver to be retired for two seasons.
Kenseth has fulfilled that requirement — kind of. He didn’t make any retirement announcement after the 2018 season, but he didn’t race in 2019. He then filled in for the fired Kyle Larson in 2020, when Chip Ganasssi Racing needed someone of Kenseth’s status to keep sponsors from bolting following Larson’s use of a racial slur during an online racing event in what he thought was a private chat.
The 2003 Cup champion, Kenseth also didn’t race in 2021, which means he has been retired for two years but raced for a year between those two. The committee determined that Kenseth's filling in after Larson was fired shouldn't be held against him.
That’s debatable. But with a year off before and after that 2020 season, it seems logical to count Kenseth as "retired" for two years.
Social spotlight
They said it
"The only thing you probably can’t take to Martinsville would be something from Daytona. ... You’re learning that much every week." — Chris Gabehart, crew chief for Denny Hamlin
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
