America’s biggest form of motorsport, NASCAR, is very traditional. There’s a staid way of doing things and, even if the unexpected occurs every now and then, the rule of thumb is that the powerhouse teams always win.
What doesn’t happen is a start-up operation arrives at its top level, bragging a co-owner who’s a Grammy Award-winning megastar. It then buys an entire team from one of American racing’s most successful owners, just a matter of months into its debut NASCAR Cup season, and puts both its cars into the Playoffs at the first proper attempt a year later.
Subsequently, it makes the Championship 4 decider thanks to its driver Ross Chastain deliberately driving into a wall at top speed and creating an internet sensation that even Formula 1 champions were wowed by – and it found time to run Kimi Raikkonen in a one-off third car! None of this should happen. But, as they say at Trackhouse Racing, ‘Why not us?’
Its leader is Justin Marks, the son of a tech company guru who was an early investor in GoPro digital cameras. Marks Jr is a decent road racer – he scored a win for Chip Ganassi Racing in NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series at Mid-Ohio in 2016, and he was a winner too in IMSA Sportscars with Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura NSX GTD squad in 2019.
But his business calling is sports marketing, which Marks studied at California State University, and his passion project has quickly taken NASCAR’s Cup Series by storm. He brought music star Pitbull (Armando Perez, aka Mr Worldwide) on board to join industry veteran Ty Norris, and together they’ve played the NASCAR game like nobody else.
“I love it,” eulogizes Marks. “I love this company, I love Trackhouse, and I want it to be successful. The story that we’ve been writing this year, we’ve had great moments. We’ve had dramatic moments. We’ve brought great partners on. We’ve got two great race car drivers sitting in our race cars.
“I wanted this more than I’ve wanted anything professionally in my life ever, and I’ve taken massive personal risk to start this company. I believe in it more than I’ve believed in anything.”
Justin Marks bought his team from Chip Ganassi and has turned it into a regular winner
Photo by: Trackhouse Racing Team
It’s clear from talking to leading lights around the sport that newcomer Marks, 41, is highly regarded. Rick Hendrick says he’s “done an unbelievable job”; Joe Gibbs believes Trackhouse’s…
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