NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 24, 2024
JUSTIN MARKS, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF TRACKHOUSE RACING, AND SHANE VAN GISBERGEN, DRIVER FOR TRACKHOUSE RACING, met with the media at Daytona International Speedway to announce that Trackhouse Racing will field three full-time entries in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025, with van Gisbergen behind the wheel of the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Press Conference Quotes:
Justin Marks:
“A great day for the company, obviously. Being able to announce that we’re expanding to a third full time Cup series entry in 2025. The most exciting thing about it, for me, is that we’re able to announce that Shane Van Gisbergen is going to be the full time in the Cup Series for us next year for Trackhouse as we expand from two cars to three. These moments are always special, especially since 48 months ago this was a Tennessee Limited Liability Company with 500 dollars in the bank and sort of an idea. Me and Ty trying to figure out how to do it. For us to come in as a one car team in 2021 and make the acquisition of Ganassi, expand into two teams, win seven races the next year two and a half years after that, and have some great, great partners come on and sort of continue this amazing journey of building a great company here, this is obviously a huge moment. Really, really thrilled and excited that Shane put the trust in us and made a huge commitment and leaving a very successful career in Australia and New Zealand and move to a new country and start over and put his faith and trust in us, means a lot to us. He put in a tremendous amount of work. Great human being. Very, very talented racecar driver and someone with an incredibly bright future. We’re very excited to have him here. It’s also what’s kind of unique about this is that this is a neat moment for Project 91. Project 91 was a program to bring incredible talent from around the world to the NASCAR Cup Series and see if we could do something special with it. Obviously, with Shane going to Chicago and being the first winner in 60 years on debut in Project 91 and then make the move over, make the commitment to the Xfinity Series this year, and a bunch of Cup races, and then be able to turn that into a full time Cup Series ride in 2025, is just a really cool moment and story of Project 91. So, we’re very excited. We’re thrilled that he’s accepted the offer and made the commitment and looking for big things in 2025.”
Shane van Gisbergen:
“Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. It’s been a pretty awesome 18 months, I guess, now. It’s been a huge life change as Justin said. Everything he’s said will happen has happened. I never thought it would happen this quick, and I’m very glad we’ve done the learning this year in Xfinity. Kaulig Racing has been great to work with, and also a lot more races to finish the year now. It’s been a huge learning experience, but just excited to get full time in the Cup Series next year. Working with Trackhouse has been fun this year the way everyone goes racing, the attitude in the place, it just resonates from the top with Justin and Ty, the leadership there. You just feel it through the place. It’s a really cool team to be a part of. Hugely excited about it. Have a lot of work to do and it’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure. But, I’ll keep pushing and hopefully fit in pretty good next year. Can’t wait.”
Justin, talk about as you look at Trackhouse Entertainment Group and how you get all of the different regions now of the world represented under that banner…
“That’s definitely an element to the story here that we take a lot of pride in. We’re going to be full time Cup racing with three cars and three drivers that were born in three different countries, which I think is a pretty amazing thing for this sport. It’s pretty amazing for where motorsports is today, and we’re thrilled and honored to be stewards of international diversity. The top level of motorsports. I’ve said this a couple of times now, with our MotoGP lineup next year and our Cup Series lineup next year with Trackhouse has a roster of athletes that represent Mexico, New Zealand, the USA, Spain and Japan which is a pretty incredible thing for a motorsports company. We take a lot of pride in that. We just continue to tell a great story, try to get really great people in the house with diverse backgrounds, great stories to tell, compelling personalities, and at the end of the day just really, really dedicated, hard workers.”
Shane, for you, coming over here and you’re racing over here with those you haven’t met before. When we were in Chicago, you were trying to read the names on the back of the windows to try and remember who you were trying to race in that corner. Talk about a year later now that you’ve been around these guys, how much you’ve learned, and also some of the respect you see between yourself and some of the other drivers…
“It goes both ways. Didn’t you have to Google me when Justin brought my name up? It’s a different world, and it’s you’re still car racing but it’s a completely different sport. But like I said, learning so much this year and got two recent examples of people I guess that came through – Marcos Ambrose and Juan Pablo (Montoya) – similar backgrounds and Juan did three or four races in Xfinity and then full time into Cup. Marcos took it the slower route, so we’re kind of in between. I think the way we’ve done this is the right way with all of the processes and even though the Xfinity car is very, very different to a Cup car, I think it was 100% worth it. Learning all of the tracks, all of the places, the terminology, metric vs. imperial, that’s been tough. But, you know, it’s a massive learning era, but I’ve just got to keep building on it and keep improving every week. Had a little set back in Xfinity, I guess, losing our crew chief, but we’ve got to get that momentum built up. I’m still fully focused on getting a result in the Playoffs and keeping that momentum into next year. Pretty exciting times.”
Justin, one more element to this in expanding the team, you have to dig deep and started thinking what’s going to be the number. How do you take this into the next level and something that has relevance?
“Before we unveil the number, one of the things for Trackhouse, numbers are important. I mean, numbers are important and they’re a big part of the branding in this sport. Numbers represent history, and they represent legions of fans and historic drivers and historic moments in this sport. We don’t take our number choices lightly, and when we chose the No. 99 car to begin with, there was a responsibility that came with that. That was wins with Carl Edwards, wins with Jeff Burton and a lot of great drivers. Same thing with the No. 1 with Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray, and when we think about the numbers and our history and the number, it’s important for us to honor that history and to add to the winning legacy of that number. We’ve done with the No.1 and we’ve done with the No. 99 and we intend to do it with the new one.”
Justin, talk a little bit about the process of this, wanting to do the right thing, talking to the Hendrick group, talking to Jeff Gordon, talking to the Earnhardt’s…
“I called Carl Edwards in the end of 2020 and said we’re starting this Cup team, and we want to run the No. 99 number, and I want to tell you we’re doing this and obviously get your endorsement of it and get your support for it. We did the same thing with the No. 1, and we’ve done it with the No. 88 in talking to the folks at Hendrick and to Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. who I was just texting an hour and a half ago. It’s important for us to have the endorsement. A great exchange with Dale Jr. saying look, it’s not my number. I added to legacy of it. It’s important to me personally, but he was proud to see it in good hands. And that’s something that’s super, super important to me and this company.”
What was the trigger that said all of a sudden, we need to do this? Did you have a goal, like last year, if we get to this certain time, we’ll pull the trigger on a third team, or was this just the time was right?
Marks: “I’ve always thought that three teams is a really strong number of teams to have in this sport. It just gives you 33% more of an opportunity on the racetrack every weekend. Frankly, it’s four-car teams are reserved for really, really big companies in this sport, and it’s tough to make four cars work. I think three was kind of always sort of the number for us from day one if things went our way and we could grow from one car to two, that three was kind of the goal. An opportunity be able to come up to expand to a third car for this year, so we took it.”
Shane, for you, the pressure is there. When you won in Chicago you said this was your ultimate goal. Next year, you’re going to be a full time Cup driver. Pressure, do you feel pressure? Are you motivated, excited, happy, anxious?
“All of the above, but that’s why we do it. Those feels are good things because it means you care so much about it, right? All this year, I’ve been nervous getting in the car. Anxious. How it’s going to go. How am I going to be? That’s an awesome feeling and something I haven’t had for a few years, so it’s been really cool. It’s cool to be energized like that. Of course there’s going to be pressure. The Cup Series is pretty cutthroat as we’ve seen. A lot of guys, it’s pretty hard to make it. I just have to keep learning, do the best I can, and I’ll be fine.”
Justin, can you confirm where you’re getting the charter from?
“What would you guess?
I would guess Stewart Haas Racing.
“Probably not a bad answer.”
Can you talk about the decision, or was it an easy decision? You had more drivers than you had spots, so you had to announce you were releasing Zane and keeping Shane…
“I think when we decide the drivers, it’s a big picture, and we cast a wide net, sort of, of qualifications. It’s commercial support, fit in the company, personality, all of that. We don’t have four cars, we have three, so we have to make a decision. We’re excited about the decision we’ve made with SVG.”
With all of your endeavors and connections in other motorsports arenas, is there a concentration of on where you’ll find the next driver to potentially bring to NASCAR? With a wide net, is there a target?
Marks: “I don’t think we’re in the driver-looking business for right now for a while. We’re excited with Ross (Chastain), we’re excited with Daniel (Suarez), we’re excited with SVG. Really excited about resigning Raul Fernandez and bringing the (Ai) Ogura into the MotoGP thing. And we’ve got amazing talent who’s going to be racing full time next year in the Xfinity Series in Connor Zilisch. I think we’re in a pretty good spot right now. As the business expands and we’re able to expand to a third team and have these opportunities, it was important to make sure we put an emphasis and put ourselves in the best position to get the best talent in the house. I think we’ve done that, and now we can focus on what we’ve got and try to go win races.”
Can you give a number, an exact number, on what you paid for the charter?
“No.”
In negotiations of the charter agreement, there’s been some debate whether to continue to invest in teams. Why not wait to acquire a third charter until the negotiations are final?
“I don’t really have any stress that the fact the charter system is going to continue. I don’t really think that’s a risk, and when there is an opportunity to make a move and to expand… We had a lot of great commercial support around this program that we’ll announce later this season. There’s a lot of things falling in line. We had to take advantage of that opportunity when it was here before we lost it. It wasn’t really that difficult of a decision. The charter negotiations will continue. Those conversations will continue to happen. I think the charter system has been good for the sport. I think NASCAR will tell you the same thing. We don’t really have any stress about that system continuing.”
Justin, the news came out that Zane Smith and Trackhouse were parting ways. Did this come down to a Zane or Shane decision. If it didn’t, describe what you made pick Shane for this seat over some other drivers who I’m sure were in consideration who may have had experience in NASCAR specifically?
“The way I’ll answer this, this moment is about Shane van Gisbergen. This is a SVG moment. I’m going to keep it an SVG moment. I will tell you the reason we chose to go with Shane for this third car is that he… Yeah, there’s not a lot of experience in the Cup Series, some unknowns, a lot of hard work, but Shane checks a lot of boxes for a really, really compelling story and building great business for this sport. I think it’s the fact he’s incredibly talented. He’s really dedicated. There’s a reason why he was the first one to win on debut since Johnny Rutherford in 1963. That’s a big thing. Obviously, the Chicago Street Race is kind of in his wheelhouse, but the rate of adaptability of everything else, just the competition, the restarts, the pit stops, the way he prepared for that race, this is a superstar. This is somebody we were really excited about committing to knowing that’s a relatively unconventional path to a Cup car. But we wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t think this guy couldn’t win lots and lots of Cup races and be a Playoff contender. It was honestly a pretty easy decision because he checked a lot of boxes for us and everyone in the company is really excited for it.”
Shane, what has been the hardest part about your learning curve? Just trying to get up to speed? You come out and, in your debut, win. What has really challenged you along the way?
“Turning left. It’s just there’s so many variables in this racing. You see even Kyle Larson, who is the best driver, he’s first one week, 20th the next. There are so many variables that make this sport a thing. I’m used to being on one line, the repetition the whole time, hitting my marks, where the race can change so much over the course of the day. When the weather changes, the rubber goes down, or ever the superspeedway racing is completely different. Probably just the amount of variables in this racing. You can prep all you want, but it’s having those instincts in how to react and having the best way to do it. Every race, I’m learning something. I seem to always start the races kind of slow, and by stage three, I’m on the pace kind of thing. Just every week, this time of year, going back to tracks I’ve been to before, hopefully I can show that improvement and keep getting better. As I said, every week, I’m like a sponge trying to learn stuff and get better and better.”
Do you expect to run any Xfinity races next year?
van Gisbergen: “Yeah, I hope so. Obviously, there will be speaking with Chris and the Kaulig team and there’s opportunities to do the road courses, but to me, that’s the easy stuff. I want to do more ovals with them and learn in both ways. Hopefully, we’ll race with them next year and win some road courses but hopefully, they’ll let me do some ovals and I can keep getting more experience.”
Justin, Project 91, you mentioned the importance of it right off the top. Do you anticipate it continuing moving forward with a full three car roster, or do you feel that stretches the team too thin?
“We’re having those discussions right now. I think that Project 91 is something that 100% in my mind, I’d love to continue. It’s just difficult to do it this year because we had so much on our plate with supporting other drivers in other programs, and just a lot of other business development stuff we’re working on. I would expect Project 91 to be back sooner rather than later. Obviously, it has to fit into the workflow of the company. We’re expanding our focus on running three competitive Cup cars next year. There’s a lot of interest in Project 91 both from drivers, and from commercial partners. I would 100% anticipate that to continue in some capacity.”
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