What is going on with Trackhouse?

HoneyBadger

HoneyBadger

Big Amber Glenn Fan
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A quarter way through the season and all three Trackhouse cars are on the outside looking in. Ross Chastain has turned into Casper the Friendly Ghost. SVG is the highest ranked driver and even he's had a miserable season. Connor Zilisch is basically in Hell right now.

I know the Chevys, outside of Hendrick, are off. But Trackhouse has really fallen off this season so far.
 
In my opinion. Bad leadership. The primary owner is a wannabe tech bro whose business philosophy is “branding and engagement” and not building fast race cars. They’ve spent money on everything but engineering and sim. This team has regressed every year since 2022. And fell off a cliff when Ty Norris jumped ship, and Pitbull pulled his funding. Doesn’t help they get their stuff from ECR, which has been absolutely abysmal across the board.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Marks sells in the next few years. And it’s a shame, cause they are wasting three very good drivers with big personalities.
 
This reads like an inside track to what's happening there or have just been closely following it? Granted I haven't been as far as Marks goes, so am genuinely curious as to the true reasons for the falloff, I can't imagine that Pitbull pulling significant money away helped them at all. If you're Daniel Suarez right now, the stars seem to have aligned perfectly for the switch over.

and then why are SVG and Zilisch still seemingly so dominant on the road courses? Yes their talent is able to overcome a slight equipment disadvantage, yet it still seems their equipment is good enough to dominate and be turning some of the fastest laps on the track there. They are that good, we know that.

Maybe Trackhouse is completely focused on directing most of their attention resources preparation into the road courses? And thus are struggling on the ovals? Or.... a lack of information on where to go with it to get faster there. Curious to see what gains can be made over the season.
 
gotta love Zilisch's attitude on the whole thing. Man that kid is sharp. We sure he's 19? Wise beyond his years.

 
Jorge De Guzman said:
The owner is worried about the team’s “brand” instead of making it a winning organization.
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Marks talks like a guy who has been winning races for 20 years....but he hasn't. He would have been better served by hooking his wagon to TRD, but he flat out gave them the finger. How's that working for him? He will get what the Felon chooses to give him.
 
I’m obviously a Ross and Trackhouse fan. It’s been difficult seeing the inconsistency from those race cars. After their strong bust out season, they slipped the following year and continue to trail others in competitiveness. The most frustrating is how they can be so inconsistent within each race. Start near the front, compete for a while, then fall back, can’t get back to the front.
 
wi_racefan said:
Dale Jr still had quite the brand win or lose
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two time Daytona 500 champion, former Busch Series champion. Jr also won more Cup races in his career than Trackhouse currently has with 3 cars. But keep that laughing emoji going, I must have missed the joke. I also missed what Dale Jr had to do with this.
 
Revman said:
Marks talks like a guy who has been winning races for 20 years....but he hasn't. He would have been better served by hooking his wagon to TRD, but he flat out gave them the finger. How's that working for him? He will get what the Felon chooses to give him.
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Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the whole brand is finishing in 20th or worse most weekends and underachieving since a stupid wall move at Martinsville.
 
I remember when Reddit was calling Marks a “genius” for “shaking things up” when it comes to how he approaches ownership.

I am a Trackhouse fan and I think Marks needs to do what it takes to get results on the track.
 
Jorge De Guzman said:
two time Daytona 500 champion, former Busch Series champion. Jr also won more Cup races in his career than Trackhouse currently has with 3 cars. But keep that laughing emoji going, I must have missed the joke. I also missed what Dale Jr had to do with this.
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Well they won more than their fair share of races last year and we're currently 9 races into this season. They have a proven veteran that finished 2nd in the championship in the past, a proven international race winning driver and arguably the best up and coming driver. So I'd say they have a pretty big brand.
 
wi_racefan said:
Well they won more than their fair share of races last year and we're currently 9 races into this season. They have a proven veteran that finished 2nd in the championship in the past, a proven international race winning driver and arguably the best up and coming driver. So I'd say they have a pretty big brand.
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They have the new Chevy body and RCR motors. :idunno:
 
JBone88 said:
In my opinion. Bad leadership. The primary owner is a wannabe tech bro whose business philosophy is “branding and engagement” and not building fast race cars. They’ve spent money on everything but engineering and sim. This team has regressed every year since 2022. And fell off a cliff when Ty Norris jumped ship, and Pitbull pulled his funding. Doesn’t help they get their stuff from ECR, which has been absolutely abysmal across the board.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Marks sells in the next few years. And it’s a shame, cause they are wasting three very good drivers with big personalities.
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I don't know about that. This team has plenty funding and investment. Pitbull left, but have Red Bull, Kybota, etc.

They are not short of money, just IMHO its kind of like watching Ganassi again. They had a huge boom with the Next Gen being new come 2022, but they kind of slowly kind of regressed year after year. Yeah, Justin has a lot of different projects, but I doubt it affects the NASCAR program. I would like to see Trackhouse take the plunge with an HMS technical alliance instead of RCR, whom is struggling as well, so I mean with that deal its not helping the primary team is mediocre and affects the satellite teams.

It's just not a Justin Marks problem, its just another case of ebb and flow with OEM developments as well with a new car. A lot of talented folks at Trackhouse and I'd like to see them be up front more as well. Too talented of a group to be struggling, IMHO.
 
Ironic because they bought the team/building from Chip and Chip was/is known to be kinda cheap as an owner.

Trackhouse is a stark contrast. Justin has invested a LOT into this team and continues to do such.
 
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