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Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 car returns after a season’s absence with four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves trying to make the Feb. 16 Daytona 500, but car owner Justin Marks said Tuesday he’s unsure if the car will make it this year will run again.
Marks referred to his team’s focus on its extensive three-car operation in Cup for Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez and Shane van Gisbergen.
The four-time Indianapolis 500 winner seeks to make his first NASCAR Cup start in the Feb. 16 race.
“It comes down to resources, people, bandwidth and we have to take a real look at workflow,” Marks said. “We have three (full-time) cars that we’re going to compete with this year to try to get into the playoffs. … This is really the priority of the company.
“When it comes to the kind of future of Project 91 and how we view the program, it really has to fit competitive and effective workflows for our three full-time cars.”
But Marks noted that his passion project won’t go away and that he has a list of drivers he’d like to see in a Trackhouse car one day.
The Project 91 car is just one of many ways Marks is trying to expand the Trackhouse Racing name. With teams in NASCAR and Moto GP, Marks said he also has a goal of entering a car in the Indianapolis 500, though that won’t happen this season.
“It’s definitely a dream of mine to have Trackhouse represented in that race,” Marks said of the Indy 500. “There are ongoing discussions. It’s no small feat. It’s something we’ve looked at as a company for a number of years. I think when the time is right, we’ll look at it very hard. … I don’t think that the Trackhouse story will never be complete without us competing in the world’s biggest open wheel race.”
For now, the focus of the Project 91 effort is on Castroneves and getting him comfortable in the car for his first NASCAR Cup event.
Castroneves is scheduled to test Jan. 16 at Talladega in preparation for his attempt to make the Feb. 16 Daytona 500 in the Project 91 car for Trackhouse Racing, a team spokesman confirmed to NBC Sports. NASCAR allows experienced drivers a test to familiarize themselves with a Cup car.
Joey Logano wants to defend his Cup title in 2024.
The concept for the Project 91 car is to give well-known international racers a chance to compete in a NASCAR race, while also broadening Trackhouse Racing’s reach.
Trackhouse Racing debuted the Project 91 effort in 2022 with former world champion Kimi Raikkonen at Watkins Glen.
Raikkonen returned to race at Circuit of the Americas in 2023. Van Gisbergen won the first Chicago Street Race in 2023 while making his Cup debut with Project 91. He ran one more race that season.
Should the car run again this year, Marks said it would likely be at a road course.
“When you look at Formula One drivers or World Endurance drivers, wherever they can come, we really want to put these guys in positions to be successful,” Marks said. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to take someone who’s never been in a stock car, never been on an oval and take them to Dover, Bristol or Darlington or something like that.
“We want to be successful with the car. Primarily I would say it is a pathway program.”
