After several months of speculation surrounding the possibility of a PROJECT 91 entry for Helio Castroneves in the 2023 Daytona 500, Trackhouse Racing confirmed Tuesday that it won’t be happening, via team owner Justin Marks.
“We took a hard look at the Daytona 500 with PROJECT91, but at the end of the day decided to focus on the road courses and the 1/99 at Daytona,” Marks said in a Tweet. “We have some exciting [PROJECT91] being finalized.”
We took a hard look at the Daytona 500 with @THProject91 but at the end of the day decided to focus on the road courses and the 1/99 @ Daytona. We have some exciting P91 stuff being finalized.
— Justin Marks (@JustinMarksTH) January 17, 2023
Helio Castroneves will continue his journey to find a seat for the 2023 Daytona 500 in February, after Don Hawk of the Superstar Racing Experience vowed to assist the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner in finding a seat for the event, should he win an SRX event.
The Money Team Racing, which fields the No. 50 Chevrolet Camaro in the NASCAR Cup Series, now stands as the front-runner to land Castroneves for the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway.
In December, TMT Racing co-owner Willy Auchmoody confirmed to TobyChristie.com that the organization had met with Castroneves and his team, regarding a potential Daytona 500 seat. However, nothing has been announced at this time.
PROJECT91 will return to the NASCAR Cup Series part-time in 2023, with the entry expected to remain exclusively to road courses. Drivers for the entry’s one-off efforts will be announced at a later date.