Last Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway was another trying day for Trackhouse Racing, in what has been a tough opening to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. Ross Chastain, who finished 20th, carried the banner for the team at the 0.533-mile short track, while teammates Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen finished 33rd and 34th.
Justin Marks, the owner of Trackhouse Racing, talked about the rough outing in an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s Sirius Speedway on Monday.
“A bad day at the racetrack is a better day than a good day at a real job. I mean, it was a tough day,” Marks explained.
Marks then admitted that Trackhouse Racing, a few years removed from a championship 4 berth with Chastain, is in a rebuilding year.
“I mean, [Bristol] was one of those races, and one of those weekends where you’ve just got to zoom out a little bit. You have to realize we’re in a rebuilding phase right now,” Marks explained. “We’re working hard, there were certainly some highlights from the weekend, but ultimately, at the end of the day, yesterday, it was — you know, just a tough race, tough results, and just another step in the process of rebuilding this race team.”
As the team navigates through a rebuilding season, Marks says it’s paramount to remind those within the organization that there will be days filled with struggle on the path back to being a top team in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“Look, I think it’s managing expectations. I think it’s taking a look at the big picture of how difficult this sport is. And that there are ebbs and flows in this sport, and that we have a lot of really good things going on,” Marks said. “I mean, we have a lot of good things about this company. We have great sponsors, we have great talent sitting in these race cars, and this is hard work. It’s hard stuff to do.”
In addition to Trackhouse adding rookie racer Connor Zilisch to the stable this season, the team is also trying to wrap its head around the new Chevrolet body, which has thrown several teams for a loop in the early portion of the season.
“Right now, the Chevrolets in general are a little bit behind, and you know we’re figuring out this new body that we’ve got, these new noses and everything that we’ve got,” Marks noted. “You know, the Toyotas are really good right now. And you know, I think it’s just doing the work, and everybody knows that we have the tools, and we’ve got everything we need to be successful, and it’s just about the grind, and it’s about the work.”
At the end of the day, Marks is thankful that the sponsorship partners that Trackhouse has added over the last few seasons have shown plenty of grace through the team’s recent struggles, and he feels they’re in it for the long haul.
“Everybody understands the mission here and is really patient,” Marks stated.
And Marks wants to be clear, it’s not all doom and gloom for Trackhouse Racing, as the organization has seen flashes of speed throughout the season, which has led to Shane van Gisbergen still ranking inside the top-16 of the championship standings after eight races into the season, despite being a relative novice on oval tracks compared to the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field.
In fact, Marks saw signs early in the weekend at Bristol that his team is working itself back into a contender. It just takes time.
“Right now, there’s moments where we show a lot of speed. I mean, Connor was really good in practice. Ross was the fastest-qualifying Chevrolet. You know, we have these moments where we’ve got some speed in the cars, but we have to sort of just chip away at it a little bit,” Marks explained.
Marks says that for now, his Trackhouse Racing team is focused on getting all three cars consistently into the top-15, from there, they’ll focus on getting everyone into the top-10. Once they have consistent top-10 speed, he feels that will put them in a position to capitalize on good pit stops and other scenarios late in races to potentially nab some victories.
At the end of the day, Marks feels the majority of the field is starting to lag a few organizations at the top of the heap in the Next Gen car, which initially brought a level of parity in the NASCAR Cup Series that hadn’t been seen for quite some time. But Marks isn’t giving up, and is making moves to improve his team.
“We’re five or six years into this new car, now, and the concentration of success is really with like two or three teams, right now. We’re making the investments to do what we need to do to be successful, and everybody understands that,” Marks said.
Heading into Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, Trackhouse Racing finds itself looking to make up ground in the championship standings. With 18 races remaining until the Chase for the Cup begins, van Gisbergen, one point above the cutline, is the only Trackhouse driver currently in Chase contention.
Chastain ranks 21st in the standings, and Zilisch is mired back in 34th during his rookie campaign.
