There's a race this weekend, so Justin Marks made sure Trackhouse Racing had entry in the field

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Justin Marks had grandiose ideas when he bought Chip Ganassi Racing ahead of the 2022 NASCAR season. The former driver is probably the most forward-thinking team owner in NASCAR and in three seasons is making his mark all over motorsports.

He was the first to change the look of the Cup Series garage, building a small hospitality area in front of the Trackhouse Racing team hauler so his sponsors and guests had something to do besides stand aimlessly in the heat on race weekends. It's now industry standard.

But his ideas and his plans stretch far beyond some high-top tables, plants and a blue carpet that makes Trackhouse Racing special: Marks is relentless in that Trackhouse isn't just a NASCAR team — it's a full sports entertainment organization.

“His attitude toward everything and how forward-thinking he is just inspires us all in how to think and act,” said Shane van Gisbergen, who had his life totally upended when Marks brought him from Australia to try NASCAR’s debut race on the streets of Chicago. When van Gisbergen shockingly won the race, Marks worked on a plan to pull him out of V8 Supercars and bring him to North America.

This all started when Marks bought two cars from Ganassi. In three seasons, he has expanded to three for 2025. He will enter four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves in the Daytona 500, making Trackhouse the first team in history to bring four drivers born in four different countries to “The Great American Race.” Ross Chastain is American, Daniel Suarez in Mexican, Shane van Gisbergen is from New Zealand and Castroneves is Brazilian.

He's got 18-year-old Connor Zilisch signed but with nowhere to put the phenom, he's leased him out to JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series for 2025. Marks has a MotoGP team launched and entered the series before Liberty Media made a bid to purchase the top class of motorcycle road racing in the world.

If Marks timed it right, and the Liberty purchase goes through, he has a shot of capitalizing if Liberty is able to grow MotoGP the way it did Formula 1.

“What Justin has done is fantastic, and he sure has hit his timing,” said IndyCar and IMSA team owner Michael Shank, who is longtime friends with Marks. “He's gotten the people right. He's got Helio coming to the 500 and he's done everything right to get him ready. He's just done a really good job of balancing his big ambitions, but there's no doubt about it, he wants to be very big.”

Shank also lauded what a feat Marks pulled off by signing Wendy's — the chain based in Shank's Ohio hometown — for Castroneves' Daytona 500 entry. Shank has not been able to land significant business with a hometown brand.

But, that's all got to wait. There's a race this weekend and Marks wanted Trackhouse represented. So he's entered Trackhouse in this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona with a stacked lineup of van Gisbergen, Zilisch, IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske and sports car veteran Ben Keating. The quartet will compete in the GTD Daytona Pro class.

Zilisch returns after helping a different team win last year's LMP2 class at both Daytona and Sebring.

“Justin is so innovative, all his plans and ideas, nobody has any doubt he's going to get these things accomplished,” Zilisch said. “All the employees love working at Trackhouse and I think that goes to show what he's built. He wants to grow the brand. He wants to grow the business, and he wants to do it for the overall good of the sport.”

Marks has more on his to-do list, which includes an eventual entrance in the Indianapolis 500. He's been seen at practice days at Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the last few years and is always having conversations about getting a program together for “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

“It’s such an incredible experience just being there watching and certainly it is a dream of mine to have Trackhouse represented in that race," Marks said. "There are continuing discussions. It’s no small feat. It’s something that we’ve looked at as a company for a number of years. I think when the time is right, we’ll take a real hard look at it. It’s very high on my personal list, and then I got to get sort of the business and commercial and partnerships and all that worked out, to figure out how to do it in a meaningful and competitive way.

“I don’t think that Trackhouse will ever be complete without us competing in the world’s greatest open-wheel race.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press