Trackhouse will take over operations at the end of the 2021 Cup season.
In addition to buying the assets of CGR, Trackhouse will acquire the team s two charters. During the announcement, Daniel Suarez was confirmed as one of the drivers for next season. The second driver will be announced later in the year and Marks said that the current CGR drivers Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain are on the short list.
Busch, a 21-year veteran in the Cup Series, is currently in the final year of his contract with CGR. In his career, Busch has raced for six different owners, including Jack Roush and Roger Penske.
1
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks and Chip Ganassi have developed a good relationship over the years. Marks drove 22 races for Ganassi in the Xfinity Series from 2016 to 2018, and he felt Ganassi was the only NASCAR team owner he could call out of the blue with a proposal like this. So in mid-April, Marks called his old boss to inquire about buying his team. There was one slight technicality.
“The team wasn’t for sale,” Ganassi said. “It’s just someone called and wanted to buy it and I had to take a look at it.”
Obtaining a charter had proven difficult for Marks, who on multiple occasions in 2020 thought he was closing in on acquiring the NASCAR equivalent of a franchise that guarantees entry into every Cup Series race, only for the deals to fall apart. But instead of becoming discouraged by the process complicated by the increasing demand for charters Marks changed course and thought bigger. M
Motor racing-Ganassi sells NASCAR operation to Trackhouse By Syndicated Content
Jun 30, 2021 | 3:04 PM
(Reuters) – Trackhouse Entertainment Group said on Wednesday it has agreed to purchase Chip Ganassi Racing’s NASCAR operation, a deal that will see the longtime motorsports fixture exit the top U.S. stock car series.
The transfer of assets to Trackhouse Racing, which was formed last year and made its on-track debut at the Daytona 500 in February, will be completed after the final NASCAR Cup Series race on Nov. 7.
“This process took several weeks and I want to thank Chip for being so open and candid with me every step of the journey,” Justin Marks, founder of Trackhouse Entertainment Group, said in a news release.
Trackhouse Racing
From the moment Justin Marks launched Trackhouse Racing last summer, the 40-year-old entrepreneur and racer turned his attention to acquiring at least two ownership charters to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Long term, his vision could not be implemented without them, and Marks spent countless hours every day working towards that goal.
The initial charter period ran from 2016 to 2020 and was extended from 2021 to 2024 and runs through the current NASCAR TV rights agreement with FOX Sports and NBC Sports. Understand that charters can only be leased once per agreement period, and Marks had hoped to acquire one or several of the three held by Spire.
Chip Ganassi Racing Will Leave NASCAR At The End Of 2021
Pitbull co-owned Trackhouse Entertainment Group will take over CGR s entire NASCAR Cup operations
Image: Chip Ganassi Racing
Chip Ganassi Racing, with split headquarters in Concord, North Carolina and Indianapolis, Indiana, has grown since its founding in 1990 to become one of the heaviest hitters in American motorsport. The team currently fields cars in IndyCar, IMSA, Extreme E, and NASCAR Cup. At the end of this season, however, the NASCAR operations will be sold off to Trackhouse Racing. If you’re not familiar with Trackhouse, the team debuted this season as a joint venture between racer Justin Marks and Grammy-winning artist Armando Christian “Mr. Worldwide” “Pitbull” Perez.