Chip Ganassi sells entire NASCAR team, including North Carolina race operations
Chip Ganassi prefaced his comments about selling his 20-year-old NASCAR racing team by saying that it wasn’t for sale.
“Justin simply came to me with a great offer and a better vision for racing,” Ganassi said.
He was referring to Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks, who made more than 20 starts in the Xfinity Series driving for Ganassi’s team between 2016 and 2018. Marks leaned on the close relationship to make the deal that will transfer Ganassi’s Concord-based race shop, including all assets, to Marks at the end of the 2021 season.
The team owners made a surprise announcement about their plans at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte on Wednesday. The pieces came together quickly, they said, declining to comment on financial details.
Marks said he called Ganassi in April to pitch the prospect of buying his team after three failed attempts to purchase a Cup Series charter last season. A charter guarantees a team entry in the 40-car field weekly for races in NASCAR’s top Cup Series. Trackhouse Racing is leasing a charter this year to run the No. 99 Chevrolet driven by Daniel Suárez, who will continue to drive for the team next season with the other driver to be announced.
Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain drive for Chip Ganassi Racing this year, and Marks told reporters that those drivers will be the “top two” candidates considered for the second seat. Busch is also a leading candidate to drive for Michael Jordan’s and Denny Hamlin’s expanding 23XI Racing team next year, according to a May report by The Athletic.
While Marks, 40, looks to grow his presence in NASCAR alongside entertainment mogul Pitbull, the team’s co-owner, Ganassi, 63, will turn his attention to his other motorsports programs in IndyCar, IMSA and Extreme E. Ganassi’s four-car IndyCar program has won four races this year to contribute to CGR’s more than 230 combined wins (19 championships) across racing disciplines. CGR will operate out of its existing Indianapolis-based facility next season.
Ganassi appeared content with what the future holds.
“There’s some movement going on in the sport right now,” he said. “A lot of young blood, a lot of new people coming in and you take a look at that and you say, ‘That’s what I did 20 years ago.’ So it’s time for the next group to take over here.”
The owner is exiting NASCAR at a time when charters are selling at a premium (a recent report by the AP indicated they’re selling for as high as $10 million) and the costs for fielding a team are expected to shrink next year with the industry-wide shift to the Next Gen car. But Ganassi said he consulted with business advisors and felt comfortable moving forward with Marks.
Marks said he recognized the move was “unprecedented” by acquiring a company with fixed assets in North Carolina, especially when the eventual plan is to move Trackhouse operations to Nashville, Tenn. by 2023 and the sport is moving to Next Gen, but he noted that there are “other industries (they) can do work in.”
“There’s a lot of way to monetize those,” Marks said. “And I wasn’t going to let something like that hold up this opportunity.”
He said the initial conversations with Ganassi focused on where the two team owners “were at in their lives.”
“And what my vision for the future is in NASCAR, my thoughts on the new car, how I want Trackhouse to grow in scale,” Marks said. “And then he was candid with me about where he was in his life, and we found a lot of great common ground.”
Ganassi was mildly sentimental on Wednesday, saying he’d miss the people he’s developed relationships with through NASCAR the most, but didn’t relive any on-track moments.
“I’ve won big races and I’ve lost big races,” he said.
Marks divulged that he didn’t approach any other teams about potential acquisition. Just Ganassi.
“I was just thinking maybe there’s somebody out there that is ready to make a change,” he said. “(Someone) who is ready to step away, ready to move on and focus on other things.”
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 2:20 PM.
