Trackhouse Racing Ready For 100th Cup Start at Charlotte Roval

Trackhouse has won two of the five road course races this season, and comes into this weekend with a ton of momentum. Ross Chastain sits third in the playoff standings, 28 points above the cut line. Daniel Suarez is in eighth, but still 12 points above. Both drivers could advance into the Round of 8 with a solid finish tomorrow.

Chastain won at COTA, finished 7th at Sonoma, 4th at Road America, and was in contention to win on the IMS road course until his penalty. Suarez won at Sonoma, finished 5th at Road America, 5th at Watkins Glen, was in the frame on the final restart at IMS, and led every lap in the first stage at COTA. These two clearly know how to turn left and right, making them tough to beat.

Both drivers have an average finishing position of 23rd on the Charlotte Roval. They don't have a single top-12 finish between them in seven total starts, and neither has ever led a lap here. That being said, this is clearly a different season, and almost nothing in the past matters anymore.

Tomorrow will be the 100th race for the Trackhouse organization, and it could have a storybook ending.

When Justin Marks started this team, it was a single-car effort that relied upon heavy support from Richard Childress Racing. There were plenty of struggles and growing pains along the way, but they have grown into one of the strongest teams in the garage. There is a good chance that Trackhouse will have more cars in the Round of 8 than Joe Gibbs Racing and/or Team Penske.

Two years after purchasing Chip Ganassi Racing's Cup program, Marks has transformed this group into rock stars.

"Time has really flown by," Marks said. "It’s amazing that we actually started talking about this project over three years ago. We’ve packed a lot of business development into a short period of time. I started Trackhouse to build a company that could contend for wins and championships. It just happened really quickly."

"I feel very fortunate that a lot of people believed in something that I think would have been a difficult thing to believe in, especially with me out there saying I’m going to start this race team, we’re going to be a winning race team, we’re going to be a championship contending race team." Whether he truly believed it or not, that is exactly what they have become.

Seen by many as underdogs, Marks understands that but just doesn't see it. "Yea, we are a small organization but I struggle with the underdog thing a little bit. When I look in this building, I look at all these people. These aren’t underdog people. These are elite talents in everything they do. We are a winning organization."

Suarez qualified 3rd today and Chastain will start from the 10th spot tomorrow.