Trackhouse Racing team owner says NASCAR hasn’t seen the last of Project91.
The concept, which invited superstar international drivers from various disciplines to try Cup Series racing in a one-off capacity, saw the likes of Kimi Raikkonen (F1) make a pair of starts and then (Supercars’) Shane Van Gisbergen, who won on the Streets of Chicago in his debut in 2023.
It led to SVG coming to NASCAR full-time, where he will compete in the Cup Series in 2025 after a successful Xfinity stint in 2024.
There were no Project91 entries last season but Marks said during an interview at the Race Industry Week webinar that there are still goals and enthusiasm for running it back.
“It’s certainly – Project 91 is certainly not dead,” said Marks. “I would expect to see that on the racetrack sooner rather than later. What I love about it is, you know, it’s like our first Project 91 graduate. You know, we did this deal and turned it into, from an amazing kind of one-off or two-off even in 23, great little program for Project 91 turning into like a real thing in the sport. A real, some great star power, great new personality, someone who’s committed full time. Shane moved to the States, changed his complete life to be a Cup driver. I think that’s really, really fun and one that’s resonated with a lot of people. We’ve got great partners on that car.
“As far as the future, lot of opportunity. I mean, a ton of opportunity. I get phone calls all the time from some of the greatest drivers around the world about coming and doing it, and that’s really exciting for us. The only reason it wasn’t on the racetrack in 2024 this year was that we just had so much going on. We had so much going on with the third car that we prepared for a few races for SVG and then helping him over at Kaulig. Kind of all this stuff going on. We just didn’t really have the bandwidth at the time for it. But now as we’re kind of just focused again on our three cars next year, full-time. Then Project 91 can come back and I would expect to see it sooner rather than later.”