Legendary motorsport team owner Chip Ganassi has sold the NASCAR side of his operation to the Trackhouse team co-owned by Justin Marks and rapper Pitbull.
Trackhouse will take over the assets of the NASCAR Ganassi team at the end of the year, and will therefore expand to a two-car Cup entry in 2022.
The news was announced in a NASCAR-organised press conference featuring Ganassi and Marks, and in addressing the media Ganassi insisted that his team “was not for sale” before Marks came in earlier this year “with a great offer and an even better vision for racing”.
Ganassi referred to the Trackhouse organisation as part of NASCAR’s influx of “new blood” in team ownership, which also includes the Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI outfit.
“If I was trying to sell my team, I would’ve talked to everybody who was looking for a charter, or looking for a team, looking to get involved in the sport,” Ganassi said.
“I did not. I talked to one person, that’s this guy right there [Marks]. I didn’t talk to anybody else.
“I want you to know I’m still dedicated to motorsports, and the sport of auto racing in my opinion is the greatest sport in the world, and it still seems to be on an upward trajectory. I am not getting out of racing – I mean, I still have three other teams in IndyCar, sportscars and Extreme E.
“So I’m by no means getting out of racing. I wish Justin well in this business, I’m here to help him at any time.”
Ganassi entered NASCAR in 2001 by purchasing a majority stake in Felix Sabates’ Team SABCO Racing.
His team has had the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya and current NASCAR form man Kyle Larson among its drivers, and claimed its biggest success to date in 2010 by winning Ganassi’s first Daytona 500 with Jamie McMurray.
The outfit’s co-buyer, Marks, is actually himself a NASCAR Xfinity series race winner for Ganassi.
Ganassi’s current Cup roster is made up of newcomer Ross Chastain and 2004 series champion Kurt Busch.
“It [the sale] will give us an opportunity to focus on other racing operations in IMSA, IndyCar, Extreme E. I won’t have too many weekends off still, not too many,” Ganassi said.
Trackhouse – which announced a buy-in from Grammy Award winner Armando Christian “Pitbull” Perez earlier this year – is making its NASCAR Cup debut in 2021 with a sole car driven by Daniel Suarez.
The team is currently in with an outside chance of making the Cup playoffs – with Busch a rival for the remaining post-season places.
Suarez will be retained as one of the expanded team’s two drivers next year.
