CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Chip Ganassi has offered his NASCAR staff to Justin Marks, proprietor of Trackhouse Racing, and can pull out of the nation’s high inventory automotive collection on the finish of this season.
Ganassi fields two vehicles within the Cup Sequence however will switch his North Carolina race store and all its property to Marks for 2022.
“He made me an awesome supply that required my consideration,” Ganassi advised The Related Press on Wednesday because the sale was introduced.
“I am not out of racing, I am simply out of NASCAR,” Ganassi mentioned. “I nonetheless have an IndyCar staff. I nonetheless have an IMSA sports activities automotive staff. I nonetheless have a Components E staff. I had a suggestion that I used to be required to think about.”
Chip Ganassi Racing started as an open-wheel staff that grew into probably the most profitable organizations in IndyCar. The Pittsburgh-based proprietor expanded into NASCAR in 2001 and has fielded a minimum of two vehicles each season since.
Ganassi received the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400, two of the largest races in NASCAR, with Jamie McMurray in 2010. He at present fields a pair of Chevrolets for Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain.
Ganassi’s IndyCar staff is a four-car program that options six-time collection champion Scott Dixon and present factors chief Alex Palou. He’ll run his group from its Indianapolis store subsequent season; the Harmony store will switch to Marks.
Marks is in his first season as proprietor of recent staff Trackhouse Racing, which counts entertainer Pitbull as a co-owner. The staff leased a constitution this 12 months from Spire Motorsports to run Daniel Suarez however Marks had been unable finalize a deal to buy NASCAR’s equal of a franchise.
Marks has mentioned he misplaced out on three charters final 12 months as he was constructing Trackhouse and has balked at paying the present eight-figure asking worth for one.
He as a substitute purchased a whole group — a deal that features each of Ganassi’s charters. Phrases weren’t disclosed and Marks earlier Wednesday advised AP he was “beneath a really strict” non-disclosure settlement that prevented him from discussing any particulars.
Marks has mentioned he not solely needed to broaden one-car Trackhouse right into a two-car staff, but in addition transfer the group to Nashville, Tennessee, by 2023 and function from the center of Music Metropolis’s leisure district.