Trackhouse Racing has been making headlines lately, and not just for Shane van Gisbergen’s street course dominance. The Supercars phenom just swept the Xfinity and Cup weekend at Chicago, but what dominates the headlines is the recently announced departure of Daniel Suarez after five years in the No. 99 Chevrolet.
Suarez, who brought Trackhouse its 1st cup win, has spoken with gratitude and release. He admits that the decision wasn’t sudden, and it had been brewing for six or seven months, and he feels lighter now that it’s public. Team owner Justin Marks has also since opened up about their departure, casting it not as a breakup but as a pivot in a long-term plan. Here’s what Justin Marks had to say to the media after the Chicago Street Race.
Justin Marks opens up on Daniel Suarez’s exit
It all started in 2021 when Justin Marks launched Trackhouse Racing with a fresh vision and tapped Daniel Suarez as the team’s very first driver. Suarez arrived as a Mexican driver who had struggled through mediocre years at Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Haas, and Gaunt Brothers. Yet under Mark’s decision, that pairing quickly blossomed. Suarez gave Trackhouse its first Top Five at Bristol Dirt and then led the team to its first Cup win at Sonoma in 2022, becoming the first Mexican-born driver to win at the NASCAR top level.
Suarez’s trajectory at Trackhouse hit its peak in 2024, locking into the playoffs early, and he scored a photo-finish win at Atlanta over Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch. It looked like momentum until results drifted, chemistry waned, and results plateaued. One interview summed it up when Daniel Suarez said, “There have been several situations in the last eight months, 10 months, that I haven’t felt like I used to for different situations. Sometimes when you don’t have that feel, there is no chemistry anymore. It’s like being in a relationship and living together because you bought a house together. ”
Behind the scenes, any time an owner and driver talk for hours about mapping out future goals, it probably signals trouble, or at least transition. Marks and Suarez did exactly that. In a recent interview in Chicago, Justin Marks opened up about their talk. He went on to say, “Daniel’s been a huge part of this company for four and a half years now. And you know, when we sat down and looked at our kind of mapped out our three-year and our five-year plan and sort of the sponsorships and kind of like everything that we’re trying to accomplish over the next five years of the company, you know, it just we just got to a point where, you know, we felt like that that relationship had bared a lot of fruit for us, but it just was, you know, was time to move on.”
2025 tells a sobering story for Daniel Suarez. In 19 races, Suarez has logged just one top-five and three top-tens, with four DNFs and a 30th-place average finish. A promising run in Vegas, a second-place finish, and a storybook Xfinity win at Mexico City hinted at a rebound, but consistency has eluded him. The No. 99 has sat at 29th in points, firmly outside the playoff picture.
Amid that backdrop, the announcement of Suarez’s departure had done nothing but build surprise, leading to rumors that maybe Justin Marks and Suarez had a sudden disagreement that soured their relationship. However, dismissing all this, the Trackhouse Racing owner goes on to say, “Look, Daniel has been a huge part of this company and a great friend of mine. You know, we met last night, me and him, in the hotel for an hour down in the lobby, and we just talked about our time together, everything that we’ve accomplished together, and him and I are in a really, you know, really good place.”
Justin Marks, Daniel Suarez and Pitbull (Source: X)
So now, as Suarez looks ahead, belt tightened and ready to hunt for his next ride, Marks leans into the next era: SVG, Ross Chastain, and rising star Connor Zilisch waiting in the wings. Suarez has opened up with a tone of finality and mild relief, calling his departure “just a change,” while Justin framed it as a natural step in Trackhouse’s evolution towards bigger goals.
Justin is also very clear about prioritizing Trackhouse’s goals in mind. He says, “It’s just this isn’t a sport where you know you do the same thing forever. And as we grow, you know, we just felt like it was time to, you know, wrap up that relationship and work to try to help him to find the next opportunity, but continue to grow as a company; what we’re trying to accomplish.”
It’s clear that Justin Marks is not like any other team owner. He’s willing to take bold risks, and getting Suarez into the Cup Series itself was one, and it paid off. Now, it’s time to embrace the future. However, before he takes on his managerial role and hunts for a replacement for 2026, Marks will be strapping on a firesuit soon!
Justin Marks is set to take part in the Goodwood Festival
Justin Marks may run one of the most talked-about teams in the Cup Series, but he hasn’t parked his racing instincts just yet. This summer, the Trackhouse founder is suiting up to pilot the No. 87 Red Bull-backed Chevrolet at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed between July 10 and 13. This yearly event in West Sussex, England, will display a wide variety of vehicles and race cars from around the world, including NASCAR stock cars that have been featured many times before. Just last year, Kyle Petty drove his father, Richard Petty’s, Plymouth Superbird in the event.
Justin Marks couldn’t be happier about this opportunity. He goes on to say, “This is quite the honor for both Trackhouse Racing and NASCAR. NASCAR held its first points race in recent history in Mexico last month, and it was a huge success. Expanding our fan base globally is a goal for everyone in our sport, and there’s no better place to showcase our sport than the Goodwood Festival of Speed. I want to thank our friends at Red Bull and Chevrolet for making this happen.”
Marks is an experienced racer, with nine wins as an IMSA driver, and has been a victor as a NASCAR Xfinity Series Driver too. He has also run in 6 cup races, including the 2018 Daytona 500, but Justin has never piloted a Next-Gen car before. And this is his moment to do so. Let’s hope that Justin Marks has a solid drive while promoting NASCAR across the depths of Europe.
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