The biggest move of NASCAR’s 2027 offseason may have already taken place. Earlier this week, it was announced that Connor Zilisch would be leaving Trackhouse Racing to join Hendrick Motorsports on a multi-year deal that begins in 2028.
It’s a boon for Zilisch, who remains one of the top prospects in the Cup Series despite a rookie year that has been marred with inconsistency. It’s the type of deal he simply could not turn down.
Advertisement
But the move also leaves some question marks for Trackhouse, as they will be saying goodbye to an extremely popular driver and must make some big decisions regarding how to handle his departure.
One of the options that has been floated, by Dale Earnhardt Jr. among others, is Trackhouse going back to running just two cars in the Cup Series, with Shane van Gisbergen and Ross Chastain keeping their seats, and leasing the team’s third charter out to another team.
According to Trackhouse owner Justin Marks, such a move is not currently in the cards.
Advertisement
“I don’t know where that comes from. I don’t really think downsizing for our company is the right thing to do,” Marks said in a recent interview with SiriusXM’s NASCAR radio. “There’s correlation, not causation, to Trackhouse struggling to find speed around the same time we expanded to three cars. Some people might look at that and say, ‘Well maybe three cars was too much for them,’ and create their own story in their head.”
Zilisch leaving will undoubtedly change the math at Trackhouse, but Marks is confident that the team’s sponsors are taking the long view, and keeping the team running three cars makes sense for all involved parties.
“We have three cars’ worth of awesome sponsors. Chevrolet likes that we have three cars. I like that we have three cars,” Marks said. “I think downsizing the team sends the wrong message.”
Advertisement
He continued:
“Ultimately, this is a business. At the end of the day, we have a lot of sponsors that want to grow with us — they want to expand, they want to renew. I think that the way we’ve set the structure of the business up, it works well as a three-car team. There’s economies of scale. We’ve got committed sponsors on all three cars. We sell a charter, we’ve got to call sponsors that have all become friends of ours and say, ‘Sorry there’s no room for you here anymore.’
“This isn’t an industry where you put yourself in a position to call sponsors and say, ‘We don’t need your money.’ It was a very intentional thing to grow to three cars. It certainly happened quickly, but I’m happy where we’re at.”
Advertisement
One benefit that Trackhouse has here is the extra runway of next season, where Zilisch will still be racing with the team. Depending on how the 2027 season goes, the finances of one side or the other of the downsizing debate may become obviously more beneficial to the team’s long-term success. But as things stand, Marks says he likes running three cars, and doesn’t sound like he plans to change that any time soon.
To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.
