[autotag]Trackhouse Racing[/autotag]’s situation with Shane van Gisbergen has arguably been NASCAR’s top storyline since he brought the No. 91 car to victory lane at the Chicago Street Course. It was van Gisbergen’s NASCAR debut and the sport’s first race at a street course in any of the top-3 racing divisions.
Since that day, van Gisbergen has been released from a contract with his Supercars team and is reportedly finalizing a full-time contract with Trackhouse Racing. However, it may not be for a full-time NASCAR Cup Series ride since the organization has other ideas for van Gisbergen for now. When asked by the media if the charter market could influence Trackhouse Racing’s plans for the New Zealand native, owner Justin Marks had this to say.
“I don’t know if (the charter system) matters,” Marks said. “The charter thing is a funny business right now. Look, I’m running a racing business here. I don’t have a billion-dollar company that I can lean on or anything like that. We’ve got a lot of people that are interested.”
“The barrier of entry is high financially right now and I’m not convinced you have to have one to go race. We’re going to try and expand and grow as a business, that’s not 100 percent dependent on us and our ability to buy a charter.”
Several prominent NASCAR owners, such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski, have talked about the charter market and each of them believes it is borderline impossible to make a purchase right now. As for Marks, he doesn’t believe a team needs to have one to compete and it will interesting to see how the organization moves forward.