Trackhouse Racing has to make some plans for the future following the move of Connor Zilisch, who is set to leave Trackhouse and join Hendrick Motorsports at the conclusion of the 2027 NASCAR season.
While Trackhouse has plenty of runway given Zilisch will still be with the team for another year, there are still lots of questions about the team’s strategy moving forward.
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Like so many things in NASCAR, it all comes down to funding, and as Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained on his podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, it might make sense for Trackhouse to downsize a bit, at least temporarily.
The advantages of having more cars on your team are clear.
“As you scale up, everything gets cheaper, that’s why teams want to run two cars instead of one,” Earnhardt said. “You can run the second car for a discount of what it costs to run the first car, and as you run the third, that discount continues. It’s expensive as sh*t to run three cars, but each additionally car is less expensive than the first.”
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That said, even if the third car comes at a better rate than the second car, having three cars is obviously still more expensive overall. If Trackhouse is still confident in its funding, they’d want to continue running three cars. But as Earnhardt explained, there are also benefits to being a two-car team, and being able to lease out a third charter to the highest bidder.
“I think the perfect situation is a two-car team. If I was [Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks], I would absolutely lease,” he said. “I wouldn’t be interested in selling the charter, because the value of the charters are continuing to go up, but if you can lease it and make a little money over the course of the next handful of years leasing this charter out, do it.”
Earnhardt argued that leasing out the third charter would give Trackhouse a bit of flexibility as the team resets, while still allowing them to run three cars in the future should they choose.
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“Dial it back to two teams. Now instead of, let’s say $200 million, now you only need $125 million — that’s easier to find. You put your partners together, you secure your drivers for a couple more years, you’ve got this path to running a two-car team over the next couple of years. You’re leasing this third charter that is still gaining in value and still an asset to sell down the road. That sounds like a decent plan.”
As things stand, Marks seems intent on keeping three cars running at Trackhouse, and again, the extra year to prepare should help ensure that everything is in place before Zilisch departs. But if the logistics of continuing to run three cars prove to difficult without Zilisch on the roster, the option to downsize is always there.
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