Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Interview with Justin Marks, Owner of Trackhouse Racing

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

In Episode 60 of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick speaks with Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks for an exclusive look at his journey from driver to team owner. Justin shares insights into the future of Trackhouse, what it takes to build a successful team, and the key qualities of strong leadership. This episode is filled with compelling stories, expert analysis, and a unique behind-the-scenes view of the NASCAR world! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Where did this creativity come in your life and how did you develop this thought process to get to where you are today? Well, I mean, I'm a student of the world, first of all. I mean, I'm just a very curious person. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. And this week we have a great conversation, in my opinion, because of his creativity and everything that comes with everything that he does in racing across the world. and that is Justin Marks to have our conversation this week. So I've got a lot of things that I want to talk to him about that I think will be intriguing to hear how they all went down and how he got to this particular place with trackhouse racing in such a short amount of time.

Hope you enjoy it. Well, we're super excited to have Justin Marks in studio with us. We appreciate you taking the time to come visit in the studio. I think it makes for a much better conversation and keeps me from getting lost into the screen. here on a Zoom call, but how are you? I'm good. I'm good. We probably would have done this sooner if we could have done Zoom, but I don't like to do this stuff on Zoom.

Well, we appreciate that. Yeah, it's much easier to sit here and talk. And I think, first, let's just get started from the NASCAR side. You know, you obviously have one in the playoffs this year. You had Ross not make the playoffs. Tell me the dynamic of how that has been this year and how the playoffs has started. obviously Daniel has made his way through the first round was a battle, but it's going to be a battle every week. So tell me the dynamic, where the dynamic a track house is currently. Well, I mean, I think right now we're really taking, you know, a real deep look at our organization and, you know, taking an audit of all of our processes or tools or people. Because, you know, we came out of the gates super strong with this new car.

And, you know, really the competitive landscape was wide open in 22. and really for most of 23. And now we're kind of getting into the moment with this car where some of those really, really big teams, a lot of tools, a lot of people, they're starting to really figure out this car, how to exploit this car. And that window of opportunity is just getting so small.

So for trackhouse to continue to build and really kind of continue on this trajectory that I want it to be on, which is to really be a championship contending team, you know, right now we're just looking at, at our tools, our processes, and we're sort of identifying where growth needs to be, where capital investment needs to be, and, you know, put us on a path to, you know, continue to be,

you know, a race-winning team, but really, you know, do the things, build the things that we need to, you know, to be a real championship contender. So this year, obviously, you know, the one didn't make the playoffs, which was, which was disappointing, of course, you know, after, after, you know, multiple win seasons in 22 and 23, 24 just wasn't there. I mean, you know, if we've had really great pace at a number of races, you know, some bad luck, but that doesn't, you know, not to make an excuse or anything, that just performance wasn't, wasn't where, you know, we needed to be. And the 99 team, you know, that's, that's who we've got in the playoffs.

And we're putting a lot of, a lot of support behind right now. I'm excited about where those guys are at. I mean, they're working really well with new crew chief this year. It kind of takes some time for, for Daniel and, and for Matt to figure out how each other work and really, you know, have that relationship translate to speed on the racetrack. Really, really tough night at Bristol, but we're through to the round of 12 and made it. Made it just, just barely.

And I was, you know, we all were hanging on every lap. And yeah, got through that. So that was good. Round of 12. And we'll just fight with everything we got with this 99 car to see how deep we can take in the playoffs while at background, taking a real good look at our company and determining what, you know, what so the big influential accretive moves are going to be this winner to, to take that next step next year.

So how hard is that from a, you know, obviously from the commercial side of things? You guys have done a phenomenal job with sponsors and things like that. And you're, you know, you're in this position where you're trying to get the performance where you want it to be during a race season, but you're trying to grow your team with a new charter and a third team coming on board next year. Explain to everybody the difficulty of trying to balance all that when you know you're trying to grow, but you're also trying to compete at the top level and why the timing is right to go to three cars? Well, I'll start with the last question. I mean, I think that the real sweet spot,

if you're going to build a strong organization with some longevity and competitiveness in the sport, I think that sweet spot is three cars. I think, you know, for obviously four cars, it works for Rick. It works for coach. And, you know, but for us as sort of an upstart, I say upstart organization. I mean, we do have good elements in the building that have been there for a lot. long time, you know, through our CGR purchase. But, you know, building a team trackhouse to the point where we can be very, very competitive and very strong on the racetrack, I think three cars is it. For someone, for a business like ours, I think there's diminishing returns on four cars. I think you start to really get in that territory of, you know, we bite off a little bit

more than we could chew. You know, can we build an organization that's strong enough to support four cars? I don't think really that was ever in the card. So it was always from day one, from 2021, to be to get us in a position to be a strong three-car organization. So luckily we'll be able to do that in 2025. As far as the balance goes, we have 148 people that work for this company, and we are constantly challenging ourselves with maximizing workflow, dividing responsibilities, you know, building really good working groups within the company. So everybody can do really, really good work, but it's all moving in the right in the same direction. Everybody's kind of pushing in the same direction.

So what we have the benefit of, you know, obviously really great, great people that work for the company, but we have race car drivers with big personalities and stories. And this has been something that's been very, very fundamental to me since we first started for sketching out what trackhouse is going to be, is that, you know, out in a very competitive commercial landscape, sports and entertainment, there's a lot of competition out there. there's new sports, there's new versions of sports coming out. There's just a lot of opportunity for businesses to spend their marketing dollars in sports and entertainment.

So what are we going to do that is going to be different, where we can have a value proposition where we stand out from our competition here in the NASCAR series. And what I love about where we're at, and one of the reasons we've been successful is we have drivers that are, A, they understand how important brand ambassadorship is. They understand how important sponsorship. is and how it makes this whole thing go. And they lean into that. They embrace it. They're very authentic people. They're generous with their time. And they've got great stories. I mean, we get to go out to the market and say, we've got an eighth generation watermelon farmer. We've got the only Mexican

driver in the sport who moved to America with a dream of being a NASCAR racer, couldn't speak the language. And we've got a guy now that, you know, left a very successful career in Australia and New Zealand, completely hit the reset switch, moved to America to try this new, this new kind of racing. he's a dynamic and authentic personality. And we've got, you know, a guy that smashes watermelons, a guy that punches pinatas and a guy that kicks rugby balls. And like that, that stuff's important. It's important to be able to tell those stories and have those big personalities.

So, you know, that's been, that's been a big part of the success around the commercial side is that we're very authentic, you know, and that starts with, you know, starts with me about being very, very real about what our mission is and what we're trying to accomplish here. And that's, you know, be very competitive on the racetrack, win races. But be able to just tell great stories and have support from the fans and be just this interesting thing to follow. Yeah. Because it's dynamic and it's always changing. And so that certainly, you know, resonated in the marketplace. But that also, that's not the whole game. We have to be able to point back to the racetrack. And we have to be able to say, you know, look, we're, we are building a very competitive organization.

And so, you know, the balance there is sort of the storytelling, the promotion, the marketing, but then really focusing on the things that we are currently doing and the things that we need to do in the future to put really fast race cars on the racetrack because the best story, the best story you can tell, and I always talk about telling stories, the best story you can tell us from Victory Lane is that, you know, when you beat your competitors

and, you know, you win these races, that that's just where... I mean, when Daniel won in Atlanta this year, you know, there was an executive from Freeway Insurance. It was in tears in Victory Lane. And I put my arm around. I'm like, this is what it's all about. out is that, you know, we're telling the world about your business, but we're showcasing excellence, attention to detail, resilience, and performance and execution. So that's going

to be, that's a long way to answer your question. But it's really, it's really like all of the above. It's just trying to figure out how to focus on the things that are going to be important for a sports and entertainment organization and really leaning into those with intention, with investment, with focus, and get everybody understanding where each. individual and the business stacks up in the ecosystem of trackhouse and the fact that we're all pushing in kind of the same direction in the world. So where did this mindset, when did you know that you were this creative person that from a marketing standpoint to just go out and figure these things out and say, hell, I'm going to, I'm going to do Project, Project 91, and we're going to bring

this guy over. But I know your dad is very successful in the business world. Is that something that he taught? Is that something that you saw? Because it is, it is so. far different from the way that other NASCAR teams think, and that's the part that I think is amazing, you know, to be able to tell these stories and create these brands and some of these teams have been here for 50-some years. And, you know, their brand isn't as popular as what your brand is from a trackhouse standpoint. So where did this creativity come in your life and how did you develop this thought process to get to where you are today? Well, I mean, I'm a student of the world, first of all. I mean, I'm just a very curious person. I mean, there's a lot of,

there's a lot of things in history and, um, in art and, you know, geopolitics and just all the things. I'm just always been very, very curious about the world that we live in. Um, but I've also had the extreme fortune of growing up in Silicon Valley, California, where, you know, incredibly gifted entrepreneurs have changed industries through creativity, through challenging the traditional way of doing things. And, you know, one of the times that that really kicked off for me was when I got to know Nick Woodman, the founder of GoPro. And I got to know Nick when GoPro had one camera and they were just trying to raise money to be able to be able to, you know, basically start their company. And watching him go through that process, you know, creating, you know, a great action sports brand.

it really started getting me thinking for the first time about, you know, where, where is the opportunity for, we use a word disruption. It's kind of a buzzword, but where is the opportunity, the value proposition in challenging the status quo and the traditional way of racing and the racing business to create real value? And so, but then I raced for 22 years. I just was a race car driver. But the whole time I was doing that, I was really paying attention. I was just really, really paying attention to the series that I raced in, to the relationship with the media partners, to how teams were activating, promoting their sponsorships. And I always wanted to be able to do something at the top level of this sport. And, you know, I realized pretty quickly it wasn't going to be behind the wheel.

I mean, you know, lucky enough to be able to race in a Daytona 500 and be able to experience these amazing things. But if I was going to do great things at the top of the sport, it wasn't going to be in the race car. but the barrier of entry to the Cup series was always just so high. I mean, I could never really build something to compete with, you know, like I was looking like what Barney Visser did at Furniture Road. It's like sort of similar to like what we're doing is, you know, what they had to do to win a championship was just something I couldn't do. So when NASCAR told me that they were going to this new car,

I was like, okay, well, maybe this is the opening. If we're all, you know, going to be playing with the same ball, then, you know, maybe success can be found in the other things, that success can be found in, you know, a great culture and, you know, I mean, people love their work. And then on the marketing and brand side, doing something, you know, now if there's some bandwidth opened up in a business to focus on things like marketing and promotion and brand building, we can find real success there. So I looked at the CUP series and I went, you know, somebody needs to come in. here and start a race team that it's a brand exercise that's fundamentally in storytelling.

Because I wasn't, you know, I couldn't, I was never going to put my name on the race team and make that mean anything to anybody, you know, because I was just sort of like nobody. I just was, was like, had an idea. And so that's where I thought it was was, you know, and really challenging the brand architecture, our storytelling, you know, who we are, being authentic about who we are in the world. Like I mentioned earlier, They were putting great stories behind the wheel of the race car and everywhere else in the team. And then constantly challenging the experience for our partners. You know, is I walked into the garage area and went, this is great, amazing experience.

But I went to the Daytona 500 in 1995. And a garage area looked exactly the same as it does today. Exactly the same. Right. And I said, there's so much opportunity here. So, I mean, it seems relatively trivial, but, you know, putting the screens at the back of the haulers and trying to build out, you know, we had live music at the back of the hauler at Nashville and Talladega last year and constantly, we have a whole bunch of initiatives that we're working

on right now is constantly challenging. How can we be best in class and really elite and creative around the hosting and hospitality experience, making sure that our partners, when they come to the racetrack, they're getting an experience that nobody else can deliver. And so, yeah, I mean, all of the things that we're doing, it just goes back to the fact that I have been observing for 20 years as I've been in the race car. And I'm fundamentally very, very inspired by, you know, very, very creative and, you know, creative thinkers that are willing to take risks. So one of the things that I think was probably most people would think would be pretty difficult is you went to Chip Gannasi and he said, hey, buddy, I want to buy your team. And that doesn't seem like an easy conversation to break the ice with Chip with.

I've never had any of those conversations, but he's always a pretty, pretty, it just seems like a pretty thick wall to bust through to have those conversations. How in the world do you go to Chip Ganassi and have that conversation to say, hey, I think this is a good idea and then wind up with everything that you have now and chips in IndyCar and not NASCAR anymore? Yeah, I mean, a tremendous competitive advantage that track houses had is the fact that we were able to make that acquisition and be able to keep a lot of people in that building together, working together, where for a lot of the people, it was really just changing kind changing a logo on their shirt, but as far as their work goes, but then trying to create this

entirely new environment and culture in the business. So to answer that question, I would have to, I would have to talk about this incredible journey that I went through in 2021 trying to acquire a charter. Because if you remember in 21 when we first started, we were leasing a charter from Spire. So we were racing, but I had no asset. I had no way to do anything after 2021. I had to find a way to go acquire a charter. And I was involved in all of the negotiations of every charter that traded that year, the 13, the 95, you know, some of these others. And I lost every single one of them. And I, and I just got to a point where I'm like, this is going to be a one and done. Like, I'm going to come do this for one year and then go right back to figuring out what's next. If I can't get this done,

I have to think really creatively about how to get to where I'm trying to get here. So, you know, I was, look, I'd raced at Gannasi for a number of years and I knew a lot of people in the building. And, you know, Chip had had, you know, had some, some tough moments in the years leading up to 2021 with D.C. Solar and losing Kyle Larson and just, you know, I just knew that it was a tough, ton of a tough time for him. And, you know, I'm not going to tell you that I, that I just picked, you know, I just picked up the phone and with all this confidence. And yeah, I mean, I was, I mean, it was two or three weeks figuring out how do I like what's the first thing I even say when he answered I don't Justin like what what's the first thing that that you say and I've you know I got to the point where

I'm like well you just got to just do it you just got to do it and so um so I dropped my kid off at school and I was driving back to the house and and I called him and and I said you know look I have I have big dreams and big plans and big ambitious vision for for my company and but I'm not going to get there if I don't make a serious investment. And I just said, you know, if figuring out a way to do something here around your charters is something you're willing to have an adult discussion about, then I'd love to have the opportunity to have that discussion. It's basically how I framed it.

And Chip answered, you know, he said, you know, look, I'm not getting any younger. You know, I've had a lot of success. I've got this great Cadillac program on the sports car side. we're expanding our operations on the IndyCar side. And he said, so let's talk. And, you know, I think that there's no grand design behind it. There's no real sort of piece of wisdom or anything like that. It's just, I've been telling people,

sometimes you just got to pick up the phone and make the call and just throw caution to the wind. And luckily for me, I had a great, have a great relationship with Chip. And I, you know, flew up to Pittsburgh and walk through what my vision was for a company. And I think that at the end of the day, I think what, he saw in me and what I was trying to accomplish is not a lot different than what he was trying to do 20 years ago when he came into the game and was working with Felix Sabates and was, you know, trying to build out his NASCAR thing. I think for him, I think that if, you know, I don't want to

speak for him, but I sort of got the impression maybe that when his days of being a NASCAR Cup Series team owner were over, he would, he wanted to do something like he did with someone like me, someone that was going to take it with the same ambition and passion and love for the sport that he'd had when he got started and then, you know, put our own spin on it. Well, I think it's a, it's a crazy story because you look at Chip Ganassi and I don't think most people would have picked up that phone and actually had that conversation. I think, you know, obviously you guys had a relationship that you felt comfortable enough to even start the conversation. And it's turned into what has made trackhouse what it is. It's giving you somewhere to work. It's given you the foundation for your employees.

And in today's world, that's the way that you have to do it to get started because it's such an undertaking to start it from scratch to go buy a shop and hire the people because to get the right people is tough. And so I think as you look at, you look back at that charter scenario and now you look at everything that you guys have gone through from an ownership standpoint over, I guess we can just call it two years, right? Yeah. Two years. Where do you think that all that landed as far as the charters and the team owners? And you've got a couple teams that didn't sign the charter. Where does that leave everything as far as the landscape of ownership and how everybody feels about where they landed with NASCAR? Obviously, you felt fine about it to move on. We've heard Rick Hendrick talk about it. And now you've got these two outliers out there that are like, we're going to stick it out a little bit longer, which to me seems confusing. from what they do, but everybody has their right to do what they need to do. So where do you think that ended and how do we all move forward, knowing that it's going to happen again in seven years?

And I look at, for example, I look at what IndyCar just did. Obviously, Roger Penske doesn't think it's a bad idea. He just did the exact same thing on the IndyCar side for the most part. So how do you feel about how all that ended and where you are going forward? Well, I think we're all still trying to figure that out, honestly. I mean, you know, the ink is barely dry on the paper right now. So it's, and so much focus has been on negotiating the points of the charter agreement that there hasn't been a lot of time really spent on, okay, what is, what is the first week look like after we all sign it? You know, really, what is, what is the nuts and bolts around the relationship? Because the relationship's going to be a little bit different now because of certain elements of the charter agreement, just how we communicate with NASCAR with the committees, or, you know, like, you know, kind of new initiatives and how we're going to work together, that it's different? Yeah, that it's different. Because I think from my standpoint, it needed to be a little different. Yeah. No, I think it's good. I mean, I think it's good. I mean, one of the things that we've, one of the silver linings that has come out of all of this negotiations is, you know, we've really had to look at the sport.

Where we are, sport, what moves the needle, what's going to fuel growth? What does a, what does healthy teams look like? What does a healthy NASCAR look like? And, you know, I'd say, I'd say, those people like when I went through the process of raising our investment round for for trackhouse that we did with avenue capital this summer. You know, people asked me with that process. It's like I said, I wouldn't, I wouldn't change that for the world because I had to really look at my business. I had to really look at my business and get out of the weeds of the day to day and look like, what is track house? You know, where is it going? And how does it stack up in the ecosystem of other sports teams and entertainment properties and things like that? And I think that we all kind of went through or have been going through a little bit of the same thing with NASCAR. So where are we at today?

Well, I think, you know, obviously we're in a spot where everybody, just about everybody was comfortable signing it. I think that eventually the day was going to come when NASCAR said, like, we're done. Like we've been doing this for long enough. And this thing has taken two years. and, you know, I was prepared for the day to come where NASCAR said, we're not, you know, we've moved here, we've moved there, we've not moved here, this is the deal. And so I took a real hard look at that and determined, you know, can I continue to be enthusiastic and bullish on the business that I'm able to build with this agreement? And ultimately, I landed, yeah, I can because we've been successful over the last one. and this one is there's a lot of elements this one that are that are going to be good.

There are some elements that leave things to be desired for sure. NASCAR's got a lot of power. They have a lot of influence. And, you know, they definitely have come our way on things. But I still feel like the sport is in as about a good spot now as it's probably ever been, certainly in my lifetime. I mean, I think that there's with so much competition in the landscape for consumers and for viewership, I think NASCAR is performing really well.

I think the fact that, you know, we have race cars that go 200 miles an hour and we do it every single week live on television. It's a powerful thing in business right now. So, you know, I'm, I just got to a spot where, you know, I'm comfortable with where we landed. I mean, I feel like I can continue to build a great business around where we landed. So that's what I would say about that. You know, as far as the other two, I mean, you know, I'm not. I certainly admire their conviction.

I certainly admire their willingness to stand up for what they're fighting for, for what they believe in. I don't know. I don't know where it goes. I don't know what comes out of it because, I mean, we're, you know, we're going to wake up tomorrow preparing cars to the indie, not literally, but preparing cars to the day's $500. So it's going to come really, really quickly.

So we'll see where that goes. So you've got that all behind you. And this year, you decided to go into Moto GP. And was that a spur of the moment thing, an opportunity, something that you saw Trackhouse growing into? What's the MotoGP piece of it mean to the Trackhouse brand? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, once we got to the point where we got our feet underneath us and established in NASCAR, I could take us a little bit of a step back and go back to the original idea. of this business. And the original idea of this business was to build a global motorsports platform where we have race teams and then we can start looking at building ancillary businesses around those race teams, which, you know, we're not quite there yet. We're still focused on the race team part. But, you know, once the NASCAR team got established, you know, I started going, looking out into the world for sort of inspiration and kind of understanding, you know,

where there's opportunity in different forms of motorsports. And I went to the, Austrian Grand Prix last summer because I'd never been to a Moto GP race and I'd been to, you know, AMA races in the U.S. when I was young. So I'd been to plenty of motorcycle racing, but, you know, as a fan of MotoGP, I just wanted to go see what it was all about and how they do things differently. And, you know, I was blown away by the experience. But then when I met the commercial rights holders, Carmelo and Carlos Espoletta, Dan Rosamano, a chief commercial officer, and spent some time there understanding the economics of it, how the sport is structured, what the metrics are around exposure. This is the second most consumed form of motorsports in the world,

MotoGP. The live broadcast goes to 207 countries. The aggregate television audience is over 500 million a year. The average weekend attendance in 2022 was 147,000 people a weekend. This year, they had they had 296,000 people through the gates of the French Grand Prix this year. So it is this massive, massive thing. And as I started learning about it, how do the satellite teams work? you know, the factory teams, I immediately recognize this is, this is one of the greatest values in professional motorsports globally right now. So then I kind of had to go back to that morning when I dropped my kid off at school and thought about calling Chip, was how do I call Carmelo Esbeletta of Dornisports in Madrid, Spain, and say, hey, I've, you know, I got an NASCAR team

in America. How do I get on the grid of MotoGP? You know, luckily for us, at this time, time, they really wanted an American influence in the sport. Sports very heavily Spanish and Italian. They want a very robust strategy for growth in North America, an American chief commercial officer that they hired from the NBA. So I called him, I'm like, what does a path here even look like? And at that time, without really having a business plan, by the way, just to see if this was even possible. At the time, there was a team that was basically on its way out. MonoGP controls the grid, like in Formula One, there's only a certain number of spots, you know, there's a certain number of teams, two writers per team. And they said, well, there might be an opportunity. And so we started talking, and this was, you know, last fall when finally, you know, Dornah called me and said, if you can get organized and get yourself a team pulled together, we've got a spot for you on the grid in 2024.

So what I didn't know at the time was they were in final discussions to be acquired by Liberty. So now MotoGP is about to be owned by, you know, a large American media company and the current owners of Formula One. And so I, so those were some tailwinds through those conversations and through that opportunity. And then I basically went to everybody that was working for this team that was going away and said, you know, I got excited. six weeks to put a Moto GP team together. If you guys want to come work for track house, you've got jobs. Every single one of them took the job. So that was amazing and wonderful.

Both the riders stayed. And then I called our OEM, Apprilla and said, you know, first I'm Justin. And I've got a NASCAR team in America. And, you know, I want to take over this satellite position that this other team had. And we were able to work it out. And we did it all in 10 to 12 weeks. And then I got really lucky in being able, with the help of a friend of mine, PJ, Rashidi was able to get Davidei Brevio to come run the team who is, you know, one of the most

successful team principles in Moto GP histories. We won a number of championships of Valentino Rossi, won the world championship with Suzuki, was working at the Alpine Formula One team, but missed MotoGP, wanted to come back and do something. And I called him and told him about, you know, what we're all about, what we're trying to do. And he agreed to come run that team. So, so it was an incredible amount of work in a short period of time. But stepping back a little bit, You know, it is a, it's a great asset to have. What I like about that investment and what the investments that we're going to continue to make at Trackhouse is that there's exclusivity. Like, you can't get in. We're one of only 10 or 11 teams on the grid. We're three of the 36 charters in NASCAR. And that's where there's real value is being able to put our brand and to build our business in places where there's real scarcity and exclusivity. And so that's where MotoGP really check the box. Plus, I just think it's a sleeping. giant. I just, I think that there's, you know, I just gave all these, these metrics about it being the second most consumed form in the sport, but they're, uh, second biggest, uh, form of racing,

but there's still so much growth potential. I mean, there's, there's huge growth potential in the United States. Um, and now with Liberty at the helm, you know, I think it can follow a similar trajectory of Formula One. So it was, I want to say it was a no brainer. I mean, it was, it was investment. It was work, uh, and risk. But, um, but that was a great, uh, That was a great opportunity for it. So with Liberty there, and what if a Formula One team comes for sale? I mean, is that, I mean, is that, I know that's a, got to add some zeros to the work we're doing. I know.

That sounds crazy, but, I mean, everything that you've done is crazy. Well, I think. Up to this point, you've thought it through and you had this vision. But I think from the outside looking in, it's like, holy cow, all this stuff together. And it doesn't, from my seat, it doesn't seem unrealistic if the opportunity was there because you've proven that you can go out and sell the sponsorship and raise the money. and do the things that it takes. I mean, I think nothing is impossible. I mean, I think nothing is impossible.

You know, Formula One is interesting right now because, you know, these team valuations are higher than they've ever been in the history of the sport. There's this massive land rush of sponsors that want to do this high-end hosting and hospitality. They want to grab the magic of Formula One right now. And it's really having its moment. What I really like about our Moto GP investment

is that it's about to have its moment. And that's where I got really excited about the MotoGP thing. I think Formula One is interesting, but it's a bit, a lot of saturation of commercial partners right now. You know, these teams are being invested in by big multi-billion dollar private equity companies. It doesn't mean that we're not having conversations. It doesn't mean that we're not, you know, talking to people and seeing where there might be some opportunity. but I would say if Formula One is in Trackhouse's future, it's going to be in probably some really creative partnership way

more than, you know, team ownership or team investment or anything like that. That's the way I sort of look at Formula One today. So taking a step back to your drivers and talking about different race divisions, you know, I talked about this with Zach Brown the other day. And I truly believe that, you know, you kind of have done this with Project 91 in bringing some of these guys over. But the 24 hours of Daytona is really kind of that melting pot of when everybody's off. And I believe it used to be a place where the F1 guys would come, the IndyCar guys would come, the NASCAR guys would come.

And I would encourage the drivers to go do this event for racing because I think it ties the world together in one moment for racing. Is there ever an opportunity that maybe it's a 24 hours of Daytona with their trackhouse driver? or somebody invited or I, you know, you've got one of the hottest prospects and Conor Zillots coming up. Is it something to where we could see trackhouse field a date or an E500 car, you know, for like they've done with Larson because it just seems like it falls in your creativity bucket. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, when we look at all this opportunities out there, we're not going to do it just to do it. I mean, if we do it, it's going to be, it's going to be something very unique. I mean, I put a lot of value in in doing things in a way that captures

the interest of fans and it's newsworthy and it's something they haven't seen before. That's why it was important to me, you know, to start Project 91, to bring Kimmy Reichen in and to, you know, put a Shane Van Gisberg in the car. And, you know, there's more of that coming, which is just putting things out on the racetrack that people, they're just exciting. People haven't really seen before. The 24 hours of Daytona, I think, is the greatest race in the world. Yeah.

And I'm a little biased just because I competed in it, you know, a number of years. I think I've raced in it 15 or 16 times. my first time in the 24 hours of Daytona was 2001, and I went to the driver's meeting and sat in between Dale Earnhard and Alan McNish. And I was like, I was in my racing suit. I'm like, I need to get some autographs here. It was unbelievable. So would you drive it?

Would you put yourself on the team because of the way that the whole system? Yeah, I don't know. I would say, for the 24 hours of Daytona, I would drive in it if it really helps the story. I mean, I wouldn't do it because I want to do it or anything like that. But, no, I think, look, I think the, I would love to put a trackhouse car in the Rolex 24. I think now that we've got sort of a group of athletes to be able to fill out a car, I think that's a very real possibility. It's not been a secret that the Indianapolis 500 is a race that, that I think is important for the trackhouse brand to be at.

We're working on that right now. So, but those are the types of things. One of your, I don't know. I would, I mean, gosh, you got to put one of your drivers. drivers, we'll see. I mean, there's, there's, we have a very unique promotional marketing program built out for doing something like that. So, you know, we just have to find the right partner. I'm not going to go buy a car and start an IndyCar team. So it's got to be the right partner. But yeah, those are, those are the types of things that that will move the needle for track house. Like, we're not going to do

things just, just to do it. It's got to be like, wow, you get some of that. Oh, okay, Kimi's coming back. All right. Shane Van Gersberg and who's that. He's going to go win. We didn't say that, but yeah, we worked out that way. And, yeah, so I mean, that's, that's how I think about growing the business and it was just exploring things that continue to be uniquely track house. Well, those are the things that I personally love about trackhouse is the unique and the things that that, that wow factor that goes with that. So kudos to you for all that you have done. Now I have two more questions and they're the hard hitting questions that come with this show. What was your, what's your favorite race car that you've ever driven?

Like the car that you just got in and were like, holy shit, this thing is badass. Prototype. Really? Yeah. I mean, I've, you know, my whole career was in sports cars and then stock cars. And, you know, it's, you have a street car and you have a stock car. So you got, you know, you have a lot of role and, you know, limited aerodynamics. then you get in something that is just you're breaking way later than you've ever

break before. You're turning in with more speed than you've ever turned in before and taking corners flat that in 10 different types of cars in the last 10 years of your life you've never taken flat before is really, it was really cool. But I got to tell you, you know, last year, the last two years, I've raced in this Trans Am series in this TA1 car. Yeah. And I think that it is, if more people knew about Trans Am.

the big cars. I feel like, you know, at a time in the past, Trans Am was massive. It was a big deal. I mean, it was, they run, they run support events to Indy car, the C champ car series. You know, this car is 2,700 pounds, 900 horsepower.

It's got tons of arrow, but it's still relatively analog. There's no traction control or ABS or anything like that. So, I mean, that, that car is really, really special. If that series could regain its mojo again and get some more cars out there, it'd be amazing.

But honestly, it's just, anything that just goes really, really fast and sticks to the racetrack really good. What was your first car that you ever owned that you drove on the street? First car you had. Ooh, I was about to answer that, but I can't. It was an SUV. Was it? Yeah, it was an SUV.

It was a hand me down. I'm a boring car person, too. I'll tell you, my first race car was a 1969 Dotson 510 that I raced in... Dotson 510. I raced in the SECA. San Francisco region of the SECA's top speed was about 80 miles an hour downhill with a tailwind. And it was like, I mean, it was, you know, you would, you'd break, make your downshift, turn in, and go flat every single corner because it just didn't have, didn't have the horse power. I didn't even know they race dots.

But it was 1969, 510 in the improved touring C class of the San Francisco region of the SECA. And it was the shit. It was the class that everybody was in. And there was, you know, 25 or 30 cars. Kind of like what, you know, spec meada then became. I mean, it was really, this was 97, 98, 99. And that was, I wouldn't trade that experience for a world. It was super fun.

Slowest car ever drove, but it was awesome. Everybody has to start somewhere, but I didn't think you'd tell me you started in a Dotson. Well, thanks for taking a time today. We could probably sit here and talk for three or four hours, but unfortunately, they only give me 30 minutes. But thanks for taking the time to come in studio. You got it. Thanks, Kevin. Thanks. I want to say thanks to Justin for taking the time to come in studio today. I always think that makes the conversation a lot better. I feel like we got to talk for three or four hours with everything that he has going on in racing. So I hope you enjoyed the interview. Follow us anywhere on social media and give us a follow on YouTube. as well. See you next week.