NASCAR: When will Trackhouse run their third car?

Trackhouse Racing Team have not yet run PROJECT91 during the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, but that is expected to change in the near future.

Trackhouse Racing Team expanded from one car to two ahead of their second season of NASCAR Cup Series competition last year after acquiring Chip Ganassi Racing. But for one race, they fielded a third entry.

In May 2022, they announced an initiative called PROJECT91, which is described as a way to give “renowned international racing drivers” the opportunity to compete in select races.

The PROJECT91 No. 91 Chevrolet made just one appearance last year, and while many believed that it would make another appearance at Daytona International Speedway for this year’s season-opening Daytona 500, team owner team owner Justin Marks stated that the focus for that car is more on the road courses than it is on the ovals.

So when will Trackhouse’s PROJECT91 make its first appearance of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season?

2007 Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who became PROJECT91’s first driver when he drove the No. 91 Chevrolet at Watkins Glen International last August, is considered the favorite to drive the car when it returns, based on what Marks has said.

According to Sports Business Journal‘s Adam Stern, the car could make its return as early as later this month at Circuit of the Americas in the 2023 season’s sixth race.

The projection makes sense, given what Marks said when announcing that the team would not be entering the third car in the Daytona 500. There are five road course races and one street course race, the inaugural race on the streets of Chicago, Illinois, on this year’s schedule.

The first four road course races are all regular season reasons. In addition to Circuit of the Americas (Sunday, March 26), the road courses on the regular season schedule are Sonoma Raceway (Sunday, June 11), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Sunday, August 13), and Watkins Glen International (Sunday, August 20).

Road America is no longer on the schedule following the addition of the Chicago Street Course race (Sunday, July 2). In the playoffs, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval is the only road course on the schedule (Sunday, October 8).