NASCAR: Third driver confirmed for Trackhouse Racing
By Asher Fair
The first driver of Trackhouse Racing Team’s PROJECT91 entry for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season at Circuit of the Americas has been confirmed.
PROJECT91, which debuted last August at Watkins Glen International, is set to return in the first road course race on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule at Circuit of the Americas later this month.
This initiative is one which was started by Trackhouse Racing Team last year as a way to give internationally renowned race car drivers the opportunity to compete in Cup Series races.
After the No. 91 Chevrolet appeared in just one race last year, the plan was for it to run between six and eight races on the 36-race 2023 schedule.
Many believed that the Justin Marks and Pitbull-owned team would attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway to open up the season, but Marks confirmed that the focus would be on the road course races.
With the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix coming up on Sunday, March 26, Trackhouse Racing Team have confirmed their first driver for the No. 91 Chevrolet this year.
And it’s the same driver who made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in PROJECT91’s debut last August.
2007 Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who was running in the top 10 before being taken out of that race at Watkins Glen International, is set to return for his second Cup Series start in the upcoming 68-lap race around the 20-turn, 3.426-mile (5.514-kilometer) Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas.
Marks has reportedly told Raikkonen that the No. 91 Chevrolet is his car for as long as he wants to drive it — of course, limited to the races in which PROJECT91 is entered.
No other starts are confirmed for PROJECT91 on this year’s schedule, but it’s as pretty safe bet that it will take part in each of the season’s five road course races, plus the inaugural street course race in Chicago, Illinois.
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Beyond the race at Circuit of the Americas three Sundays from now, the next road course race on the schedule is the race at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, June 11.