The NASCAR Cup Series' 16-man field has been set for the Chase for the Cup, and it came with a surprising twist in the season finale as Ryan Preece scored the victory at Daytona International Speedway to knock out Shane van Gisbergen. That leaves all of Trackhouse Racing out of contention, and it might be exactly what they needed.
At one point in the season, it looked like there was no chance van Gisbergen would miss the field. He won twice, and after a top five run at North Wilkesboro Speedway, he was 54 points in the clear with five regular season races to go. He even led 30 laps early on in the rain at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the regular season's penultimate event and won the opening stage at Daytona.
But it wasn't enough. And that can sum up Trackhouse's entire 2026 season.
Justin Marks and Trackhouse Racing must look inward after demoralizing Chase shutout
Trackhouse is already facing a long, uncomfortable look in the mirror as an organization after the news that the driver they were hinging their future on, that being 20-year-old Connor Zilisch, is leaving for Hendrick Motorsports in 2028.
The rookie has struggled mightily this year, but his upside remains as high as anyone in the sport. He was supposed to be a golden goose Justin Marks could build around for decades.
Instead, they're left with van Gisbergen and Ross Chastain, whose contracts also both expire after 2027, and who are both supreme talents in their own right. The former is an international champion and already arguably NASCAR's greatest road course racer of all-time. The latter has a second-place finish in the Cup Series standings under his belt. They didn't miss the Chase because they can't drive.
But this must be the wakeup call to end all wakeup calls for Trackhouse, unless they want to lose everything they have left. They've been trending downward ever since Chastain rubbed the wrong Chevrolet executives the wrong way at Darlington Raceway in 2023, and the high-end talent could only mask their deficiencies for so long.
Marks and his staff need to be in the lab pouring every resource they have into thoroughly investigating how to make their cars run faster. They had qualifying speed at Daytona, which is a nice start, but that's a superspeedway and the same engine builders also won the Daytona 500 pole with Kyle Busch this year. It hasn't translated to in-race performance anywhere besides road courses.
With no pressure in the Chase, Trackhouse has 10 races to figure something out that can give them a head-start on 2027. It might be the difference in keeping Chastain and van Gisbergen in the fold.
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