American racing driver, entrepreneur, and current owner of Trackhouse Racing Team in the NASCAR Cup Series, Justin Marks, confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen’s NASCAR racing comeback with his Project 91 car is “kind of his ride until he tells me otherwise”, when asked about the former Scuderia Ferrari driver’s future in the series.
The Finn made his Cup Series debut in Trackhouse’s #91 entry at Watkins Glen a few months ago, leading to a lot of interest in the event. The last F1 driver to win the title with the Maranello team therefore made his return to NASCAR after a few previous appearances in the lower-tier Xfinity and Truck series.
Kimi Raikkonen had a solid recovery race and was running in P8 in the pitstop cycle when he was hit from behind and taken out of the race after a restart, a crash that injured his wrist following the impact caused by the collision. Kimi Raikkonen most likely will not commit to a series of several races, but when asked if he is taken into consideration a return in future, Kimi answered: “We’ll see.”
The Trackhouse Racing team owner confirmed that he would be happy for Kimi Raikkonen to return back in the car next year, as he looks to expand the project and race the car in other events.
“You know, I really enjoyed my time with Kimi and his family. I thought he did an amazing job. I think without the wreck, the way the strategy was playing [out] and how he was learning through the race was going to put us in a position for an outside shot at a top 10, certainly a top 15 finish, which would have been a really nice day. I sort of operate under the assumption that it’s kind of his ride until he tells me otherwise, and we’re going to have those discussions here after the season is over, and I think we’ll have a really good idea where Project91 is at by the end of the year.” – Justin Marks explained.
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The owner of Trackhouse Racing Team was at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, which was held two weeks ago at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas after attending the first edition of the Miami Grand Prix back in May, with the clear goal of finding new chances to continue developing this program.
Asked to comment on his visit during the United States Grand Prix weekend and if he had a ‘shopping list’ of drivers to target, he explained:
“Obviously with Kimi coming and racing with us this year, Trackhouse became something that everybody over there was aware of. It’s sort of creating and developing a couple of relationships there. But also Formula 1 is in a very interesting time right now. They’re a very aspirational brand, the way they promote their personalities and the platform that they’ve got to the world is pretty-cutting edge. I like to go to those events and just see how they’re engaging with fans, how they’re activating and promoting with their partners. I was there on Thursday, which was important for me to go when there wasn’t cars on the racetrack, when they were doing all the other things, just to get inspired and to get educated and to meet some people. I went to Miami for the same thing this year and might be in Abu Dhabi in a couple weeks to do the same thing. Yeah, there is an element of shopping for sure, but it was also a bit of an educational exercise for myself.” – he added.
Regarding the possibility of further expanding Project 91, Justin Marks feels there is big potential now he has proved the concept with the former Ferrari driver:
“Ultimately I’d love to do multiple events. I’d love to do three, four, five races with that program. It’s important to bring something to the racetrack that’s unique and unprecedented, and that’s kind of where we look. It’s not just Formula 1. It’s what different disciplines and backgrounds and personalities and celebrity we can bring to the series. So we’ll continue to have those conversations. And I’m actually really excited about the future of that sport, of that program, because NASCAR is something everybody in the world knows about. Everybody would love to try. It’s incredible racing. Now we’ve got a car that I think people that haven’t driven a NASCAR before can get in and get up to speed pretty quickly. So we’ll see where it goes. But I’m excited about that program. There’s a lot of outreach and a lot of conversations happening right now. Obviously, we have to get it funded, so we’re out in the market talking to companies that would be interested in being a part of it. That’s ultimately going to determine how many races we do. But [there are] a lot of really great conversations with all around the world happening.” – he concluded.
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