Is Pitbull Leaving NASCAR? Here’s What Trackhouse Racing’s Justin Marks Says
It may be taking a break for the Paris Olympics, but the NASCAR news never stops.
In the wake of the recent announcement that the Avenue Sports Fund is investing in Trackhouse Racing a report surfaced that Pitbull would be giving up his stake in the team.
The multi-faceted entertainer became a Trackhouse Racing co-owner with team founder Justin Marks in 2021 and has been very involved with the sport, both in promoting the team and performing at several events.
Essentially Sports on Monday, July 29 reported that Marks had updated his X bio and changed “co-owner” to “owner” leading it to speculate that Pitbull was “potentially cutting ties” with the team.
Newsweek picked this up in a story headlined “NASCAR Rumor: Artist Pitbull To Sell His Ownership Of Trackhouse Racing,” but added no new information on Pitbull’s involvement.
On Wednesday, Marks responded to the reports on X by saying, “Every single element to the stories of my friend and partner @pitbull leaving Trackhouse are materially untrue. Unreliable ‘media’ perpetuating a lie. We have big plans for 2025 and beyond!”
That would seem to wrap things up, although Pitbull has not issued any statements on the matter.
As far as the “big plans” are concerned, another rumor going around has been that Trackhouse Racing will buy one of the Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR Cup Series charters that is still up for grabs as the team is disbanding at the end of this year. Front Row Motorsports has already announced plans to purchase one and Gene Haas is keeping another for his new Haas Factory Team, leaving two available.
NASCAR CHARTERS ARE WORTH $40 MILLION NOW
With charter prices estimated to be worth up to $40 million, the Avenue Sports Fund investment would come in handy. Trackhouse Racing currently owns two charters that are used for the No. 1 and No. 99 cars and sometimes fields a third unchartered No. 91 car in Cup Series events and there could be more types of racing on the way.
“We are excited to partner with Justin Marks and his organization as they continue to compete aggressively in the NASCAR Cup Series and MotoGP series and potentially in new motorsports in the future,” Avenue Capital CEO Mark Lasry said in the press release announcing his company’s investment in the team.
“From the day of Trackhouse’s inception it has been a central goal to build a valuable, diverse, and global motorsports platform. Partnering with Avenue is a monumental step forward in continuing to develop and execute that vision. With Trackhouse in the Avenue portfolio, the company will be able to draw on the experience and expertise of a leading global sports fund to scale into one of the most powerful motorsports companies in the world with best-in-class on-track competitiveness, partner services, and racing event experiential assets,” Marks added in the release.
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