How Shane van Gisbergen’s NASCAR Success Solidified Project 91’s Very Existence

It was not long ago that an Australian V8 Supercars driver arrived in America and began dominating the headlines. Shane van Gisbergen, the Kiwi who won the Chicago Street Course race on his NASCAR debut, literally set the NASCAR world on fire, setting records in the NASCAR history books. But there was another thing of significance that he brought to his team–Validation.

During the course of the Chicago Street race weekend, SVG had piloted the #91 car fielded by Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91. It is an innovative project that has seen talent from outside NASCAR come down and run side by side with some of the finest stock car drivers.

Ahead of the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, team owner Justin Marks spoke on how SVG’s debut win changed things for them. Marks highlighted how this project was not to be taken as a vanity endeavor to just enhance the marketing and social media side of things, but as a medium to craft tales for generations to come.

Shane van Gisbergen validated Project 91, says Justin Marks

As reported by Speedcafe, Marks stated, “For us to put it in Victory Lane, it just shows, I think, the world that this Project91 is a very, very elite effort. It’s not about vanity, It’s not about just sponsorship, It’s not about social media.”

“It’s about putting a program together that can actually win and tell great stories. I think the fact that we put it in Victory Lane, it just galvanizes our mission in trying to attract the greatest motorsport talent in the world.”

Previously, Formula 1 legend Kimi Raikkonen had been a part of the project. The Iceman drove for two races with the #91 car. Although considering that he had made the jump from open-wheel racing to stock car racing, his results were more or less understandable.

When SVG debuted with the team at Chicago, he already had a boatload of experience driving a similar format of cars as well as street course racing. And in an environment where the other NASCAR drivers had never seen the sights of a street course, the Kiwi dominated them all and nabbed the win. The win solidified Project 91 not as a marketing gimmick, but as an actual team where drivers can come from other series and become legends.

What is the objective of the Project 91 team in NASCAR?

The Project 91 team had been envisioned by Justin Marks, the owner of Trackhouse Racing. While speaking in a Dale Earnhardt Jr. podcast episode he had mentioned what was his agenda with creating such an interesting project.

He mentioned, “Project 91 is about building a division in the company that is set up to be the landing spot in NASCAR, for people of that stature that want to come try it.” He also explained how this was not possible with the older generation of cars.

But with the Next Gen cars, such a dream has been made a reality. The overall goal for the Project 91 team is to bring in “world-class notoriety globally relevant talent to the sport,” as per Marks. They successfully performed their first stint with the 2007 Formula 1 world Champion Kimi Raikkonen. Now they solidified themselves further with Shane van Gisbergen.