It would be safe to say that Trackhouse and 23XI Racing are two teams in the NASCAR Cup Series that have shown how underdogs in the top tier of the sport can succeed. Both Justin Marks’ racing outfit and basketball legend Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s collaborative effort have multiple wins under their belts and plausible playoff runs during the postseason as well. However, Kyle Petty seems to have the answer to their recent dip in form in 2025.
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Trackhouse Racing lit the NASCAR scene on fire with Ross Chastain’s first win with the team in 2022, all the way back in the Next Gen NASCAR’s first year of racing. Ever since then, the team has carried good momentum, has given Daniel Suarez his first win in the Cup Series at Sonoma in the same year, and introduced the whole world to the phenomenon that is Shane van Gisbergen with their Project 91 part-time entry.
However, in 2025, the momentum seems to have slowed down for the team. Chastain, so far, has only won one race and has an average finishing position of 15.97 this year, compared to his two wins and an average finishing position of 13.25 back in 2022. His top ten finishes from 2022 to 2025 have also gone from 15 to only three this year, highlighting the consistent loss of speed the No. 1 is facing currently.
Suarez, on the other hand, has been let go by the team to make way for Connor Zilisch in 2026, while another entry is being driven by SVG currently, making the team a full-time three-car operation in its second year next season. 23XI similarly signed Riley Herbst for the 2025 season of racing, extending their roster from two to three cars.
As a result, Tyler Reddick, who claimed the regular season championship last year, sits without a win this season and is points racing for his place in the playoffs, whereas Bubba Wallace, who also had consistent speed last year, seems to have lost some of it, despite his one crown jewel victory at Indianapolis in 2025.
This change of fortune for both teams comes down to adding the third charter, according to Petty. “This is the crazy Kyle Petty theory. We look at Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez; they were setting the world on fire. They add that third car, what happens? They go flat. We look at Bubba and Tyler, they’re setting the world on fire with a two-car team. They add that third car, what happens? They go flat.”
Petty continued, “We at Petty Enterprises never set the world on fire with two-car teams, but when we went to three, we were terrible. We were worse. It was that third thing you just couldn’t wrap your arms around. When you got the four, it was better because you had two teams working together.”
Heading into the final Round of 12 event at Charlotte Roval this weekend, all three drivers in Reddick, Wallace, and Chastain sit in a precarious position where one slip-up from their end will mean they will get eliminated from the postseason.
Petty also opined how he thinks all three head into the Roval as must-win candidates, especially after Wallace failed to capitalize on the win last weekend, for reasons we have all talked about enough by now. If wild theories by Petty were sometimes too overboard by realistic standards, we’d argue this one does make a lot of sense.
