KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Trackhouse Racing entered the weekend’s festivities at Kansas Speedway with a much more somber tone than we’ve grown accustomed to. Justin Marks went as far as saying the team was in a rebuilding period the day after they left Bristol Motor Speedway.
The team’s longest tenured driver Ross Chastain was asked about this on Saturday (Apr. 18) following an abysmal practice and qualifying session for the organization. One thing stood out in terms of what the team needed: grip.
Chastain kept it simple when describing it. “No grip.”
“Sliding” was the next thing that followed that sentence after a slight chuckle from Chastain.
“If the grip is there, all three of us will go fast,” Chastain said. “We’re all three really capable of pushing the gas pedal.”
While all three drivers were definitely putting the pedal to the floor during Sunday’s (Apr. 19) AdventHealth 400, the grip levels did not change in the slightest.
All three of Trackhouse Racing’s Chevrolets found themselves two laps down or worse. None of them scored a top 25 with Chastain scoring the organization’s best result in 26th. Connor Zilisch ended the day in 29th also two laps down, while Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the team’s efforts in 36th four laps off the pace.
The team’s major highlights of the event was van Gisbergen’s 17th-place qualifying effort and a moment during the race where Bubba Wallace had a close call with the No. 1 car entering the pits under green flag conditions.
There’s no doubt that everyone on this team is capable of succeeding. Everyone has witnessed Chastain’s near title run in 2022, Zilisch’s record-breaking NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season just last year and anything SVG has ever touched in his entire racing career turns into gold.
So what gives?
A lot of changes throughout the offseason have hit the reset button for the organization. Personnel changes galore across all three of the team’s garage bays mixed with the brand new body change have put this team in a rut.
Crew chief Randall Burnett was one of the additions to the roster for Trackhouse this offseason, as he was tapped to guide the young Zilisch. Following the checkered flag in Kansas, Burnett was open about where the team is struggling. The main culprit is the aforementioned new body that Chevrolet has this year.
“We’re missing a lot a bit of a lot of areas right now when it comes to getting the balance right on our cars,” Burnett said.
Burnett also praised Zilisch’s driving ability and felt sorry that the team hasn’t delivered him the tools he needs to be successful at the Cup Series level.
“We got a rookie who has an incredible amount of talent, unfortunately we haven’t given him the cars he needs to go out there and perform.
“That’s one thing we’re really focused on is trying to get Connor where he deserves to be running.”
The team across the entire weekend had expressed the concerns they had with the speed of their racecars that they were unloading from the haulers. Trackhouse has had a reputation of a group that is tightly banded together and will push through any adversity that comes their way.
Hmmm, we were led to believe Connor Zilisch would win every race this year. In reality he is NASCARs Sting Ray Robb, just another overhyped clown.