“I SAY don’t forget about Project 91.”
Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks was coy when recently questioned at Watkins Glen about the project that propelled Shane van Gisbergen into the NASCAR limelight, but V8 Sleuth understands that a fourth car from the team is set to run at the San Diego weekend with ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen.
Magnussen is a veteran of nine full seasons in F1, a run that ended with a seven-year stint at Haas F1 that concluded in 2024.
Subsequently, he has linked with BMW in sports car racing across a variety of WEC, IMSA, and GT3 competitions.
Stateside, over the past two years, he has raced in the Daytona 24 hours, Sebring 12 Hours and Petit Le Mans for BMW M Team WRT’s hypercar.
He also spent a gap year in 2021 driving for Chip Ganassi’s Cadillac IMSA program, where he won in Detroit.
Most recently in the WEC, he finished second at Spa.
Magnussen has sampled stock car racing previously, when, in 2022, he and Mick Schumacher tried out the Haas NASCARS on the Charlotte Roval road course.
Project 91, meanwhile, is a part-time entry from Trackhouse, originally designed to bring international drivers to NASCAR.
In 2022 and ’23, Kimi Räikkönen made two starts at Watkins Glen and the Circuit of the Americas, where he finished 29th.
Van Gisbergen took over the entry for the maiden Chicago Street Circuit race that year, and won on debut.
He raced the car one more time at the Indianapolis Road Course, finishing 10th before making a permanent move to North America.
The entry has subsequently surfaced once, with four-time Indy 500 champion Hélio Castroneves using a guaranteed starting spot to race in the 2025 Daytona 500.
The event at the Naval Base Coronado, which will celebrate 250 years of the USA, will see all three levels of NASCAR compete – Cup, O’Reilly and Trucks, although full-time drivers will not be allowed to step down in class for double or triple duty.
Local legend Jimmie Johnson is slated to be behind the wheel of one of his own Legacy Motor Club Toyotas, while Jamie McMurray will drive in the RAM guest Truck.
Elsewhere, Jenson Button, who now has a residence in Los Angeles, expressed interest in driving at the event.
Recently, NASCAR has made changes to the San Diego layout based on feedback given by van Gisbergen.
The San Diego meet forms the first leg of a two-part California road course double-header with Sonoma, where the O’Reilly Series will support the Cup Series.
This weekend, NASCAR returns to the Nashville Superspeedway.
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