JUSTIN MARKS

'U' IS FOR UPSTART.

- Alanis King

JUSTIN MARKS WAS A MIDWESTERN KID when he discovered his calling. His grandfather took him to local dirt tracks, and he was in awe of everything: the smells, the sounds, the action, the drivers. To him, they were almost like cowboys or daredevils-people defined by taking risks.

Decades later, Marks, now 41, isn't just a driver himself. He's among the most important new team owners in NASCAR, and he believes he knows how to propel the sport into the future [fig.1].

"NASCAR is probably in the most important inflection point in its history right now," Marks says. "You could point to the decline in automobile interest among young people, or the increase in Uber and DoorDash, and say that's a bad omen. I think the opposite. As the automobile becomes less intrinsically connected to us, something like 40 cars going around a high-banked racetrack at 200 miles an hour will be unique and compelling."

Marks, whose father grew businesses in Silicon Valley, signed up for Skip Barber Racing School as a junior in high school in California after a guidance counselor told him to think about what he wanted to do for a living. He fast-tracked his career from there, driving sports cars professionally in the early Aughts before moving to NASCAR, where he won a race in the second-tier Xfinity Series in 2016.

But Marks arguably made the biggest waves as his driving career wound down and he formed his own team, Trackhouse Racing, in the top-level NASCAR Cup Series. Trackhouse debuted in 2021 with pop star Pitbull as a co-owner [fig. 1]. Its drivers, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez, found success right away.