Having one of your pillars struck down when you build top floors is not desirable. Trackhouse Racing, one of the newer teams in the NASCAR Cup Series garage, is changing. That includes shuffling team strategy as the team’s two Cup stars are faring poorly this season. Daniel Suarez won the Atlanta race early in February by barely an inch with no consistent results, and Ross Chastain missed the playoffs.

What is more, fresh faces will soon be driving under Trackhouse Racing’s banner. Letting go of one of its top executives at this crucial juncture seems shortsighted, to say the least. The individual’s veteran experience and stellar contribution to the team were valuable assets, and things look bleak for the team.

Trackhouse Racing bound for a murky future?

In 2022, most NASCAR Cup Series teams were still wrapping their heads around the newly released Next Gen car. But one of them had its notebook filled with notes—Trackhouse Racing burst into the season with a dominating presence. Daniel Suarez became the first Mexican driver to win a NASCAR race at Sonoma Raceway, while Ross Chastain dazzled with two victories and finished 2nd in the championship. However, they had a key leader supporting them in the organization—Ty Norris.

Since Justin Marks founded the team in 2021, Ty Norris has served as President and Chief Business Officer. So ejecting one of Trackhouse Racing‘s founding fathers seemed abrupt. “Just three or four weeks ago, Ty Norris was moderating the SVG to Cup press conference,” NASCAR expert Eri Estepp said. He harped on Norris’s glittering resume as a veteran racing executive. “This was a guy who worked with Dale Earnhardt, back in the DEI days. From there, he went to Michael Waltrip Racing, helped that team evolve into a borderline championship-contending team.”

So losing an individual who has worked with Dale Earnhardt to a rival Cup team seems odd. Estepp also stressed how this huge decision could be detrimental to Trackhouse Racing’s future. “The timing is questionable as well. Right now, Trackhouse is at a crossroads…Last year, Suarez missed the playoffs and this year Ross missed the playoffs. They just let Zane Smith go after they signed a multi-year contract…now they have added Connor Zilisch into the fold—a lot is changing. It seems less than optimal timing for one of your founding fathers to step away.” In conclusion, “This is a big loss for team Trackhouse.” 

The matter seems more mind-boggling considering the evidence at hand of Norris inspiring drivers into excelling.

How Ty Norris pushed drivers to race stronger

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Daniel Suarez caught his big break only under the Trackhouse Racing banner. Before that, he was a dropout from Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing. In 2022, though, he stunned fans with a Sonoma win along with 13 top-tens and 6 top-fives. Suarez topped off the season with a 10th-place finish in points. However, in 2023 he disappointed with a drastic turnaround—his top-five finishes were cut down to half. As compared to 280 laps led, he could only lead 50 laps and also suffered 6 DNFs. This severe shortfall had Ty Norris sharing some harsh words of criticism, which ultimately helped in the long run.

Criticizing yet encouraging Suarez and the No. 99 Chevrolet team, Ty Norris did not mince his words at the end of 2023. “The execution this past year was way off. And that execution could have happened in adjustments. It could have happened on a pit stop. It could have happened on a choice on a restart. A lot of things. The execution this year on the 99 was unacceptable, quite honestly…If you see that the things that rust are capable of winning races, then it has to come down to the execution and the human element, and we have to make sure we’re addressing each one of those areas to improve, and we’re doing so as a team, collaborating on all of those decisions.”

Sure enough, these words fueled Daniel Suarez to pick up in 2024 and win at Atlanta earlier in February. Currently, he stands 5th in terms of playoff points. So evidently, taking out Trackhouse Racing’s pillar of success seems like an ill-timed decision.