Trackhouse Racing working with 'skeleton crew' for Mexico City practice amid travel issues

With Trackhouse Racing being affected by the travel issues this week, going to Mexico City, the crew is sparse. At least, for practice, it will be a bit thin in the garage. Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suárez are looking at this weekend as their opportunity to win and get to the NASCAR Playoffs. Will they be behind the ball before the green flag even drops?

Two flights were not able to take off from North Carolina yesterday. That led to a scramble for NASCAR drivers and team members to find alternative ways to the track. It put a wrench into things to the point that officials had to change the schedule around for today and tomorrow.

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports caught up with Stephen Doran, crew chief for the No. 88 team and Shane van Gisbergen. The way he tells it, things aren’t going to be easy.

“Yeah, we’ll be ready,” Doran assured Pockrass. “Skeleton crew, there’s only three or four of us on each of our cars. But yeah, we’ll be fine.”

Doran also revealed the plan for the other Trackhouse Racing personnel. Some will come today, and others will wait to fly down tomorrow. Cutting it a bit close.

“Most of the rest of them will get here tonight,” Doran said. “We have some of the engineers staying back so they can do practice from the shop, and then they’ll fly down tomorrow.”

Thankfully, NASCAR had the foresight to change up the schedule. Getting these cars dialed in with only a few crew members on hand will be tough. But they will have feedback from the engineering team back in North Carolina.

“Yeah, them adjusting the schedule definitely helped us out a little bit,” the crew chief said. “But we just gotta get caught up now.”

Technical inspection won’t be until tomorrow. NASCAR is giving Cup Series teams 75 minutes total of practice time. So, there is reason to be optimistic. However, teams that have full crews will clearly have an advantage. Good thing Stephen Doran has an SVG in his car. That’s a pretty good advantage.

Trackhouse Racing looking to capitalize in Mexico City

This race is very important for Trackhouse Racing. Ross Chastain has already won a race this year, but he wouldn’t complain about a second win. He has had really strong runs at road courses in the Next Gen car. He won the pole at Watkins Glen last year. Don’t forget, his first career win came at COTA.

For Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suárez, this weekend is massively important. SVG is not caught up on the ovals enough to compete for wins there. So, he has to make it happen at these road courses if he wants to make the playoffs.

Of course, Suárez is back in his home country. This is a track that he has raced, at least on the oval, in his NASCAR Mexico Series days. To get the win at the inaugural Cup Series race in Mexico City would be a massive accomplishment. For him personally, it could be the most important race of his life.

Trackhouse Racing sees this as an opportunity for one of their two drivers not named Ross Chastain to win a race. Just think of the celebration if Suárez is able to pull it off. With the skeleton crews today, it just feels like Trackhouse is going to come out of the gate slower than their competitors with full teams.