2025 was an eventful NASCAR season for Trackhouse Racing. Shane van Gisbergen, the much-loved Kiwi rookie in the Cup Series, fetched an astounding five road course race victories. Then, Ross Chastain won the prestigious Coca-Cola 600. On the flip side, Daniel Suarez went through a lackluster season that ultimately ended with his ejection from the team. As 2026 approaches, however, Trackhouse is going through an unwanted ejection – with Roger Penske claiming its crew chief.

NASCAR team snatches back an asset

“2025 Trackhouse 99 car crew chief Matt Swiderski has returned to Team Penske,” read a Reddit post by a NASCAR fan. They added that he “is now Performance Engineering Director with Team Penske, after a one-year and 11-month tenure at Trackhouse.” This jaw-dropping information has not hit the news yet, but it is visible in plain sight on Swiderski’s LinkedIn profile.

Matt Swiderski signed up for Daniel Suárez’s No. 99 Chevrolet team at the start of 2024. He guided Suarez to the 2024 victory in Atlanta. Previously, Swiderski worked with AJ Allmendinger’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing team, which fetched two Cup Series trophies. But most notably in the recent news, Swiderski has also worked with Team Penske champions Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, and Brad Keselowski. He served as crew chief for Roger Penske‘s No. 12 Xfinity team.

Clearly, Roger Penske is pulling back his former star employee for 2026. The star-studded team owner went through one of his team’s lean years in 2025, scraping the championship narrative narrowly. Since 2018, Team Penske has fetched the most Cup Series titles, with Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney at the forefront. And Penske plans to continue this tradition with the help of Matt Swiderski’s new role as Performance Engineering Director.

Trackhouse Racing, in the meantime, is gearing up for an equally happening 2026 Cup season. Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch are the highlights – they were fierce rivals in Xfinity and now will work as teammates. After Zilisch fetched a whopping 10 race trophies for JR Motorsports, he will hog the spotlight in his Cup Series rookie season.

And one sponsor is ensuring that the spotlight is bright and dazzling enough.

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Dazzling liveries for Trackhouse

Although Roger Penske may have dragged off a Trackhouse Racing crew chief, the expectations are no less for Justin Marks’ team. The team has brought Red Bull back into NASCAR after its last appearance in 2011. And this partnership is gearing up for a grand season. Connor Zilisch will sport Red Bull colors for the first time at the Daytona 500, wheeling the No. 88 Chevy. Then Shane van Gisbergen will wear those shades on the No. 97 a week later at EchoPark Speedway. And Marks is envisioning a Red Bull bond in other sports like MotoGP and IndyCar.

“They know everything about racing that you would want a partner to know about. They’ve got a very ambitious and robust plan for activation and promotion around the partnership and there’s a lot of opportunity to scale it beyond just the NASCAR team, so there’s a lot of really great conversations happening there,” Justin Marks said.

He continued that Red Bull “can really grease the wheels of that because everybody knows Red Bull,” adding, “they want to make big moments happen just like we do.”

Clearly, Trackhouse Racing is hyping up its comeback in 2026. Let’s wait and see how the team performs even amidst Roger Penske’s actions.