It seems like controversy will continue to surround NASCAR. Following the antitrust lawsuit, a three-year-old trademark is also causing trouble for NASCAR. Justin Marks follows up on the aforementioned trademark only to call out the management.

“2 days later. Worst part is we never saw the event,” Justin Marks tweeted. 

It all began in 2022, Justin Marks took to Twitter to propose an interesting idea, a way to honor the legacy of the sport. An idea so good that, within the next 48 hours, NASCAR trademarked it and named it ‘NASCAR Classic’. Unfortunately, nothing really came of it, and the idea was soon dead in the water. The intention was to celebrate the history of NASCAR through the years, which sounds really fun. But why didn’t the event come to fruition?

Unfortunately, NASCAR must have seen this innocent suggestion as a threat to their reign. Barely a couple of days later, the series filed a trademark for ‘NASCAR Classic’, which many felt was a reference to Marks’ idea. It talked about sanctioning racing events, an online database for historical rulebooks, and licensing historical specifications to third parties to use in racing events. But it does not seem the management has taken any steps to make the dream project a reality. 

As Marks had explained via X, the exhibition would last for four races. Each race would represent a different era, from the 1970s to the 80s, the 90s, and the 2000s. Of course, finding NASCAR Cup cars from each era may prove to be a herculean task. Maybe that’s why NASCAR is a bit hesitant about conducting the NASCAR Classic Exhibition Event. 

Image Credits: Imago

However, Marks had a solution for that, too. As a matter of fact, he suggested searching for restored, track-ready cars and inviting several legendary drivers to race them. 

Also, NASCAR has other things to worry about right now, the accusations of illegally running a monopoly that have led to the antitrust lawsuit. Especially when people consider the fate of the SRX Series, which only lasted 3 years. The Tony Stewart-owned series was a massive hit with the American racing community and even drivers, some of whom raced in it. However, NASCAR felt threatened by its popularity and swiftly moved to successfully shut it down. It does make one wonder just how far the stock car racing series is willing to go to preserve its own reign.

This did nothing to kill off Justin Marks’ ambition

It is quite safe to say that Justin Marks is a very enterprising man. After all, it’s not easy to own a team spanning across multiple motorsports. Aside from NASCAR, his Trackhouse Racing team also operates in the MotoGP series and recently celebrated a maiden win. The organisation also runs part-time in the IMSA Series, having run the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in 2025.

Frankly, the multi-sports presence is not a novel concept, as Chip Ganassi Racing used to do it. Back then, CGR competed in NASCAR and IndyCar, but has since pulled out of the former to focus on IndyCar. Finally, there is Team Penske, which is active in NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA, World Endurance Championship, and even Formula E. Once upon a time, they also partnered with Dick Johnson Racing in Supercars, but ended the partnership in 2020.

Maybe Justin Marks is trying to become the next Roger Penske and build his own motorsports empire. For the moment, he is looking forward to the 2026 season for both of his teams. When it comes to NASCAR in particular, it is incredibly exciting for him, owing to the star-studded line-up. In 2026, Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen are back once again. Only this time, they have a new face in the lineup, and his name is Connor Zilisch. The teenager has already turned heads with his Xfinity Series run, where he very nearly won the title. So there are a lot of expectations for the upcoming Cup campaign.