Delmarva's Ty Norris Heads To Dover Leading One Of NASCAR's Hottest Teams

The family eventually settled in Smyrna with Norris becoming a winning tennis player for the Eagles' program. In 1982 he advanced to the semifinals of the DIAA Tournament. Norris thought tennis would be his ticket to the University of Delaware.

"I had been undefeated in the (Henlopen) conference for two straight years and that was my game plan," Norris said. I was accepted, ready to go there, and we got the bill. My Dad came to me and said I cant afford to send you to Delaware."

Instead he went college just a few miles from his home at Delaware State. While studying journalism he did part time work for the News Journal and later got a full time position with the Delaware State News.

Norris covered high school sports, Delaware State, the Philadelphia Eagles and NASCAR. While gathering material for The State News' preview of NASCAR's race at Dover, Norris travelled to Charlotte and interviewed Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt for a feature on their friendship. However, his conversation with Wallace put the story in a different light.

"Rusty had some very sour things to say about Dale," Norris said. When the story ran during the race weekend at Dover, it created such a stir that Norris had to attend a meeting with Wallace and Earnhardt to discuss what he had written. "I left Rusty's trailer after getting my butt chewed and Dale's P.R. guy grabbed me and said Dale wants to talk to you. So I went in there and he wanted more background on the story. He said, look you have guts. I like people, he used a different word, but I like people who have guts."

Norris' work at The State News caught the attention of NASCAR's biggest partner RJ Reynolds, the parent company of Winston. While doing public relations for RJR, Earnhardt attempted to recruit Norris to join his operation. In 1996, Norris and Earnhardt finalized that deal. Norris would help manage Dale Earnhardt Incorporated (DEI). While Earnhardt drove the #3 car for Richard Childress, DEI would come to be the home of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and later Michael Waltrip.

The 2001 Daytona 500 was shaping up to a momentous day for Norris and Earnhardt. On the final lap, the DEI cars of Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. were running first and second respectively. In third was Earnhardt's #3. Norris was spotting for Dale Jr. Waltrip would capture the "Great American Race" while Earnhardt was collected in a wreck coming out of turn four.

While Waltrip was celebrating in Victory Lane, Daytona officials told Norris he would have to represent DEI. "I was in Victory Lane for a good amount of time before the track president came over and asked me if I would accept the owners trophy," Norris said. "I was like I am not accepting the owners trophy that is for Dale or Teresa (Earnhardt's wife). He said Dale is not going to be here. I thought he broke his leg or hurt his foot or something in the crash. They were like you need to do this, Dale is not going to be able to come over. So I took the trophy we did all the celebrations. Ken Schrader came to Victory Lane and told Michael it was bad really bad." The crash turned out to be fatal, killing Earnhardt at age 49.

DEI would continue on and provide some historic moments in NASCAR including Junior's win at Dover later that year. It was the first NASCAR race following the attack on September 11. During his victory lap, Junior held an American flag out the driver window which has become an iconic image in NASCAR. However internal conflicts drove the key figures of DEI into separate directions ending what had the potential to be a dominant race organization.

Norris' management experience led to a partnership Justin Marks and the 2021 formation of Trackhouse Racing. That season Daniel Suarez was the team's lone driver. As Norris attempt to solidify the financing and brand recognition, Pitbull entered the picture. "That story line lead us to an introduction with Armando Christian Perez everybody knows him as Pitbull and the Pitbull relation became mine as well to work on with Justin," Norris said. "I ended spending a lot of time with him and his team to help develop value to Pitbull and how to engage him in our business."

In June of last year. Trackhouse made the bold purchase of the established racing team owned by Chip Ganassi. It set the table for what has been a very successful start to the 2022 season. The deal brought to Trackhouse driver Ross Chastain. Both he and Suarez gave the team top four finishes in four the first five races. On March 27, the breakthrough for Norris and Trackhouse when Chastain won at the Circuit Of The Americas in Austin. This past Sunday Chastain won for the second time in 2022 at Talladega. "What an incredible start to the season as soon as we won the very first day thing we said was be happy but we stay hungry and humble," Norris said. "We now we have to work really hard because we stirred the pot. Those big teams are really coming after us."

As Norris returns to his hometown track, Dover, this weekend, the team he manages has one driver (Suarez) who was won at the Monster Mile in the Xfinity Series and in nine Cup starts has four top ten finishes. Add in Chastain's 2022 success and Trackhouse is a team with momentum heading to Delaware.