NASCAR Cup Series

Daniel Suarez 1-on-1: On doing Mexico Series race, his future at Trackhouse

Published Feb. 1, 2024 9:00 a.m. ET

Daniel Suarez is the only driver from Mexico to win a NASCAR Cup Series race (he won at Sonoma in 2022) and a national series championship (Xfinity in 2016).

But it certainly has not been an easy ride for Suarez since he came to the United States in 2011. He started in upstate New York, not knowing how to handle the cold and not knowing the language. He learned English by watching movies.

After winning the Xfinity title in 2016, he was supposed to spend another year in the series, but Carl Edwards retired and Suarez was thrust into the Cup Series. He spent two years at Joe Gibbs Racing, then spent one at Stewart-Haas Racing and then a year at the underfunded Gaunt Brothers Racing. He now has driven for Trackhouse Racing for the past three seasons.

His 2023 was disappointing, as he finished 19th in points. His 19.0 average finish was worse than any of his JGR years, his SHR season and his 2022 year at Trackhouse.

The 31-year-old Suarez will compete in the NASCAR Mexico Series invitational race Sunday, which will be a prelude to the Cup Series exhibition Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (8 p.m. ET on FOX).

The driver of the No. 99 car talked with FOX Sports about that race and possibly racing for his job this year:

You're doing the Mexico Series race at the Clash. Why do that race? And what do you think it will mean?

It's a huge deal for the Mexico Series to come all the way to L.A. and race the same day as the Cup Series. That's a huge deal for them. And I know that, not just because I have had conversations with them about it, but also because 10 years ago, I was in that position. I was in the position where I was racing NASCAR Mexico, and all I wanted was to have an opportunity to show NASCAR [people] in the United States what we can do in Mexico as well. So it's a big deal. And when I found out that NASCAR Mexico had the possibility to run L.A., and it was going to be an invitational race, I really wanted to be part of it. That is the series that really gave me an opportunity. If it wasn't for that series, I can tell you, I wouldn't be here. That's a series that really taught me a lot about ovals. And it's been an amazing journey, I think it's going to be a lot of fun to be racing NASCAR Mexico and obviously the Cup Series.

When you get to the Cup race at the Clash, it's your first race with the new crew chief Matt "Squid" Swiderski. What was behind the reasons for the change? And how well do you know Squid?

I met Matt a few years ago, very briefly, in 2021, when we had that alliance with RCR in the very first year of Trackhouse. At the time, he had different roles, but I already knew that he was very smart. And the result of the changes is a little bit complicated. It wasn't because one person decided to make a change or because I wanted to make a change. I will say that nobody was really happy with the way that we performed last year. Last year was one of those years that we had a lot of lessons and in a lot of the lessons, really you have to try to learn from them and try to be better. And the team got together and they decided that we needed to make a change. We didn't know where to start. And they felt the need to make a change [at crew chief]. It was quite difficult to be honest because I have a very, very strong personal relationship with [former crew chief] Travis Mack. We started together at Trackhouse. But at the end of the day, I want to win as well as he does and if things were not working out great, we needed to find something to make things better for the 99 team.

Daniel Suarez on his new crew chief in 2024

Trackhouse has signed a couple of other drivers (Shane van Gisbergen and Zane Smith) since near the end of the last season and I know you've signed a contract extension that should take you through at least 2025, but are you like feeling like, I've got to perform or else I'm going to have nowhere to race?

I feel like I've got to perform every year regardless if it's a contract year or not or regardless if they're hiring new drivers or not. Performance is something that is a must regardless of everything that happens outside the racetrack. To me, the most important part is how to make the 99 team better, how to make the 99 team consistent and strong. There were probably a few times last year that we had a car capable of running up front, capable of winning the race — but when you are fighting for wins and fighting for the championship, you need more than that, you need more than a few times. And that's what we need to build. We have to build consistency. We have to build a little more speed. We definitely have some things to learn from the 1 team [of teammate Ross Chastain] that they have done better than us. So I think that Matt coming with a fresh idea and fresh approach on how to do things — maybe that helps to give the 99 team a good direction in how to get to those goals. So far, it's been pretty smooth working with him, and I can't wait to see where we stack up with him in the first month of races.

You have 251 Cup starts. What does that number mean to you to have persevered and have over 250 starts in the Cup Series?

It means a lot, you know? it really means a lot. There has been a lot — a lot — of learning in those 250 starts, I'm not a big fan of excuses and I'm not a big fan of trying to make me feel good, but at the end of the day, my journey in the Cup Series has been way different than any other driver. The things I have had to go through and trying to learn those things pretty much by myself without having really somebody to lean on – it's been a journey. It hasn't been easy. The more I grow and the more I understand the sport, the more I know how difficult it is for drivers from different countries to come and be successful in the sport because it's not easy. It is not easy when you are not born and grew up here with this culture and around all these people. And I have struggled more than honestly what I was expecting. But I think I understand now what I need to do and how I need to do things. I have learned a lot in the last seven seasons in the Cup Series. And I think we're going to be able to finally become a great team instead of an average [team], which I feel like is what we've been the last few years.

Is it just learning race culture, or more like people culture?

It's a little bit of everything. It's a culture. It's the people. I have learned that in the in Cup Series, especially once you get to the Cup Series — when I was growing up, I always thought I was a very talented race-car driver because it didn't matter where I was going in go-karts, I was just very good, I felt like I was gifted and I still feel that way. But whenever you get to go up the ranks and you get to the Cup Series, you start to realize that everyone is as gifted as you are, everyone is as talented as you are — 98 percent of the drivers in the Cup Series are very, very talented. After that, you start to see all the details, right? If every driver is good — some may be a little better than others and [with] experience, but everyone is good, there is no average anymore — then the little things that really matter is how disciplined you are, the hard work you're willing to put in, how good of a team you have, how good of people you have, how good of a pit crew you have. There is so many different factors. To be able to understand all these different factors and to build these around you, that's the part that has cost me a lot. That's the part that to me, 10 years ago, I thought, "Man, I'm so good driving that I'm going to be able to overcome some of these things." And when you get to the Cup Series, you have to have all the package together to be able to win races. Because the best teams -- the teams that are winning races — have all this package. So it's extremely important to have the ability to be able to build a team like this around you.

Finally, as I looked at your Instagram throughout the offseason, I saw you went to lots of weddings. I know you're engaged. Are you able to take the best practices from everything that you've seen during this offseason and implement in yours?

It's a very, very funny question because, actually, Juliet and I, we had an idea of what we wanted to do with our wedding. We've been talking more and more about it to start planning on it. And after having three weddings in 10 days — two of them were from siblings, my sister and her brother [in separate weddings] — we actually learned a lot. We actually changed our idea of what we want now. We even changed location. We have learned a lot from weddings in this past offseason and hopefully they'll help us to have a more fun and more unique and more personal one of our own whenever that time comes.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.