FORT WORTH, Tex. – As part of a successful outreach to the Latino community, Mexican driver Daniel Suarez will have his own cheering section for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Yeah, it’s a special weekend for myself and the team,” Suarez said on Friday afternoon at Texas. “We have a lot of exciting things going on, starting with another weekend of Daniel’s Amigos. We are bringing a lot of people that are Latinos out to the race track. We have pretty incredible numbers.
“We have over 5,000 subscribers for this weekend alone which is pretty amazing since this is just the fourth race we have been doing this. I feel like we are moving the needle. Last time in Las Vegas we had almost 2,000 and that was pretty unbelievable. We have high expectations for the weekend. Hopefully, we can have fun with Daniel’s Amigos and have some good results on Sunday.”
Suarez expects more than 1,000 of his subscribing amigos to attend Sunday’s race.
“I am very happy to be a small part of this,” Suarez said. “It’s something that just started as an idea and is now a reality. I am very happy to be a part of this. Of course, without help from the race tracks and NASCAR and Coca-Cola and a lot of people, this wouldn’t be possible. I feel very fortunate to be able to bring new fans to the race track.”
Suarez is wearing a special helmet designed by Dallas-based artist Agustin Chavez, who is from Suarez’s home state of Nuevo Leon. The helmet, feature the image of a “sugar skull,” was created in celebration of the “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead), which is celebrated Nov. 1 and 2.
“This weekend is Dia de los Muertos in Mexico and is a very important holiday for every Mexican,” Suarez said. “We celebrate all those people, family members that have passed. It is a big holiday in Mexico.
“For years now I had an idea of doing a Dia de los Muertos helmet. It has skulls and flowers and is very colorful. A friend of mine did a really cool design and we decided to put it into reality onto the helmet and it turned out amazing. It’s pretty cool to see the outcome of the helmet and a lot of people like it so far.”
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
