DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Daniel Suarez rode the NASCAR rollercoaster before landing at Trackhouse Racing in 2021.
After soldiering through three different teams in the first four seasons of his Cup career, the 31-year-old racer from Monterrey, Mexico, finally found a home with the Justin Marks-owned team.
On Wednesday, Trackhouse reconfirmed its commitment to Suarez by announcing a multi-year contract extension for the driver—a stark departure from his previous experiences in the sport.
“Last week when I signed the contract, I was with Justin,” Suarez said. “Justin said, ‘Hey, Daniel, do you realize the second that you hit the track in L.A., (it was) officially the longest you ever been with a racing (team)?
“I never even thought about that–talking about Cup. I never even thought about that.
“He said, ‘Hey, you were never with a team longer than the two-year mark.’ In L.A. I passed that two-year mark, and Trackhouse has been my longest Cup team.”
As a rising star in the Toyota Racing camp, Suarez won races and the 2016 Xfinity Series championship with Joe Gibbs Racing before being thrust into a Cup ride with the organization in 2017 because of the sudden, unexpected departure of Carl Edwards.
Two years later, he scrambled to secure a ride with Stewart-Haas Racing before returning to Toyota in the No. 96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Camry in 2020. That ride was the least competitive Suarez had experienced since entering the NASCAR ranks. He failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 and posted just three top-20 finishes in 35 starts.
Three years later, Suarez still questions his decision to remain in Cup and drive for Gaunt Brothers.
“I have a lot of good friends at Toyota that, at the time, really believed in me and they wanted to put this project together with me for the future because at the time they only had one team,” Suarez said. “They wanted to have more than only one team. They had this project. It looked very, very good to me. At the end of 2019, it looked extremely good to me.
“Unfortunately, everything started late, so we knew it was not going to start great, but we thought that this is going to head in the right direction. Then COVID hit. Everything changed with that. Everything changed. All the plans, all the things we had going on, were pretty much put on hold. Was it the right decision? I don’t know. Probably not. Was it the plan that they sold me? It was definitely not.”
While Suarez doesn’t feel he learned anything as a racer during the 2020 season, he certainly learned a lot about himself.
“Mentally, that is the year I learned the most,” Suarez said. “I feel I definitely hit bottom. I thought to myself, If this is the way things are going to go, I’m going to stop right now. This is not what I’m going to do.
“But I hit bottom, and I was able to find Trackhouse later that year, and they believed in me, I believe in them, and we went for this journey. And here we are. Everything happens for a reason. But I can tell you that I don’t know if that (signing with Gaunt) was the right decision or not. But that led me to where I am right now.”
Establishing the No. 99 team with Justin Marks for the 2021 season was no easy task. Trackhouse didn’t have a building, let alone a charter. Suarez and crew chief Travis Mack worked out of a rented space at Richard Childress Racing. To call it a building year is kind.
Still, Suarez could see the potential.
“What I have experienced with Trackhouse and with Justin and with Ty Norris is way different, way different than everything I have experienced in the past,” Suarez said. “Culture-wise, people-wise, how they care about it, it’s quite special. I have never been part of something like this, not even close.”
Midway through the year, Marks announced his intention to purchase Chip Ganassi Racing’s NASCAR assets. Ross Chastain was recruited as Suarez’s teammate.
“Daniel was the first driver of Trackhouse,” Chastain said. “I’ve learned a lot from him. I didn’t really know him that well going into it.
“For both of us coming out of 2021, him being the first year with Trackhouse, my time at CGR, it’s pretty wild what we’ve been able to accomplish. Two guys they wouldn’t have had that on their bingo card, but Justin Marks did.”
In 2022, Trackhouse emerged as the breakout organization of the year. Suarez and Chastain both scored their first career wins and tallied a combined three wins, 21 top fives and 34 top 10s en route to their maiden appearance in the Playoffs. Chastain advanced to the Championship 4 and finished second. Suarez ranked 10th.
“If you look at it, that tells you how important it is, the consistency, to working with the people, to continue to build in the people,” Suarez said. “I feel so fortunate that Trackhouse has given me that opportunity to be able to build a team around me and a team to continue to get better.
“I’m just very, very fortunate where I am right now. I feel like we have amazing people, amazing partners, people that believe in us. We’re having fun. At the end of the day that’s the most important thing, right? Enjoy this journey, have fun, go out there and compete and do what we love the most, which is compete and race for wins.”
