Suarez Feeling Confident Despite Being Playoff Underdog

Daniel Suarez (Matthew Thacker/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Seven months ago, Daniel Suarez came to Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway and walked away with both a trophy and a historic page in the record books.

Triumphing in the closest three-wide finish in NASCAR Cup Series history, Suarez eked out a win and his place in the playoffs by a scant .003 seconds, inking his name into the postseason early on for the first time in two years.

Now, Suarez returns to Atlanta to begin the Cup Series playoffs as, perhaps, an underdog contender when it comes to putting together a title run.

It’s a bit ironic, considering he was the talk of the town after his second career Cup Series victory back in February, but Suarez said this week he’s still feeling the ripples of that win even now.

“It’s special. … I have seen [the replay] several times. People have been talking about it,” he noted. “It was a great finish; it’s something that people are going to be talking about for a very long time and it’s in the history books. I’m just happy that I’m the one who won it … because if I was Blaney or Busch I would feel very bad about it.”

Suarez comes into the postseason hunting for some momentum with the pressure on. While drivers like regular-season champion Tyler Reddick and top-seeded Kyle Larson have multiple victories and finished half or more of the first 26 races inside the top 10, Suarez only has six top 10s all year to this point.

It’s a statistic that the 32-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico admitted could be a bit deceiving, considering that he and new-for-2024 crew chief Matt Swiderski were still learning one another through the first half of the year.

“In the beginning of the year, my crew chief was still learning a lot of the process of things [with]in the team. The system wasn’t made for him to get super involved within the set-up and things like that,” Suarez explained. “So, there have been a lot of things that he has had to adjust to be more of his liking, and that takes time. [When] you have a system that has been working one way for years, it takes a little bit of time to readjust that, and he has had to do that for the 99.

“We found some stuff in the last couple months. We definitely got in the right direction,” he added. “With that being said, we are not winning races [again] yet, so we still have work to do. Right now, we can compete consistently in the top 10. But we know that to make it to a championship that’s not going to be enough.

“We have to continue to push and continue to learn.”

Daniel Suarez in action at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. (Matthew Thacker/NKP photo)

After making his first Cup Series playoff appearance in 2022, Suarez said he feels no additional weight on his shoulders now than he did then. As such, he’s trying to treat this playoff run in much the same way.

“The pressure is the same. I feel fortunate that I have great people around me that have helped me a lot, [in] the mental aspect,” Suarez noted. “I love pressure. With that being said, I feel like as a driver [that] I’m much better than two years ago. The team is better than two years ago. We’re smarter, we’re faster. But we still have a lot of work to do.

“Hopefully, we can execute well and have a good first round and then a [good] second round. One step at a time.”

Considering Suarez added a NASCAR Brasil Series win at Interlagos – as well as his marriage to longtime girlfriend Julia Piquet – to his season resume during the Olympic break, and signed an extension with Trackhouse Racing for next year on Aug. 9, the year as a whole has already been memorable.

“I feel very blessed. A lot of amazing things have happened to me this year, and everything started with winning in LA [at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum] in my 90th NASCAR Mexico race,” he recalled. “Just very blessed and fortunate with a lot of amazing things that have happened to me this year with winning races, in [both] my personal life and professional life.

“NASCAR going to Mexico City [next season] is a dream. That’s been one of my dreams since I came to America, so I consider myself very grateful and very lucky to be in this position,” Suarez continued. “With that being said, on the competition side you always want more. It doesn’t matter if I have five wins or 10 wins or one win, you always want more. And we have to continue to work.”

Are Suarez and the No. 99 team playoff underdogs? The statistics say yes. That doesn’t mean, however, that there’s any lack of confidence going into the playoff opener.

Suarez and his team believe in their grit, particularly knowing that he finished 10th in points in 2022, the same year his Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain made the Championship 4.

“If you compare Trackhouse this year against the Gibbs teams, the Hendrick teams and things like that, yes, we’re underdogs,” he admitted. “[But in] 2022, Trackhouse was actually one of the best teams. This year hasn’t been the same. This year we’ve been working extremely hard, but the results have been slower than we thought they were going to be. I wouldn’t consider myself one of the favorites for the championship right now, but is that going to change my mentality of who am I as a racecar driver and the potential of the 99 and Trackhouse in the playoffs? Of course not.

“I know how good we are on road courses; how good we were at Atlanta. I know how good we can be at some of these racetracks, and the first two rounds are very critical [to our success,” he added. “I believe if we have good execution days in the first couple of rounds, we can get to the Round of 8. And once you are there, you have to be perfect, because anything can happen. We’ve seen it time and time again.

“We just have to continue to push hard … because the next 10 weeks are the most important weeks of the year, and I’m planning on giving everything we’ve got.”

Suarez begins his second Cup Series playoff run in the Quaker State 400 available at Walmart, slated for Sunday, Sept. 8 at Atlanta. Broadcast coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.