Daniel Suarez Justifies Dumping Former Crew Chief for RCR Ace With a “ I Want to Win” Verdict

Trackhouse Racing has changed a lot since 2023. Following the addition of 3-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen and 2022 Truck Series champ Zane Smith to the team, Justin Marks has also made some changes in the pit crew department. Daniel Suarez and the #99 team’s new crew chief, Matt Swiderski, lead the changes in the trackside personnel.

Daniel Suarez and Swiderski will start their partnership with the Busch Light Clash at the LA Coliseum on Sunday. Following a crew chief swap with Kaulig Racing, Suarez’s former crew chief, Travis Mack, will swap roles with Swiderski in Matt Kaulig’s team. Speaking to FOX Sports about the significant change going into 2024, Suarez highlighted that the addition of Swiderski has instilled a winning mentality in the team.

Daniel Suarez wants to move ahead after separation from Travis Mack

The Mexican driver finished 2023, wanting more from the season. After fighting for a place in the playoffs for a long part of the year, Suarez finished 19th with three top-5s and ten top-10s. While that wasn’t enough for him to seal a playoff spot in the final 16, Daniel Suarez wants that to change in 2024. With his partner, Ross Chastain, proving to be a formidable playoff driver in recent years, he needs to up his game.

Swiderski, who spent the initial days of his NASCAR career with Richard Childress Racing as a race engineer, is familiar with Suarez. Due to Trackhouse and RCR’s partnership in 2021, Suarez recognized his new crew chief’s talents a long time ago. Elaborating on the need for a significant change to the #99 team, Daniel Suarez explained,

“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.”

In a sport where competition keeps increasing year after year, Daniel Suarez feels that stagnating as a driver will only halt the team’s success. While the decision might have been a tough one to take, it needed to be done. Reiterating the same, Suarez said, “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.”

With Justin Marks and Co aiming for a genuine shot at the title again this year, Trackhouse Racing aims to bolster its arsenal as much as possible. Swiderski’s recruitment emphasizes the urgency of the situation. However, what triggered a change in the proceedings?

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Suarez discusses the #99 team’s dismal year and his relationship with Travis Mack

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Daniel Suarez’s former crew chief, Travis Mack, will not only serve as the crew chief for the part-time No.16 Chevrolet but also as the technical director of Kaulig Racing. With the two teams signing an alliance that resulted in an Xfinity ride for SVG, the decision seems like a mutual separation between Suarez and Mack. Dissecting his performance last year, Suarez revealed, “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.”

Disclosing the parting’s effect on him, Suarez added, “It was quite difficult to be honest because I have a very, very strong personal relationship with Travis Mack. We started together at Trackhouse.”

As the 2024 season inches closer, Daniel Suarez will need to move on from the pain of losing his former crew chief and focus on capitalizing on Swiderski’s talents. Having been at the heart of some developing projects in the past, Matt Swiderski’s adaptability and expertise will be a massive boost for the No.99 team and Suarez.

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