Daniel Suarez Reveals His Father’s Contribution to His Racing Career

When Daniel Suarez began his NASCAR Cup Series journey, he was touted as one of the few to watch over the coming years. However, his 2023 season failed to live up to the NASCAR community’s expectations While he started the year off strong with three consecutive top-tens, his 19th-place finish in the title battle was a major downturn compared to the 10th-place finish in 2022. But there’s a lot more to the man who qualified for the pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year, and it has allowed him to hold his head up high.

His confidence in bouncing back after setbacks like the 2023 season has always been at the forefront of Suarez’s drive for glory. While he may have suffered at the hands of Trackhouse Racing’s #99 team’s internal struggles, his father has always been around to guide him through the obstacles in his way. Speaking of his father, Daniel Suarez reflected on the time when Alejandro Suarez kick-started the budding NASCAR racer’s love for racing!

How Daniel Suarez’s racing dreams were kickstarted by his father

It’s no secret that most motorsport drivers start young, preferably in a ride put together by their eager fathers. Daniel Suarez shared that his father bought him a go-kart when he turned 11 and ultimately, that’s what ignited the spark for speed in the Mexican. Though it was a used go-kart, it was enough for the pair to get started on a lifelong journey that has brought Suarez to NASCAR’s top division.

Suarez joined Chef Aaron Sanchez to answer the most frequently asked questions fans had about the pair. When Sanchez asked Suarez what his first race car was, the Trackhouse ace was transported back to his childhood. He shared, “You know, [it was] when I was 11 years old that I started racing. My dad got me a used go-kart and that’s when I got started in racing. Between myself and my dad, we’d fix it up pretty good at the shop. As I mentioned to you, my dad has a restoration shop. So for us, working on cars and engines and stuff like that, it wasn’t something new.”

Listening to Suarez’s fond memories with his father, Sanchez chimed in to ask Suarez if it was time spent bonding and creating lifelong memories and the lessons learnt that mattered more. The answer was simple—the pair had always come closer together while they were working on cars at Alejandro Suarez’s restoration shop. Daniel added, “My dad comes to Charlotte to visit me and we spend more time in my garage working with cars than going out to whatever, to restaurants. We love that, that is our bond, you know, that’s what we do.”

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While Daniel Suarez spared no words in sharing his gratitude for his father’s support, the case for his journey with Trackhouse Racing has been quite the contrary.

Suarez puts aside the Trackhouse president’s dissatisfaction to focus on next season

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Compared to his 2022 season when Daniel Suarez was on top of the world, this year’s proceedings were far from satisfactory for team president, Ty Norris. Norris had shared his dissatisfaction with the way strategies, pit stops, and overall race management were handled by the #99 crew. Even though they had great raw pace, their internal instability cost them heavily. While Suarez achieved his maiden Cup Series win in 2022 at the Sonoma Raceway, none came his way in 2023.

While the president pulled no punches against the mismanagement in the #99 team, Suarez is as confident as ever in his comeback. He was quoted in a NASCAR press release: “Sometimes you have years that things go your way and you can see the results and growth and sometimes you have seasons that are signs of lessons you have to take to be able to improve. Everything is a roller-coaster and everything is a lesson and I think this year, we have had a season where we have to get better.”

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It’s safe to say that tensions have been rising for a while within the #99 team. But Suarez’s time bonding with his father has taught him many lessons, and the most important one is showcased by his perseverance through a mediocre period. Only time will tell if the team can get behind Daniel Suarez and help him build on the 2022 success and discard this year’s unending misery.