NASCAR CUP SERIES
PLAYOFF MEDIA DAY
SEPTEMBER 4, 2024
Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Camaro ZL1 – 11th in Playoff Standings
Victories: 1
Top-Fives: 2
Top-10s: 6
Laps Led: 143
Average Finish: 18.3
Stage Wins: 1
Of Note:
- The 2024 season marks Suarez’s second career appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
- Suarez’s career best finish in the NASCAR Cup Series standings came in 2022 – earning 10th in the final points standings.
- Suarez has two career NASCAR Cup Series victories – both of which were earned in the Next Gen era.
- Suarez earned his playoff berth in the second race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway – the track that will open the Round of 16.
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 Trackhouse Racing CAMARO ZL1 – 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day Highlights: How are you preparing for the Playoffs?
“We have to take it one day at a time. It’s very important just to focus on the first round and then the second round. For right now, it’s one race at a time. That’s the main thing. All the energy is for Atlanta and then Watkins Glen and Bristol after that.”
What do you have to do along the way?
“The first two rounds are predictable. You have to execute. If you have good days, you may be good enough, but you cannot have a bad day. We’ll see how things play out.”
Atlanta Motor Speedway’s treadmill picked you this morning to be the champion. Your thoughts?
“Well, good. We’ll take it. Any prediction that is positive, we’ll take it.”
Does it make a difference that Ross (Chastain) is not in the field?
“I wish he was in it. Last year he was in it and I was not and this year it’s the other way around. It’s always better when you have more cars in it. When you only have one of the two, the other car has two goals. One is to win races and two is to help the teammate. Help within the rules as much as possible. So, the (No.) 1 right now has those two goals and that is to help us a little bit whenever he can.”
Can he try other things in practice or qualifying that maybe you can apply?
“Yeah, that’s kind of also what I mean with helping. The crew chiefs always work closely and now they’ll be working extra closely.”
Have you found some performance gains that can help you over these last 10 races?
“We found some stuff in the last couple months. We definitely got in the right direction. With that being said, we are not winning races yet. 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.”
What clicked to get you guys to where you are now?
“In the beginning of the year, my crew chief was still learning a lot of the process of things in the team. The system wasn’t made for him to get super involved within the set-up and things like that. So, there have been a lot of things that he has had to adjust to be more of his liking and that takes time. 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.”
Going back to Atlanta, you’ll be seeing a lot of replays of the finish. What do you think of when you see that finish and what’s it going to be like going back?
“It’s special. Today we saw it in the morning, and I have seen it several times. People have been talking about it. It was a great finish and 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.”
What kind of year would you say this has been for you. Do you feel like you’ve arrived, you are a NASCAR star?
“I feel very blessed. A lot of amazing things have happened to me this year, and everything started with winning in LA in my 90th NASCAR Mexico race. Just very blessed and fortunate with a lot of amazing things that have happened to myself this year with winning races, in my personal life and professional life. NASCAR going to Mexico City is a dream. That’s been one of my dreams since I came to America. I’m very grateful and I’m very lucky to be in this position. 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. The next 10 weeks are the most important weeks of the year and I’m planning on giving everything we got.”
From a big-picture standpoint, is this the best year of your life?
“Probably is one of the best years of my life and I’m not talking racing. I’m talking everything. It’s been an amazing year. (on getting married) I think I overachieved. I definitely have done better than I thought I would.”
Have do you deal with the pressure from your inaugural year in the Playoffs to this year? How have you changed?
“The pressure is the same. I feel fortunate that I have great people around me that have help me a lot, the mental aspect. I love pressure. With that being said, I feel like as a driver 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 second round. One step at a time. We have to put one foot ahead of the next one. We cannot be thinking about the Watkins Glen race. We’re focusing on Atlanta right now.”
How do you even know what to expect at Atlanta?
“You never know. It’s going to be around 20 degrees warmer than last time so we’re going to heva less grip. So, if you were seeing cars moving around you will see it even more. I believe we had a great car last time there and we’re hoping we have even a better one there this time. We just have to continue to push, continue to work hard and focus on one race at a time.”
Do you feel like you know what everyone has right now?
“I think drivers we are very greedy, and I believe we’ve been given pretty much everything we got at least for the last couple months. Maybe there is a little bit more risk that we can take at times in the playoffs, but every round is going to be different, every race is going to be different, every driver is going to be in a different position so it’s pretty important to be aware of the whole situation and just do your thing.”
Do you look at your team as an underdog?
“If you compare Trackhouse this year against the Gibbs teams, the Hendrick teams and things like that, yes. 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 what 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. 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. Anything can happen. We’ve seen it time and time again. We just have to continue to push hard, give it everything we got for the next 10 weeks and see where we stand.”
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