NASCAR CUP SERIES
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
APRIL 11, 2026
Daniel Suarez, driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
You’ve got a great reason to be in a great mood this week. Big news that you dropped. You can be a father, man. That’s pretty cool…
“Yeah, we’re super excited to start a new chapter in our lives. Super blessed to have Julia. And yeah, we had a good time during the off-weekend, going to Greece and exploring a little bit. We thought it was maybe a good time to share the news with everyone. We have known for a while. She’s already halfway into the process. So yeah, very, very excited.”
It seems like from the outside, at least, you’re running well with the new team. You’re higher up in the point standings now. This news on the personal side. It seems like you have a new renewed spirit personally and professionally. Are you in about as good of a place in your life right now as you’ve been in a while?
“Man, I think so. Obviously, I have had a lot of great times in my career. A lot of tough ones, as well. But I will say that so far this year, it’s been amazing. We definitely worked hard in the off-season to make sure that we hit the ground running this year, and I believe that we have done that. Obviously, we are not winning races yet. We don’t have the speed to win races today. But I believe that we’re in the right track to get there. We have the right people. We have the right sponsors. We have the right structure to be able to get there.
And then, obviously, on the personal side, super happy to get to this point with Julia. I mean, as you guys know, we got married a couple years ago and it’s been an amazing journey. We agreed that we were going to do a couple more trips before we decided to start a family. So we did a couple trips in the last couple years, and now, it’s time to welcome a little one closer towards the end of the year.”
How has your mindset changed as you’re going to be a father, with racing and the danger of it and stuff? Has that shift happened for you mentally? And again, on the Spire Motorsports side, like he said, you guys are so close right now on the points and running so well. Did you expect that going into the season that you guys would be contending for top-10s and top-fives?
“Yeah, answering the first question — you know, a lot of people talk about it, but I don’t think it really changed anything. Actually, if anything, I believe that it moves you to the other side of being more aggressive and delivering more of what you want to do. I feel like everything in life is a balance, right? I believe that you have to have a right balance in life. I believe that right now in this point of my career, it’s going to be a lot of fun to start a family with Julia. I hope that I prove that very soon, but I do believe that this is going to make me faster because it’s going to be more fun outside of the racing stuff. Sometimes when you have a good day or a bad day, you leave the racetrack and then you keep thinking about it, and there is just a few things outside of racing that can get your mind out of it. There is not many of them. And I believe that Julia and the future baby is going to be definitely one of them.
When it comes to Spire Motorsports, honestly, I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy in the off-season because this team was, in a way, struggling a little bit. We were going to have to adapt in a few things and change a few things. But the team has done an amazing job. The main thing for me was to always continue to make progress, and I believe that we have seen that pretty much on a weekly basis. So if we can continue to do that, I believe that we’re going to eventually get to a point where we can fight for wins.”
I know you mentioned that you guys don’t have the race-winning speed just yet, so when you enter a weekend like this, what are the base-level expectations?
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, I’m very honest. I’m very realistic, and that’s just who I am. Do I think that we have had the winning speed this year? Actually, there is a couple races that maybe we could have knocked it out. I mean, Darlington, we were a top-10 car the entire race. There were a couple races that were right there. But here’s the thing, in my opinion, you can be a top-10 car, and you’re going to have a very good day. We have had a few of those. But the next step is to become a top-five car and that’s when you start winning races. Once you’re in the top-five, now you can win because you’re already there in the hunt; strategy, cycles, whatever that may be… adjustments, then you’re right there. So I believe that we’re one step away from when we are in our best.
The mentality just continues to improve. I have mentioned this a couple of times in the last couple of weeks, but it’s us versus us and that’s the focus. Yes, we are racing against everyone else, but we are trying to improve our team. We cannot control everyone else, but we can control our team. So we are trying to improve every single week; every single team at Spire Motorsports, and that’s where the focus and energy is at.”
Looking back at last night real quick, what was it like behind the wheel with just the PJ1?
“I was hoping that nobody was going to ask about last night (laughs).
I mean, I don’t know, man. I will be lying to you if I tell you I had a lot of fun because I didn’t. It was tough, man. I mean, I don’t know what changed in the racetrack. I haven’t been in a truck for a very, very long time. But all the races I watched from trucks and stuff, they were able to run the second lane last year, and this time, it was not there at all. I think the PJ1 was a little bit darker than what I remember. I don’t know if the application was different or something, but we couldn’t pass. We had issues in practice, so we couldn’t practice and we couldn’t qualify. So by the time we started in the back with a truck that we didn’t really know exactly what we had, it was impossible to pass. I mean, slowly we inched our way to the top-15, but it was tough. I hope that you guys had more fun than me because I just didn’t enjoy it a lot (laughs).”
How does having a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports kind of help Spire Motorsports get up to where they need to be because Trackhouse Racing was kind of on its own island.
“Yeah, well, Trackhouse Racing was on its own island when it comes to alliances. But Chevrolet has what they call key partners, so really, Trackhouse can see a lot of the information from Hendrick Motorsports and RCR. There is a lot of information there. At Spire Motorsports, there is a different level of partnership with Chevrolet. We actually work very closely with HMS and we have Hendrick engines, as well. So the dynamic is a little bit different, but it’s been very good. It’s been very good already. I believe that right now, HMS cars are probably the lead when it comes to Chevy’s, so we definitely have a few things to learn from those guys, and hopefully we can apply those things to a racetrack pretty soon.”
Jeff Dickerson said he wants to keep the lineup the same for 2027. Is this a place where you can grow your race craft and build a future?
“To be honest, I believe that consistency is extremely important on everything. And today, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. You can tell me anywhere, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else because Spire Motorsports is growing. Spire Motorsports is believing in myself. I’m believing in them. We’re continuing to get better and better. I believe that Spire Motorsports is going to be a powerhouse in the next few years, and I want to be part of that. I saw last year from the outside looking in — I saw I’m a very curious person, so I was always very curious on what Spire Motorsports was doing that they were increasing performance so quickly. And now that I’m inside the building, I can see many of those things. So I really want to continue to be part of this group, hopefully for a long time because I can see the direction where things are heading.”
You had said that Spire Motorsports is going to be a powerhouse. Was what you saw things that they were adding? Was it people related or leadership related?
“Well, as you know, everything about this sport, and really business in general, it’s everything about the people. You can have the best business ever, but if you don’t have the right people, you don’t have anything. It’s also about having the right structure in place, so I believe that Spire Motorsports has a great group of people and they have the right structure to take advantage of those people. Because also, you can have the best people ever, but if you don’t have the right structure and the right system in place, it’s not going to work. You have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and I believe that Spire Motorsports has, with the experience that I have had being with several race teams, I believe that Spire Motorsports has the pieces of the puzzle.”
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