Joe Gibbs Racing driver Daniel Suarez was made available to the media at California’s Auto Club Speedway:
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 19 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What are your thoughts as you head into tomorrow’s race?
“First of all, good morning everyone. Definitely excited to be here at Auto Club Speedway. It’s a race track that I like a lot. It’s very fun to drive. You have a lot of options and you guys, as always, you’re going to watch a really fun race with cars everywhere, so, yeah, really looking forward to this race. I feel like my whole team, Joe Gibbs Racing, is doing an amazing job. We have had some really good races in the last few weeks. I really feel that we have strong cars, we have really good speed and hopefully we can keep that momentum to tomorrow’s race.”
Do you use a lot of Kyle Busch’s setups for your Camry?
“I really think that lately we have had really fast race cars. Definitely we share some information as a driver between practice and stuff, but this – we arrive to every race track very close one car to the other, but once we hit the race track every driver’s got different driving styles and we sometimes move into a different direction. Sometimes one team will or whoever finds something that it works pretty good then we stop trying, but setup-wise we are always a little bit different.”
Is there something you can do like drive more physical to wrestle a win from Kyle Busch?
“We will and I know that we will. He (Kyle Busch) knows that. It’s just we’re battling with one of the best drivers out there – not just in XFINITY Series, in the Cup Series. He’s just last year’s champion, so I really think that we’re learning from the best or one of the best out there. Honestly, I’m very proud of every single race – I can’t talk for Erik (Jones), but at least for myself I learn something new to try to be a little better. Honestly, in the last few weeks, I have been pushing myself more than what I used to, so definitely it’s good to be in this position, because at the end of the day if one day or the other or tomorrow or who knows when we get our opportunity to move up to Cup, we’re going to be battle with 15 Kyles, so we will have to learn to be pushing ourselves to this point and trying to learn from the best, so I really think that we are learning. We’ve shown that we have some speed in the last couple weeks, few week and we are right there. We just need to find those last little details to try to be with him and once we get there in the end, I really feel like we are going to be able to have a shot and like I told him joking a couple weeks ago that once I get there, I’m going to try to use my bumper a little bit, so let’s see what happens.”
Have you thought about the Bristol heat race format and money?
“Bristol is still a few weeks to get to Bristol, so honestly I haven’t think at all about Bristol yet. Right now, my mind is 100 percent here, but it’s going to be interesting because Bristol is a race track that normally if you’re not aggressive, you can’t move to the front because it’s everything about track position, so with this new format that we have for the Chase and for the Dash 4 Cash, I think it’s going to be pretty interesting to see how aggressive we are going to be.”
What has been like working with crew chief Scott Graves?
“So far, honestly, he’s (Scott Graves, crew chief) been great. I really think that Scott – he has a lot of talent, he knows what he is doing and he knows how to make fast race cars and that’s always fun. Honestly, I really feel like we are building that communication and that chemistry – that’s something that I was expecting, but honestly I feel like we are moving in the right track, in the right direction. I really like working with him and I think we have a bright future ahead of us.”
What was your biggest difficulty adapting to the race cars in America?
“The name is the same – it’s NASCAR in Mexico – but at the end of the day, they are pretty different. The race tracks are different. The style of driving is different and the weight, horsepower is different as well. Yeah, it’s been a big change, adaptation to these race cars in the U.S., but I really think that I’ve been very lucky to have a lot of support from a lot of people and from a lot of drivers as well with their experience and I think we have been able to learn all this process, but, yeah, definitely the cars are very different. In Mexico, we race more to – they are a lot closer to a late model. If you want to compare the NASCAR Mexico car with a car here in the U.S., it’s very close to a late model, so you guys know how different it is – a late model to a XFINITY car – so I will have to make that level of comparison maybe.”
