DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Trackhouse Racing has high hopes for the continued development of Daniel Suarez.
The 31-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico, will have a chance to continue to develop after signing a contract extension with the NASCAR Cup Series team.
It was announced Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. prior to Daytona 500 Media Day.
“Daniel is a talent that has yet to be fully on display in this sport,” team owner Justin Marks said. “I’ve raced against Daniel. I’ve known him for a long time. He is a very elite talent. The group he is with now is fairly new compared to the group on the No. 1 car. They are still learning each other and there are some places where that team needs to make some improvement.
“Ross and the 1 team were so dominating in the storyline this year; it gets a little bit lost that Daniel had the best year of his career by a lot and was right on the precipice of getting into the Round of Eight which would have been a tremendous accomplishment for him.”
Trackhouse Racing includes Suarez and last year’s National Motorsports Press Ass’n Driver of the Year Ross Chastain, who finished second to Joey Logano in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship.
“Obviously, everyone at Trackhouse Racing is pleased with the performance and professionalism of Daniel both on and off the track,” said Marks, whose team begins its third year of competition Sunday in the 65th running of the Daytona 500.
“Culture has been of prime importance since the idea of Trackhouse existed only on a whiteboard in an office. Daniel has fulfilled every expectation and we look forward to the future. The best is yet to come.”
Terms of the agreement were not announced.
“Trackhouse is my home, and I am very happy with this announcement,” said Suárez who begins his third season with Trackhouse and seventh in the Cup Series. “We are building something special on the No. 99 team and at Trackhouse Racing. We can’t wait to get the season started Sunday.”
Trackhouse Racing competed as a single car team with Suárez in 2021 with its cars housed at Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, North Carolina. In June of 2021, Trackhouse announced the acquisition of Chip Ganassi Racing’s NASCAR assets, a move that secured two full-time NASCAR Cup Series entries and cleared the path for expansion.
Trackhouse moved into its race shop in Concord, N.C., and fielded the No. 99 for Suárez and the No. 1 Chevrolet with driver Ross Chastain in 2022.
Suárez and Chastain combined for three wins, 21-top five and 34 top-10 finishes last year in Trackhouse’s first season as a multicar team. Chastain’s second and Suárez’s 10th-place finish in the standings were each career bests.
Suárez became the first Mexican driver to win a Cup race when he dominated the race at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in June. He is the only Spanish-speaking driver in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Suárez became the first Latin American, as well as the first NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduate, to win a NASCAR national series title when he won the 2016 Xfinity Series championship.
In 2016, he became the first Mexican driver to win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, claiming three victories at Michigan, Dover, and the championship finale at Homestead-Miami. He was the 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year — the first Mexican driver to win the award.