It’s been a rollercoaster-ride of a season for Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez.
It began with a trio of top-10 finishes, took a dip into a string of 20th-place or worse results, peaked with a runner-up finish at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in April and has bounced up and down since.
And, it’s not over yet.
With two races to go before the regular NASCAR Cup Series season concludes and the playoffs begin, Suarez is one position shy of a transfer spot at 17th in the standings. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace is 28 points ahead of Suarez in the final playoff-eligible position.
“It’s been a little bit of a rollercoaster for the No. 99 team,” Suarez said. “In the beginning of the season, we had a lot of speed, but we were not executing right. And then later in the year, the middle part of the year, we started executing better, but then we didn’t have the speed.”
In his seventh Cup Series season, the Mexico native is hungry to be in the championship hunt. But upon reflection of how the last few months have gone, Suarez believes the No. 99 team has lacked the consistency necessary to be a lead contender.
“My plan for this season was to be able to just be more consistent than what we were and in a stronger fashion. And we’ve been there, but not all of the time,” Suarez said.
Twenty-four races into the season, his average finish is 18.5. Last year, it was 16.5.
The 31-year-old pointed to the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team — led by driver William Byron — as the standard he’s shooting for. Byron has won four races this season and has an average finish of 13.5.
“Right now, the No. 24 team is not thinking about getting to the playoffs. They are thinking about how to win a championship. They have several wins. They’re thinking about playoff points. That’s what I want for the No. 99 team and that’s my target, and we’re working very hard for that,” Suarez said.
Coming off an oddly disappointing third-place finish at last weekend’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Suarez is eager to flex his muscles at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l Speedway.
His bid for the win last Sunday in Indianapolis was ruined by a green-flag pit stop during the final stage, where an air hose caught under the tire and Suarez lost 10 seconds to the leaders.
“In my Cup career, I would say that was the worst third-place I’ve ever had, by a lot. Like I left the race track disappointed and I left the race track thinking that we didn’t do our job, we didn’t execute right — in different areas, honestly,” Suarez said.
The No. 99 driver reported that Trackhouse Racing conducted several long conversations and meetings to help the team learn from their mistakes following Indianapolis. Suarez has every confidence in his crew — and himself — to execute this week’s race in a better fashion.
History is also on Suarez’s side at the New York facility.
In five starts at the 2.350-mile road course, he has recorded three top-five finishes, suggesting a likelihood of the Trackhouse Racing entry snatching a much-needed win during Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen.
As the clock winds down on the regular season and Suarez’s window for slipping in to the playoffs continues to narrow, the driver of the No. 99 believes this kind of scenario is when he is at his best.
“I feel like as a race car driver and as an athlete, you really live for moments like this,” Suarez said. “You don’t get to experience moments like this all the time. And when you do experience these moments, I feel like that’s really when you get to show what you’re built of.”
Suarez starts 14th on Sunday at Watkins Glen.