Heartbreak Motivating Daniel Suarez to Find Victory Lane

Last weekend in Austin, all of Trackhouse Racing was celebrating the team's first victory. That included Daniel Suarez, who was heartbroken after dominating the first stage of the race. Suarez qualified on the front row for the road course race and led the opening 15 laps en route to the stage win. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.

Suarez spun at the beginning of the second stage after contact with Corey LaJoie. After making it all the way around to pit road, mechanical issues on the No. 99 Chevrolet ended his hopes of getting back into contention. He continued on without the use of power steering, only to see his teammate Ross Chastain deliver the team's first victory. Suarez was knifing his way through the field in Stage 3 when a flat tire in the closing laps relegated him to a 24th place finish.

"I was heartbroken mostly because of the car that we had," Suarez said. "We had an amazing car. In practice, we showed that. In qualifying, we showed that. And in the race, we showed that. A lot of people don’t know this but I was having issues with my steering since Stage 1. The middle of Stage 1, my steering wasn’t working right already and I was still the fastest car out there. I feel like when you have a car that fast and you don’t win the race, it doesn’t matter what happens. You’re going to be heartbroken because you were the class of the field."

Despite not being the one to claim the team's first win, Suarez was excited for his teammate. "Like I told my team, if I can’t win, I want them to win. The first one, the second one, it doesn’t really matter. Yeah, I wanted to be the first one but that won’t change my mentality to coming into Richmond. I feel like I have to see the positives of it, and that is we’ve had a lot of speed lately. So that will continue to happen, I’m pretty sure."

The pairing of Suarez and Chastain has been one of the biggest storylines this season. Finding speed has not been an issue for this new team, and they are constantly battling at the front of the field. The two have combined for seven top-ten finishes this year and Chastain, in particular, is one quite a roll. The driver of the No. 1 Chevy has finished 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, and 1st in his last four races.

Seeing your teammate constantly outperform you is not something any driver is comfortable with. Still, Suarez knows that he is producing, and that success is just around the corner. "I was so disappointed the way it turned out for us, but so happy for Ross and all of Trackhouse Racing. Now it is our turn. I want to win at Richmond and keep the celebration going. I hope it is the first of many this season and in the future."

Suarez will start 14th in today's race at Richmond. The 30-year-old native of Monterrey Mexico has two top-ten finishes on the 0.75-mile oval in nine career starts. He has also completed 3,600 of the 3,606 laps here. Suarez has never led a lap at Richmond but this is a new season. The NextGen car has provided great parity this season, and this is a team that is clearly on a serious wave of momentum.

There have been six different winners through the first six races this season. There have been several first-time winners, a club that Suarez would love to join this afternoon. He is right there with potential first-time winners such as Tyler Reddick and Harrison Burton.

Suarez believes this team knows the secret to success. "Justin Marks said it best at the beginning of the season. He wanted to approach this team as having one gun and two bullets. Go out there as a team working together and try to improve each other. I think that is one of the reasons why we have been consistent and getting better and better."

Marks spoke openly about Suarez following the team's win last weekend. "I think he is gutted today, especially after leading every lap in the first stage and winning it. He was so early in the process of building Trackhouse that I think in his mind he was always going to be the guy that was going to deliver our first win. I think that’s hard on him. But in a way, I always try to take the long view on this stuff. These are our guys. These are our drivers. We’re building a team around both these guys, and that’s what I’ll tell him this week is you have an awesome opportunity to go win Richmond."

That is the focus today for the No. 99 team. "He is gutted," Marks said of Suarez. "He came over and gave Ross a hug. He understands the mission here, and he is probably already thinking about Richmond. And I’m excited to see what he is going to do the next couple of weeks." Marks understands what most people know; it's just a matter of time before Suarez finds victory lane.

When that time comes, Suarez will become only the fifth foreign-born driver to win a Cup Series race. He will join a talented group of drivers that includes Mario Andretti, Earl Ross, Juan Montoya, and Marcos Ambrose.