NASCAR Cup Series: 5 drivers who Christopher Bell could replace in 2020
By Asher Fair
Daniel Suarez
Joe Gibbs Racing cut ties with Daniel Suarez after his first two seasons driving for the team, as he was the only one of the team’s four drivers who failed to make the playoffs in the 2017 season, and the same was able to be said about him in the 2018 season.
Additionally, Suarez was the only one of the five drivers who drove for Joe Gibbs Racing at any point in the 2017 and/or 2018 seasons who failed to win at least one race during this span, and this was the case despite the fact that he was one of the three drivers who drove for the team on a full-time basis in both of those seasons.
While the 2019 season has been better for Suarez after he made the move to Stewart-Haas Racing and replaced Kurt Busch as the driver of the #41 Ford, he is the lowest of the team’s four drivers in the championship standings down in 14th place, and he has recorded just one top nine finish, a third place finish in the race at Texas Motor Speedway, through the season’s first seven races.
Like he was in both seasons driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, Suarez is Stewart-Haas Racing’s lowest driver in the championship standings.
To struggle for three consecutive seasons driving for both of the sport’s current powerhouse teams would not bode well for Suarez, and given the fact that Stewart-Haas Racing team co-owner Tony Stewart and Christopher Bell share a dirt racing background, an open seat of the #41 Ford could be just what Bell needs to break away from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota and still land a ride with a top-tier Cup Series team.
With all things considered, it would be shocking if Stewart and Bell have not already had talks about the Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series driver joining Ford’s biggest Cup Series team, which leads into an additional possibility in terms of who he could replace.