NASCAR Cup Series: Daniel Suarez looking to build on momentum from Texas

After finishing in third place in last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, Daniel Suarez is looking to build on that much-needed momentum.

Joe Gibbs Racing released Daniel Suarez and signed Martin Truex Jr. ahead of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season after Suarez spent two seasons driving for the team and did not have much success.

In 72 races driving the #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Suarez recorded only 21 top 10 finishes, including only four top five finishes, all of which were top four finishes.

The 27-year-old Mexican recorded a career-high finish of second place in the July race at Pocono Raceway in the 2018 season, which is the only race for which he has taken a pole position in his Cup Series career. His average finishing position in his 72 races driving for Joe Gibbs Racing was 17.3.

In both the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Suarez was the only one of Joe Gibbs Racing’s four drivers who failed to make the playoffs, and of the five drivers who drove for the team in either one or both of these seasons, he was the only one who failed to win a race despite the fact that he was one of the three drivers who drove for them in both seasons.

Additionally, his average finishing position actually decreased from 16.2 in the 2017 season to 18.5 in the 2018 season, and his finish in the championship standings decreased from 20th place in the 2017 season to 21st in the 2018 season.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

• NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
• NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
• NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
• NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago
• NASCAR team adds third car, names driver for 2024 Daytona 500

However, Suarez caught a break by landing the opportunity to continue driving for a top-tier Cup Series team after two consecutive seasons of being Joe Gibbs Racing’s worst driver. He ended up replacing Kurt Busch behind the wheel of the #41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

Suarez started out the 2019 season in pretty much the same way he had performed throughout the previous two seasons. Through the season’s first six races, his top finishes were his 10th place finishes in the races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway, and his average finishing position was a lackluster 17.7. He was the lowest of Stewart-Haas Racing’s four drivers in the championship standings in a 15th place tie.

In fact, rumors had already begun that he could potentially be replaced at Stewart-Haas Racing by the time the 2019 season ends.

But Suarez recorded only the fourth top three finish of his Cup Series career in last Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, as he finished in third place behind former teammate Denny Hamlin and current teammate Clint Bowyer after leading nine of the race’s 334 laps around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) high-banked oval in Fort Worth, Texas.

As a result, Suarez’s average finishing position has dropped to 15.6 through the season’s first eight races, which would be a career-high average finishing position if it holds or improves and even if it slightly declines, and he moved up to 14th place in the championship standings.

Prior to now, Suarez had never been in the top 14 in the championship standings at any point in his Cup Series career.

With two consecutive top 10 finishes, including one of the best results of his Cup Series career, and an impressive average finishing position of 8.7 in the last three races, Suarez appears to be finding his groove with his new team, and he will be looking to continue this much-needed momentum.

Additionally, excluding his 33rd place in the season opener, the Daytona 500, at Daytona International Speedway that took place due to a crash, his average finish is a solid 12.7 so far this season.

This is certainly not to say that Suarez is suddenly a championship contender, especially since his recent third place finish was only his first top nine finish of the 2019 season and it has never taken him until a season’s seventh race to record his first top nine finish of a season.

Let’s be 100% real and 100% simple here; three drivers finish in the top three in every race, and two of them finish higher than where Suarez finished in third.

After all, Suarez has recorded solid results in the past and failed to continue that wave of momentum. In fact, his average finishing position in the races immediately following the first three top three finishes of his career is 23.0, and this is the case despite the fact that one of these finishes is an impressive fourth place finish.

But this third place finish could be the shot in the arm that Suarez needed in his first season driving for Stewart-Haas Racing. He had never finished in the top six in the first 10 races of any season before, and given his recent string of solid results, this third place finish may not have been a fluke.

Will Daniel Suarez keep his momentum going after recording by far his best finish as a Stewart-Haas Racing driver last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway? He is set to start today’s race, the Food City 500, at Bristol Motor Speedway in 20th place. This race, which is the eighth of 36 races on the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET.