Daniel Suarez has been replaced by Cole Custer at Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. Where will he end up next year?
Daniel Suarez stated multiple times that he felt confident about his odds of returning to Stewart-Haas Racing for a second year as the driver of the #41 Ford in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.
But that won’t happen.
The four-car Ford team, which had already confirmed Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer to return as the drivers of the #4 Ford, #10 Ford, and #14 Ford, respectively, confirmed that Cole Custer is set to replace the 27-year-old Mexican behind the wheel of the #41 Ford next year.
Custer has spent three seasons driving for Stewart-Haas Racing in the Xfinity Series. After winning one race in the 2017 season but missing out on the Championship 4 and finishing in fifth place in the championship standings, he won another race in the 2018 season and advanced to the Championship 4, only to finish runner-up to champion Tyler Reddick.
In the 2019 season, Custer again advanced to the Championship 4 and again finished runner-up to champion Reddick, but this time he did so following a breakout season that featured him collecting seven victories.
So with Suarez now out of a ride for 2020, where, if anywhere, will he end up next year?
Front Row Motorsports
Front Row Motorsports are set for a huge offseason full of change. David Ragan retired, leaving the seat of the #38 Ford vacant, and the team parted ways (on good terms) with Matt Tifft, who suffered a seizure at Martinsville Speedway in late October and had to be replaced for the season’s final four races to focus on his health.
John Hunter Nemechek replaced Tifft in the final three of these four races after Matt Crafton replaced him at Martinsville Speedway, and Nemechek did a solid job as his replacement, recording an average finish of 23.67 and no finishes outside of the top 27 in sub-par equipment. He has been tipped to replace Tifft behind the wheel of the #36 Ford next year.
But Ragan’s replacement is far less clear, especially after Daniel Hemric, who drove for Richard Childress Racing this past season but had been rumored to land at Front Row Motorsports after it was announced that he would lose his ride to Tyler Reddick, landed a part-time ride at JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series.
Daniel Suarez said he was “extremely surprised” by the fact that Stewart-Haas Racing opted to replace him with Cole Custer considering the funding he brought to the table, so perhaps that funding can be put to good use at Front Row Motorsports. Suarez and Michael McDowell as teammates might be something to look forward to as well.
Go Fas Racing
Go Fas Racing formed a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2020 season after months of speculation that this particular announcement was on its way with Stewart-Haas Racing supposedly looking to jettison some of their cars since the 2020 season is the final season before the planned introduction of the Gen-7 chassis and body and the team are expecting to have extra inventory.
Cole Custer had been rumored as the most likely option for Go Fas Racing provided this technical alliance occurred since it looked like Stewart-Haas Racing’s lineup would stay the same in 2020, something it hadn’t done from one year to the next since between the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Instead, they announced right away that Custer was not in the mix to drive the #32 Ford, which meant one of two things: Custer would continue with the Stewart-Haas Racing Xfinity Series team with Daniel Suarez staying behind the wheel of the #41 Ford, or Custer would replace Suarez.
Now we know that Custer is set to replace Suarez, leaving Suarez without a ride.
But as mentioned in an earlier slide, Suarez was “extremely surprised” to lose his ride with the funding that he brought to the table. Corey LaJoie has stated that he wants to be back with Go Fas Racing next year, but nothing is signed. Could Suarez end up at the new Stewart-Haas Racing affiliate having lost his ride with the four-car Ford team if LaJoie doesn’t come back?
Stewart-Haas Racing (Xfinity Series)
When Daniel Suarez was promoted to the NASCAR Cup Series from the Xfinity Series at Joe Gibbs Racing ahead of the 2017 season, it was for no other reason than the fact that Carl Edwards unexpectedly retired before the 2017 season began.
As such, the consensus was that Suarez, despite the fact that he was the 2016 Xfinity Series champion, was rushed to the Cup Series.
Three seasons with two top-tier teams, including two at Joe Gibbs Racing and one with Stewart-Haas Racing, and effectively nothing to show for it in the form of zero victories and zero playoff berths in 108 races show that this may very well have been the case.
With Cole Custer set to be promoted from Stewart-Haas Racing’s Xfinity Series team to replace him, the seat of the #00 Ford is vacant at their Xfinity Series team. Could they utilize that to give him the chance to develop, especially since he supposedly still has a significant enough backing to keep him in NASCAR on some level next year?
It’s no secret that he has talent. Proper development of that talent, however, seems to have gone by the wayside. Stewart-Haas Racing can fix that, because if they don’t, somebody else might. Fortunately, according to Suarez, team co-owner Tony Stewart was lobbying hard to retain him before Custer was confirmed as his replacement in the Cup Series.
Richard Childress Racing (Xfinity Series)
Hold that thought about proper development of Daniel Suarez’s talent. Richard Childress Racing are set to continue to field a full-time entry in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next year, even though two-time champion Tyler Reddick is set to replace Daniel Hemric at the Cup Series team next year and Hemric will not be demoted back to their Xfinity Series program with him instead being set to drive part-time for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series.
Catchfence reported along with the confirmation that Suarez would be replaced by Cole Custer at Stewart-Haas Racing next year that Suarez could be in line to replace Reddick at the Richard Childress Racing Xfinity Series team and do what Reddick did this season and drive in a few Cup Series races for the team as well.
There have been past rumors about Richard Childress Racing fielding three full-time entries in the Cup Series after shuttering their third team following the conclusion of the 2017 season, but naturally only if the funding is there, which it does not appear to be, at least not for now.
If Suarez doesn’t have the funding to land a full-time ride with the Cup Series team as their third driver, competing for them and further developing in the Xfinity Series would be a great option. He is a former Xfinity Series champion, and Richard Childress Racing have had a driver advance to the Championship 4 in each of the last three years, with Reddick winning this year’s championship.
Nowhere
Daniel Suarez could very well end up without any ride in the 2020 NASCAR season, which would be unfortunate for him after he was (a) confident about returning to Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2019 season and then (b) confident about returning to Stewart-Haas Racing in the 2020 season after Martin Truex Jr. ended up replacing him behind the wheel of the #19 Toyota at Joe Gibbs Racing after all.
It would be unfortunate, but in a way, it would be justified.
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As mentioned on the previous slide, Suarez has competed in the Cup Series for three seasons and never driven for a team other than a top-tier team. After spending two seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing, he drove for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2019.
He failed to secure a victory in 108 starts, and he failed to qualify for the playoffs in all three seasons. Perhaps most disappointingly, he was the only driver on any of these teams to fail to qualify for the playoffs each year.
In the 2017 season, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth all qualified for the playoffs, with Busch advancing to the Championship 4, Hamlin advancing to the round of 8 and Kenseth advancing to the round of 12.
In the 2018 season, teammates Busch, Hamlin and Erik Jones all qualified for the playoffs, with Busch again advancing to the Championship 4. Then this year, teammates Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola all advanced to the playoffs, with Harvick advancing to the Championship 4 and Bowyer advancing to the round of 12.
That simply doesn’t make Suarez’s struggles look any better, even though he has shown flashes of potential with his two pole positions, five top three finishes, including a career-high finish of second place at Pocono Raceway in 2018, and three additional top five finishes.
For which team and in which series will Daniel Suarez compete, if he competes at all, in the 2020 NASCAR season? Will he end up at one of the destinations outlined in this article?