Old NASCAR tweet resurfaces after Daniel Suarez win

Several fans dug up an old Brett Moffitt tweet about Daniel Suarez following the latter’s maiden NASCAR Cup Series win on Sunday afternoon.

In his 195th career NASCAR Cup Series start, Trackhouse Racing Team’s Daniel Suarez broke through on Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway to claim his first victory, winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

Save for a few laps during the final pit sequence, Suarez led the entire third stage of the 110-lap race around the 12-turn, 1.99-mile (3.203-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Sonoma, California.

The win, which came in the 16th race of his second season with the Justin Marks and Pitbull-owned Chevrolet team, should also lock up Suarez’s first playoff berth in his six seasons competing at NASCAR’s highest level. His most recent playoff appearance of any kind came in the 2016 Xfinity Series season, when he went on to win the championship.

His victory also led to the resurfacing of an old tweet from another NASCAR champion in Brett Moffitt.

The creation of Trackhouse Racing Team was announced in October 2020, and that is when Suarez, then competing for his third team in three seasons with Gaunt Brothers Racing, was signed to drive the #99 Chevrolet for 2021.

Shortly before the 2021 season, Jayski reported that Suarez had said that the opportunity he had been given by his new team was the best of his NASCAR career.

2018 Truck Series champion Brett Moffitt responded with the following question.

Considering the fact that Suarez had failed to win a race in a combined 108 starts over three seasons with four-car powerhouse teams in Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing, it probably seemed like a fair question at the time.

But naturally, when Suarez found victory lane on Sunday, Moffitt’s tweet, now more than 16 months old, resurfaced, with many making fun of him in the replies.

As they say, once it’s on the internet, it’s always on the internet.

In fairness to Moffitt, the original tweet from Jayski did state “this season”, which was referring to the then-upcoming 2021 campaign, and the 2021 season was definitely not Suarez’s best, nor even close.

His 25th place finish in the championship standings was his second worst in five seasons at the time. He recorded just four top 10 finishes, also his second worst, and he posted an average finish of 20.1, which was, you guessed it, also his second worst.

His opportunity with Trackhouse Racing Team has certainly turned into his best opportunity, however, and never was that more obvious on Sunday afternoon, when he finally pulled off what it had looked like he was on his way to pulling off on several occasions earlier in the season.

But even the 30-year-old Mexican could not have seen coming what took place after the 2021 season when he signed with the team in October 2020.

Trackhouse Racing Team made the shocking move to acquire Chip Ganassi Racing, which had no plans to leave the Cup Series until being presented with the vision of Marks, following the 2021 season, and they have taken a major step forward since that acquisition took place.

They expanded from one car to two and signed former Chip Ganassi Racing driver Ross Chastain, who has thrived in his first year with the team.

Chastain sits in second place in the point standings as one of only four drivers with multiple victories, and he leads the series in top five finishes with seven. His 426 laps led are good for third in the series. All of those statistics are by far his career-highs, and he also sits atop the provisional 16-driver playoff picture.

As for Suarez, he sits in 17th place in the standings with a win, three top five finishes, and five top 10 finishes. He has already led a career-high 203 laps, good for ninth in the series, and he sits in 10th in the 16-driver playoff picture.

Trackhouse Racing Team lead all teams with an average of 1.5 wins per driver through the first 16 races on the 36-race 2022 schedule.

What more is Suarez capable of doing with the best opportunity of his NASCAR career? Can he make a deep run in his first ever playoff appearance?