NASCAR’s breakout team is targeting much more in 2023
By Asher Fair
Daniel Suarez spoke about the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season and what lies ahead for him and Trackhouse Racing Team in 2023.
When former Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing driver Daniel Suarez said in 2020, after signing a deal with a NASCAR Cup Series team that didn’t yet exist, that this deal was the “best opportunity” he had been given in his racing career, there was no shortage of doubts or even chuckles among fans and other drivers alike.
Trackhouse Racing Team was formed by Justin Marks and later added Pitbull as a co-owner, and the organization made their debut with Suarez behind the wheel of the No. 99 Chevrolet during the 2021 season.
The team ultimately ended up acquiring Chip Ganassi Racing and adding a second entry for former Chip Ganassi Racing driver Ross Chastain ahead of the 2022 season.
The 2022 season was a breakout season for the second-year team, and Suarez proved his doubters wrong.
Chastain won two races and advanced to the Championship 4, while Suarez, who had been winless in his first five seasons in the Cup Series, secured his first career victory at Sonoma Raceway and thus his first playoff berth. He advanced to the round of 12 and came close to advancing to the round of 8.
“I think you can say that we brought fast race cars to nearly every race in 2022,” Suarez told Beyond the Flag when asked about what he found most surprising about the 2022 season.
“There were just a few where we weren’t as fast as we wanted to be. For a team as young as we are, that’s a real tribute to the men and women who work on these cars at the track and back at the race shop.”
He also addressed what the introduction of the Gen 7 car meant for such a young team.
“In this sport everything is different,” he said. “You can race Phoenix in the spring and it’s totally different in the fall. Same at lots of other tracks. That’s because of heat, tires, rubber on the track, and all sorts of factors. You aren’t relearning, instead you are learning. So yes, this new car has different characteristics, but that’s part of the challenge in racing every week.”
Knowing the potential this team has, Suarez has his eyes on improvement for the 2023 campaign.
“For the No. 99 team, we need to put everything together throughout each race,” he said. “In this sport if there is one little thing off, whether it’s the driver making a mistake, a loose lugnut, a speeding penalty, wrong adjustment, it’s going to cost you.
“You always keep working. You want to do a better job of telling the crew what the car is doing, communicating, studying, learning from others.”
Suarez closed by discussing what he is most looking forward to about the offseason, which is, somehow, nearly a month and a half old already.
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“We are getting away from a while, traveling, going to see family and just resting,” he said. “But the Clash will be here sooner than we think, and I know we will be ready to race.”