The 2025-2026 NASCAR Cup Series offseason was one of the quietest ever, with only two of the 36 chartered rides changing drivers. The movement consisted of Connor Zilisch replacing Daniel Suarez at Trackhouse Racing, while the Monterrey, Mexico native moved to Spire Motorsports to replace Justin Haley.
Suarez, evidently, has a massive chip on his shoulder as a result. Through one exhibition event and five points-paying races in the 2026 season, he's already been involved in altercations with all three drivers on his former team.
His crusade reached a boiling point on Sunday, when tempers flared between Suarez and Ross Chastain on pit road. And the incident reflects much worse on one party than the other.
Daniel Suarez has come off like a bitter ex after Trackhouse exit
In the preseason Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, Suarez had an incident with Shane van Gisbergen. At Circuit of the Americas, he spun Connor Zilisch. Once or twice, it's just a funny coincidence. But now, he has successfully covered all of his bases.
This is the entire sequence from when Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez raced each other for 17th with about 4 to go. You can see Suarez slid up the racetrack in Turn 2 as Chastain was passing him outside and it almost ran Chastain in the wall.
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) March 15, 2026
Hard to say anything definitive rn https://t.co/Y36UMUFrEQ pic.twitter.com/KqzpFfFBOj
Suarez and Chastain raced each other hard all afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, culminating in the altercation after the checkered flag. The incident appeared to be instigated by the Spire Motorsports driver making a hand gesture, which his former teammate responded to by giving him a nudge on the cool-down lap.
Then, Suarez decided to make it personal.
Daniel Suarez tells reporters that he and Ross Chastain’s relationship,
— Noah Lewis (@Noah_Lewis1) March 15, 2026
“has always been a little weird…a little two-faced.”
The two were teammates at Trackhouse for many years…
Video from Frontstretch 👇 #NASCAR
pic.twitter.com/6k9BlJ9hLQ
No matter how you slice it, it's a bad look for the two-time Cup Series winner to play the victim. He's obviously miffed about being replaced at Trackhouse, which he shouldn't be, because aside from their road course speed, it can probably be argued that he fell upward into driving for a faster team.
Suarez has been in the Cup Series for 10 years now, and he is in his fifth different ride. He's driven for elite organizations in Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, and the 2022-to-early-2023 version of Trackhouse. At best, he has topped out as a slightly-above-average driver.
It was never a secret that his time at Trackhouse was going to run out at some point or another. Chastain is the team leader, and van Gisbergen is the best road racer in the sport. Then, the team began developing the most promising Cup Series prospect in generations in Zilisch.
Suarez just wasn't good enough. It's in poor taste of him to hold that against his former team, and it's especially not right to take it out on his former teammates.