Daniel Suarez is trying to make his way back to the XFINITY Series garage at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Qualifying is complete with Suarez clocking in second fastest for the Ford EcoBoost 300, missing out on what would have been his fourth pole of the season.
Surrounded by fans, Suarez signs autographs, smiles for the selfies, and even interacts with some in his native language. As he walks down pit road toward the garage opening, still mingling with those who approach him, it’s a little over two hours before the green flag. A sixth place finish will wrap up Rookie of the Year honors. An award he stormed into contention for during the summer stretch when the he racked up eight top-10 finishes in a 13-week run.
The only thing Suarez failed to do was win this year. But that’s coming, sooner rather than later. For now, he’s heading back to the hauler for some the last bit of downtime. Maybe a little reflecting on a season the ARRIS team accomplished the goals they had initially set.
“In the beginning of the year, one of my goals was to finish in the top-10 in the championship. We finished top-five, which I think is great,” Suarez said. “Our expectations started to change a little bit, and we wanted a little bit more and at one point we felt like we were ready to win races.
“We had the speed, and we were ready to make it happen. I feel like we had the speed we just didn’t make that step to win races, and I feel like we are very close. I really feel next year we keep working the same way we did this year, we are going to be pretty good.”
Suarez is already good, evident not only by his success on the racetrack but the support Joe Gibbs Racing has put behind him. Although Suarez was relatively unknown at the time, the Gibbs organization knew talent when they saw it. So after hearing great things from those who have seen him from the beginning, Gibbs put Suarez in a car in April of 2014 at Richmond International Raceway.
Before the year was over, he was signed to a full deal for 2015. It was a graduation from two full years (2013-2014) in the K&N Pro Series East, as well as four full years (2011-2014) in the NASCAR Mexico Series. In that time, Suarez earned 13 wins across both series.
With his new XFINITY deal, also came time behind the wheel in the Camping World Truck Series where Suarez ran 13 races. There, too, he came oh-so-close to Victory Lane on more than one occasion.
So as he gets ready to take one more green flag at Homestead, this was a year where Suarez made his presence known. A year he made sure his name was one mentioned often. He carved out a place for himself within the racing community. More and more fans flocked to him weekly, proven by the large gathering around him on pit road with white and orange No. 18 shirts and hats.
And to think, just a few years ago it was all an impossible dream.
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Suarez looks no worse for the wear. He’s just exited the stage after giving the first speech in his NASCAR national series career. The trophies for Rookie of the Year and fifth place in points wait for pictures backstage. After he’s done with those obligations and telling the assembled media about his season, he wonders over to a couch in the corner for this interview.
In a well-fitting suit and bowtie, Suarez is relaxed and comfortable, just as he is at the track nowadays. It has to be an amazing feeling for the 23-year-old – the center of attention and accepting awards at a grand hotel in South Florida after completing a successful first full season in NASCAR’s second-tier division. In all, Suarez ran 50 races between the Truck and XFINITY Series, as well as the ARCA Racing Series.
“Well, this is really cool because all this was just a dream three years ago,” Suarez says with a small chuckle. “I didn’t know it was possible to be a racecar driver when I was 16 years old.”
As Suarez begins to tell his tale, his fellow drivers walking by offer high-fives and a hearty “hey!” Even as he greets them, Suarez never loses his place in the story. How could he? It’s a familiar story to him about how his family, who didn’t come from racing, ended up producing a driver that appears destined for the Sprint Cup Series in a few short years.
Actually, the journey was a little harder than that. The Suarez family did not, in fact, come from racing and as a child Suarez didn’t think much about it. Admittedly, he didn’t know “how to make it happen.” It wasn’t until Suarez was 11 years old that a family friend began to tell his father about go-kart racing. Soon, Suarez was behind the wheel, and that same family friend was in awe.
“He said I was pretty good to know nothing about racing. So that’s pretty much how we started,” Suarez said. “My dad decided to get a go-kart for me, and we got it. We got into our first race without a tool, without anything. We didn’t have anything, and we finished fourth and we just wanted to win races and we wanted to better.”
The rest is history cliché rings true here as Suarez’s racing career was born. It quickly took the fast track too, and as he looks back, he repeatedly mentions how lucky he was to have to have so many good people on his side helping him get to where he is. These genuine feelings from Suarez are ones he makes sure to mention – in any interview – when he has the chance.
Because it was one thing to have supporters, it’s another to have the supporters Suarez did in making sure he made it all the way to the top. Especially when two critical moments arose for Suarez that could have derailed everything.
“I was quitting racing,” Suarez revealed. “I was quitting racing when I was 17 because I didn’t have the money to keep myself in racing and they gave me the opportunity when I was quitting racing.”
They would be Telmex, who has been Suarez’s second family in Mexico. Founder Carlos Slim Domit has been a Suarez fan since the very beginning and wasn’t about to let the young talent give up so easily. They rescued him from nothing, Suarez once admitted.
In what could have been Suarez’s last race, Telmex came along and gave him a shot at stock cars, as well as a chance to go to Europe and try open wheel if Suarez wanted to. The partnership has been going strong ever since. Except another difficult decision arose. At 18, Suarez’s mentor, Jim Morales, told him it might be time to think about leaving Mexico.
“He told me one day, you know Daniel, I really think you have the talent. I have seen so many good drivers, but I think that you have the talent to go out to the United States to try and make a racing career up there instead of here,” Suarez said. “But if you can’t speak English, that would be a waste of time because you can’t communicate with people.”
Suarez gladly accepted the challenge and in addition to focusing on racing, put in the time and effort to learn the language. Then he made his exit, leaving behind his family and friends for a new country. The decision wasn’t as magical as in fairy tales where the hero takes a big chance, and it immediately pays off with grand success and adoration.
The adjustment to Charlotte, NC was tough, and Suarez once told a publication he thought about going back home. Eventually, he began to make friends on and off the racetrack. Those who greeted him backstage at the banquet have accepted him into the racing family while he’s also close with his Gibbs teammates, which he says are his family here. He also spends a lot of time at the shop with his mechanics.
At the time, though, Suarez didn’t speak English; didn’t have a lot of money; and only had one friend in the United States.
“He was helping me out for the first year, and then he decided it wasn’t a really good idea, so I was pretty much by myself after that, and I was just working hard,” Suarez said. “I had ambition, and nobody was going to take ambition away, and I wanted to do it. I feel like just when I became part of the Drive for Diversity program (in 2013) things started to work out better.
“Things started to click better and after a year and a half, we started winning races and finished third in the championship in our first full-time year. After that my dream racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, they came to me to try and do something together.”
***
The dream has come true.
Joe Gibbs Racing called a press conference at their shop in Huntersville, NC in late August 2014. Many were there for Carl Edwards, who announced he joined the team after years at Roush Fenway Racing. But there was also a young man named Daniel Suarez introduced as the new driver of the No. 18 ARRIS Toyota.
At the time, it was hard to realize that Suarez got lost in the big news surrounding Edwards. It’s understandable, but looking back, many might have told themselves to pay more attention to the Monterrey, Mexico native. He’s certainly not overshadowed anymore.
“My first thought was this is great and then, man, I hope I’m ready to do this because I don’t know,” was Suarez’s initial reaction to signing with Joe Gibbs. “I was coming from something so different that I wasn’t sure if I was ready or not. But so many good people on this team and organization were able to help me out in so many different ways.”
Now it seems there’s nothing Suarez can’t do. Learning how to drive racecars; speak a new language; and move to a new country. He can give speeches at banquets that make the crowd laugh. So far, he’s been quite the success story.
Perhaps the next chapter should include being a championship favorite.
“I think we have to take everything step-by-step,” he said. “But honestly, I really feel like we have all the tools to make it happen. We just need to put all the pieces together, and we are going to be able to do.”