XFINITY Series rookie visits Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Joliet
Photo credit: Don McClelland
As a Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, Daniel Suarez says he’s been doing his homework as best he can, oftentimes having to learn new and unfamiliar race tracks on the fly.
Monday morning, on the heels of a strong race but disappointing finish the previous day at Iowa Speedway, Suarez did his own schooling one state over, visiting Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Joliet, Illinois, to talk about the importance of technology and mathematics. The assembly also came with a surprise perk — 1,000 race tickets, enough to send the whole school’s enrollment plus family members to the series’ race June 20 at nearby Chicagoland Speedway (9:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).
“It was pretty fun and makes me think a lot because the last group of kids we had, it was from 10 to 11 years old and it made me think that when I was that age, I was about to start in racing,” said Suarez, who ranks 10th in the XFINITY standings. “It was really cool. All those kids were super-excited about all of us. Now they have tickets to go, without a question. I’m excited about that and looking forward to seeing all these kids again next month.”
Suarez’s own role as a student has meant plenty of adjustment in his first full XFINITY season driving the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota, visiting new circuits and adapting to the pace of longer races than the NASCAR K&N Pro Series that sparked his development.
Yet when he returns to the Land of Lincoln, it will mark the 23-year-old driver’s second race on the 1.5-mile track, a facility he lauded for its multiple grooves and high-speed layout. Suarez finished 15th last fall in a one-off event for RAB Racing at Chicagoland in just his second career XFINITY start, but it’s an experience he hopes to build upon when the series returns for Father’s Day weekend.
“For sure, it’s different because at least you know what to expect,” said Suarez, who is also running a part-time schedule for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series this season. “In those races where I’ve never been before in the past, you’re learning about everything — about the racing line, everything. I know that when I do my homework to watch video and get information about the race, everything is still difficult.
“It’s still a process. But for all these races where I’ve been in the past, I feel like my confidence and my knowledge about the race track is a little better.”
His learning process thus far has been on an accelerated upturn, especially on the series’ short tracks, where he’s logged his best finishes of the season — second at Bristol and sixth at Richmond. That streak ended Sunday at Iowa Speedway, where he led a career-high 48 laps early on before sliding back somewhat in the late going. His chances for a top-five finish, though, slipped away when his car sputtered out of fuel with just two laps left in regulation.
“It was just a difficult day in many ways,” Suarez said. “Looks like we had a pretty strong car in the beginning of the race, but the race track changed a lot and the line changed a lot as well. We improved the car some, never quite like at the beginning, and then we ran out of luck and ran out fuel. That pretty much ended our day, but at the end of the day, I felt like we had a top-five car. I feel like we ran most of the day in the top 10, top five, and that’s a good thing, but definitely we have to keep working, keep learning about our mistakes and be better for next week.”
Next week comes quick for Suarez and the rest of the XFINITY regulars with Saturday’s Hisense 300 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the backyard of NASCAR’s business hub. His studies for this weekend haven’t started just yet, but it’s by no means due to procrastination.
“Not yet, actually. We are here today in Chicago and just finished yesterday in Iowa, so my homework is going to start tomorrow,” Suarez said. “But I feel good about Charlotte. I’ve never been on the race track in a race, but I had a test in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the beginning of the year, so I know a little bit about the track. It’s straightforward, it’s fast, it’s very narrow, but I feel like we’re going to have a pretty good car one more time and we’re going to try to be competitive.”