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Daniel Suarez received a life-changing conference call from Coach Joe Gibbs during the offseason while he was having lunch with his girlfriend and family.
He stepped out to take the call — and did not return for 40 minutes.
When he finally reemerged, the 2016 XFINITY Series champion was wearing a huge smile and had a secret playing on his lips: He was going to drive the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2017. It came a little sooner than expected, but Carl Edwards‘ decision to leave full-time racing expedited the move.
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“It was just an amazing moment,” Suarez said at a press conference Wednesday on the team’s Huntersville, North Carolina, campus. “I wasn’t expecting that at all. I was actually already working with (XFINITY crew chief) Scott (Graves) and the amazing team that I had in 2016 in XFINITY to be ready to open 2017 the same way that we closed in ’16, winning races. And then this came out. Very, very happy for this opportunity.”
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The Mexican-born driver has certainly been one of the young stars on the rise in his short time on the circuit; Suarez cut his teeth in NASCAR’s Mexico Series and K&N Pro Series, moving to the United States in 2012 to pursue racing. He joined the Joe Gibbs Racing fleet in 2015 full-time, earning XFINITY Rookie of the Year honors that season.
The next year, Suarez nabbed his first win at Michigan International Speedway, beating out his mentor — and now JGR teammate — Kyle Busch in the final laps. After that came two more wins then a series championship.
Suarez’s timeline to NASCAR’s premier series has been rapid, and he becomes the first Mexican-born driver to race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. But “fast” is nothing new for him — after all, he does drive a race car.
“If you think about it, my entire career in NASCAR has been very fast,” Suarez told NASCAR.com. “I started racing ovals when I was 17, 18 years old … I feel lucky to be with the right team and with good sponsors to help me. The last couple years I feel like I’ve learned a lot in the NASCAR XFINITY Series to help me make this transition as smooth as possible.”
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Team owner Joe Gibbs also believes in Suarez’s XFINITY experience will serve him well in the top series.
“I think the preparation, the good thing about XFINITY, you’re racing against some Cup guys,” Gibbs said. “It’s limited — many times, there’ll be five or six, but you’re getting matched up. In other words, his race that he won at Michigan, he beat Kyle (Busch) in that thing. So they have been racing against the Cup guys; I think that’s the good thing about XFINITY.
“Now there’s not 40 of them,” he continued with a laugh. “So now you go from five or six to 40. I think it’s a big climb, a big jump, and so we’ve got to have patience, but we’re trying to surround him with everything it takes.”
His surroundings include committed sponsors, top-notch equipment and cars — and of course, veteran teammates Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, whom Suarez has especially leaned on for knowledge.
Maybe a little too much.
“I told Daniel when he came on board, which I tell all the young guys, ‘Hey, go to the Cup guys, go to the Cup guys, develop a relationship, ask them,” Gibbs said. “You be the one that goes forward. And in particular I told him to go to Kyle.
“So after four weeks of this thing, Kyle told me, ‘He’s driving me crazy; he calls me about five times during the week,’ ” Gibbs said with a smile. “I think Daniel is kind of the only one that went after that in the right way.”
That’s Suarez: dedicated and “all over it,” Gibbs said. It’s the type of attitude, combined with raw talent that bodes well for the young driver’s future in the sport.
That being said, the No. 19 team — led by veteran No. 19 crew chief Dave Rogers, who called the shots for Edwards last season — will aim to keep expectations reasonable for a rookie in the big leagues for the first time.
“You have to adapt,” Rogers said. “With Carl, your expectation is to win 8-10 races … I think Daniel is the next superstar and I’m excited to work with him. That’s really unfair though, to ask Daniel to win 10 races — it’s just not reasonable. So I think we’ve got to be very methodical about our season.
“We want to win, we want to make the Chase, we want to go further in the Chase than you guys are going to give us credit for. We are hungry, we’re committed and we’re competitors. But the game plan to do that with a rookie has to be much different than the game plan to do that with a veteran and I think the more we understand that and accept that, the better opportunities we’re going to create for Daniel.”
The No. 19 lightning-fast pit crew will also remain with Suarez, Rogers said.
“(When I told the team) I just said, ‘Hey guys, here’s the deal: Nothing changes.’ ” Rogers said. “We’re going to change some vinyl above the door, we’re going to have a different driver — nothing else changes. We’re going to compete as hard as we can compete.”
“That’s the great thing about this team. We were down-and-out at Martinsville (in 2016). We were done, Chase is over. We bounced back and won Texas. That’s the team. That same team is going to respond to Daniel.”
Rogers’ speech was met with some fist pumps, some ‘Heck yeahs’ and ‘Let’s do this’ cheers. They’re ready for Suarez, part of the next generation of young drivers.
And he’s ready for them.
“We started all this dream 10 years ago with NASCAR, and right now to be in this position, to be in this opportunity is just something amazing for me.” Suarez said. “… I know that it won’t be easy. We have a lot to work. I have a lot to learn. But I’m sure that it couldn’t happen in a better situation with Dave Rogers and the entire 19 group … I feel like it’s just a perfect place to be for a rookie like me that is really hungry to learn and to go out there and to perform well.”
He looks to his shiny-new No. 19 Toyota Camry, his name printed above the door.
“I can’t wait to drive that car,” he says with a smile. “… I wish I could take it to the street right now.”