BUY TICKETS: See the Daytona 500 live!
RELATED: Where will Suarez line up in the Duels?
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The education of Daniel Suarez has been an accelerated course. Just three years ago, he was competing at Daytona International Speedway under much different conditions, racing a K&N Pro Series car on a temporary .370-mile oval on the large track's backstretch.
This year, it's a much different stage that greets the Mexican-born driver, a move that's equivalent to a prodigy starting work on a graduate degree.
"I really felt like I went to school," Suarez said Sunday, after his first competition in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series provided him valuable experience as he nears his debut in the Daytona 500. The 25-year-old rookie wound up eighth in the 17-car Advance Auto Parts Clash exhibition after a late-race shuffle, but now has a feel for competing in NASCAR's major leagues as he progresses through his first Speedweeks in the sport's top series at Daytona.
Suarez avidly studies video footage before each race, but said that nothing could quite prepare him for actually driving his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota in a pack against the sport's best. Suarez said he gained an understanding about the nuances of tire wear and how his car handles, but perhaps the most valuable lesson was learning the differences between the Monster Energy Series and the XFINITY Series, where he spent the last two years and claimed the 2016 championship.
"Those guys are aggressive and they race hard as soon as they see the green flag," Suarez said on pit road post-race. "I felt like I learned a lot. I felt like it was a very productive race for me and for my team and hopefully we can put everything we learned on the table for next week."
RELATED: Suarez's five-year plan heads for new heights
The next phase for Suarez is a run through Thursday's Can Am Duels (7 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the 150-mile qualifying races that will help determine the Daytona 500 lineup. The preliminaries add another 60 laps of actual race conditions to the 75 now in his portfolio after Sunday's Clash.
Crew chief Dave Rogers, preparing to work with his fourth driver in the last four seasons at JGR, said Sunday's exhibition was an educational event for him as well. The veteran wrench connected with Suarez's feedback early and then watched his driver make prudent decisions down the stretch.
When Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski joined forces and freight-trained their way past him in the penultimate lap, Suarez lost momentum and slipped back from the second-place position he'd held for much of the event's second segment. Though the choice ultimately dropped him from contention, a more hawkish move to block the Penske pair's advancement could have left his peers with crumpled cars and an unfavorable first impression.
"At the very end, I think he got a good taste of how these Cup guys play," Rogers said as he walked back to the garage, his car still in one piece. "He just made a smart decision there at the end. He could've tried to roll up in front of the Penske cars and block them, and then we end up with a bunch of torn-up race cars, so he made a wise move, which I'm proud of him for.
"You know, he's a young kid in his first Cup race, he only wants to finish really well but he let common sense prevail and didn't cause a big wreck and earned the trust and respect of some competitors. So that was good, and I think we'll just get better throughout the week."