Daniel Suárez will leave Trackhouse after 2025 season: What's next for the driver

New York Times

3 days ago

Daniel Suárez will not return to Trackhouse Racing for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, the team announced Tuesday.
Trackhouse's decision is not surprising. Suárez is in the last year of his contract, having signed a one-year extension with the Justin Marks-owned team last summer. With Trackhouse having more drivers under contract beyond the 2025 season — Ross Chastain, Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch — than Cup Series rides, having a fourth meant that Suárez was likely going to be the odd man out.
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'I've had some of the best years of my Cup Series career at Trackhouse,' Suárez wrote in a statement Tuesday. 'We had great successes as a team and I gained some incredible friends. We took a team nobody had even heard of in 2021 and in just a couple years we were winning races and running upfront on a weekly basis. Just like the seasons in a year, sometimes things change and we have agreed to each go in our own direction.'
A message to my amigos ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/iipemPKW0O
— Daniel Suárez (@Daniel_SuarezG) July 1, 2025
A native of Monterrey, Mexico, Suárez was the first driver Marks signed when he formed Trackhouse prior to the 2021 season. At that point in his career, Suárez had bounced between rides, never finding much stability — or much success. But Marks enthusiastically touted Suarez's ability and initially built the team around him. Delivering upon that belief, Suárez won his first-career race in 2022 and earned a first-ever playoff berth. He added a second win (and playoff berth) in 2024.
Consistent top-level results, however, have been hard to come by for Suárez. This was particularly true when comparing his record to that of Chastain, who has won six times with Trackhouse and also finished championship runner-up in 2022.
'The role Daniel (Suárez) has played in the Trackhouse origin story and its first five years will remain a valued part of the company's history forever. His commitment, work ethic and dedication to the effort is one of the most impressive things I personally have seen in my career,' Marks said. 'We will forever be thankful and honored that Daniel chose to spend many incredible years with us.'
With Suárez moving out at the end of the season, sources familiar with the situation say Trackhouse is expected to fill his spot by promoting Zilisch from NASCAR's second-tier Xfinity Series, though the team did not name a replacement on Tuesday.
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The 19-year-old Zilisch has impressed in his first full season racing at NASCAR's national level, winning twice already and ranking fourth in laps led and fifth in points, despite missing one race with a back injury.
Trackhouse signed Zilisch, regarded as one of the sport's top prospects, to a multi-year contract last year. Upon that announcement, the clock began ticking on how Trackhouse was going to manage its log jam.
It was unlikely Trackhouse would release Chastain or van Gisbergen. Chastain has won at least one race every season since joining the team and is effectively Trackhouse's No. 1 driver. And while van Gisbergen was a project who needed time to acclimate to the primarily oval-based NASCAR, having come from a road course background, he has used his road course skills to score two wins already. Most recently, he won in Mexico City last month by a whopping 16.5 seconds.
What Suárez does from here is unclear. Although he is one of NASCAR's more popular drivers, especially in Mexico, the number of opportunities to race in Cup full-time next year is limited. Nearly every team has either already solidified its driver lineup or is close to doing so, and any potential openings would likely be with a team not at the same performance level as Trackhouse.
There are few more likable drivers in NASCAR than Suárez, who happily refers to everyone as 'amigo' with a genuine smile on his face. His story of perseverance is remarkable — a kid who left Mexico to chase NASCAR dreams without speaking English, then taught himself the language while also trying to break into the North Carolina stock car world.
He then made it all the way to the Cup Series and has won two races there. But it hasn't come easily, and not without many stumbles. Suarez simply hasn't delivered the consistent results, which made it tough to justify keeping his ride. Though van Gisbergen is three spots behind Suarez in the point standings, the Kiwi is already in the playoffs thanks to his win in Mexico City, and is the heavy favorite entering this weekend's race at the Chicago Street Course.
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It's a bit puzzling to figure out why it hasn't all clicked for Suárez. He's a relentless worker and keeps himself in great shape. He's a fierce competitor. But he's now had three rides on some of NASCAR's best teams and hasn't been able to put all the pieces together.
That said, you would think, at age 33, there's plenty of time for Suárez to still have a long NASCAR career. He is a good driver worthy of a Cup Series ride. And he is very important to NASCAR in general due to his connection with the Hispanic fan base. But if he's not in a competitive Cup car, would it be better to drop down to the Xfinity Series and try to rebuild his career as a consistent winner and champion again? Looking at the landscape, he might not have much of a choice anyway. — Jeff Gluck, staff writer