Trackhouse, Daniel Suárez mutually agree to part ways after Cup Series season
As driver of the No. 99 Chevrolet, Suárez scored both of his Cup Series victories under the Trackhouse banner — Sonoma in 2022 and Atlanta last season — and his looming departure at year's end creates a vacancy at one of NASCAR's fastest-growing organizations. Suárez currently ranks 29th in the Cup Series standings at the season's midpoint.
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Suárez joined the Justin Marks-founded team as the driver for the team's inaugural season of competition in 2021, when it forged into the Cup Series as a single-car operation. The organization has since grown to three chartered teams, with Suárez aligned with teammates Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen.
Suárez has yet to qualify for this year's NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, needing a victory in the final eight regular-season races to reach the postseason. Both of his teammates have clinched playoff berths, with Chastain winning the Coca-Cola 600 in May and SVG prevailing in Suárez's home country of Mexico three weeks later.
The 33-year-old veteran said June 4 that his free-agent status was a complication ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series' first event in Mexico City. 'Definitely, it's a distraction,' Suárez said. 'I won't sit here and tell you that it doesn't really matter. It's definitely a distraction, but I'm trying to be as smart as possible and to put all this stuff on the side and to just do my thing on the track.'
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Suárez's most recent contract extension with Trackhouse was announced in August 2024, a one-year deal that kept him in the No. 99 Chevy for a fifth season. But in reaching that agreement, Suárez said that he hoped for company-wide performance gains to sustain their relationship.
'There is a lot of things in Trackhouse that are adjusting and changing,' Suárez said then. 'Performance-wise, we're not exactly where we want to be — not just in the 99 but in Trackhouse as a company, and we have to make sure that we fix that before we want to go any longer. This goes really both ways.'
The growth of Trackhouse has been steady. The organization expanded to two teams in 2022, adding Chastain in the first season of NASCAR's Next Gen car. The team also founded Project 91 that year as an avenue to attract global motorsports stars to NASCAR's top series, setting a course to becoming a three-car operation this season with SVG's promotion to Cup.
The team also signed teenaged prospect Connor Zilisch to a developmental deal, partnering with JR Motorsports for a full Xfinity Series campaign this year. The 18-year-old rookie, who has made three Cup starts for Trackhouse this season, is a top candidate to replace Suárez in the No. 99.
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