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New York Times
11-06-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
Daniel Suárez on NASCAR in Mexico City, the expansion push and more: 12 Questions
Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Trackhouse Racing's Daniel Suárez, who heads to his home country of Mexico this week for NASCAR's inaugural Cup Series race in Mexico City. This interview has been edited and condensed, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions podcast. 1. What was one of the first autographs you got as a kid and what do you remember about that moment? I cannot remember my first autograph, but I do remember being at school practicing my signature. I was racing go-karts at the time and nobody had ever asked me for my autograph. But I remember practicing my signature. My number growing up was No. 4. And in my signature, I included the number. And I guarantee you that 99 percent of people can't even see it and can't even tell, but in my signature, there is a number four. That's been my thing since I was probably 12 years old. I was in school practicing my signatures and I had pages and pages. Advertisement 2. What is the most miserable you've ever been inside of a race car? In 2022, at the Roval, when my steering rack broke. We were in the playoffs and everything was looking very good to transfer in the Round of 12. I learned there are different levels of steering going away. I have experienced a couple of those levels. But the one I had at the Roval, it was nearly impossible to drive, and that was by far the most miserable I have been. My hands were destroyed. The gloves didn't even work anymore because the whole fabric was almost like a tortilla, like a little roll. 3. Outside of racing, what is your most recent memory of something you got way too competitive about? You know the game Phase 10, with cards? My family was just in town for the Coke 600 with my best friend and a few people. Everything is about what kind of cards you get. I would say it's 90 percent luck. And man, I was having a rough night. So I started cheating, and then I started winning, and then I got caught, and then they were checking me and I was trying to do business with the person that was around me. I'm competing with everything I do. (Wife) Julia will tell you that sometimes she gets annoyed because everything I do, I try to convert it into a competition. 4. What do people get wrong about you? A handful of years ago, they thought I was coming from family money. Now people have seen a little bit more of my story and my background. That bothered me, because I actually wish those people who thought I was growing up in a family with a lot of money got to see a little bit of where I grew up. That's the one thing I'm 100 percent sure of: Nobody here in the garage had it as rough as I had it growing up. It was different and difficult. 5. What kind of Uber passenger are you, and how much do you care about your Uber rating? For some reason, my Uber rating is actually pretty good, but I don't use it a lot. Most of the time we use (Julia's). I don't really care about it too much, to be honest; Julia does care. I'm very easygoing when it comes to that. Sometimes I get drivers who are extremely cautious, and when they are extremely cautious, I just make fun of the situation, especially if I'm with Julia. Advertisement 6. This is a wild-card question where I'm mixing it up for each person. With the Mexico City race coming up, there's going to be so much pressure on you, and you are the face of the race. Not only is there pressure on you in terms of people watching to see how you'll perform, but you're being asked to do so many things – interviews and appearances and publicizing all this stuff. When we get there, how are you going to balance getting the rest you need and having the preparation you need to focus on your race while also trying to help the race as a whole? It's a tricky balance. I've been hoping for this moment to come for years, since I won the championship in Xfinity almost 10 years ago (in 2016). And now we are here. It's not just a very special moment for myself, but also for the sport, for the industry. Obviously, I'm very proud of being part of this race, of this event. I'm very proud of bringing you guys in the media, the teams and the drivers to my home to teach you a little bit about myself and about my culture. So I'm extremely proud, and I've been working very hard to make sure this event is going to be extremely successful. With that being said, once we get to Friday, it's time to be selfish because I want to be the best version of myself, and I know we can win the race. But for that, I have to execute everything right, and I have to be on my game. So I'm going to be traveling to Mexico City very early, way earlier than normal (he flew Tuesday), so I can acclimate with the altitude, I can start training a little bit and then do a lot of media activities I have to do. And once Friday starts, I have to slow down because I have to focus on racing. 7. This is my 16th year of doing these 12 Questions interviews, so I've been going back to an earlier one to see how your answer compares. The first time we did this was 2015, so 10 years ago. At the time, I asked you if you've ever been mistaken for another driver. You said no. In the decade since then, do you get confused for someone else? It doesn't happen often at all. But someone a few months ago called me Alex Bowman. I was like, 'What the heck, man? I think I'm way better looking than him!' (Laughs.) Maybe we had similarly-colored paint schemes that weekend. They were like, 'Alex! Alex!' I said, 'I'm Daniel.' 8. Other than one of your teammates, name a driver who you would be one of the first people to congratulate them in victory lane if they won a race. Bubba Wallace, (Ryan) Blaney or Chase (Elliott) because I have known those guys for a very long time. When I won my first race, it was very meaningful to me, and all those guys showed up. They knew it was special for me. Most of the time when you get beat at the racetrack, you're not super happy. It's very rare when somebody is happy for someone else, like genuinely. And those guys were very happy for me. So that means a lot. Advertisement 9. How much do you use AI technology, whether for your job or your daily life? I have never used it, actually. I tried once with my engineer. We were just messing around and did 'Draw Daniel Suárez, race car driver, with a sombrero and eating a taco.' And 'now put him in a race car.' But I didn't even do it (myself); he was doing it with me. 10. What is a time in your life you felt was really challenging, but you are proud of the way you responded to it? That's a very easy question for me. In 2011, I came to the United States and I didn't have anything. I was living with friends of friends, and I couldn't even rent an apartment because I didn't have Social Security and I didn't speak English. Somebody asked me, 'Hey, what has been the biggest challenge in your racing career?' And they didn't believe me when I said to them, 'learning English.' I'm being serious. I've had a lot of very, very big challenges, but learning English was the one challenge where I was a little bit scared. … I knew I didn't want the language to be the reason why I wasn't going to have a real shot at it. 11. What needs to happen in NASCAR to take this sport to the next level of popularity? The first thing is we have to continue to get to know the drivers in a personal way. The Netflix show 'Full Speed' is a great way to get to know drivers on a personal level. I personally have learned a lot about all the drivers just from watching this show. A lot of fans know who I am as a driver, but they don't know who I am as a person. And also for drivers to be authentic. I wish sometimes NASCAR let us open up a little bit more (without) the fines and all the different things. If you're aggressive and you want to show your emotions, show it. If you want to say something on the radio, say it. I don't want drivers to be too vanilla. I wish we could be allowed a little bit more to show whatever we're thinking or our emotions. The second thing is … the sport is very big internationally. Having a wife from Brazil, me being from Mexico and I have spent a lot of time in Europe. There are a lot of NASCAR fans around the world, and NASCAR obviously is working very hard on this. But we have to continue that path, because there is just a lot of opportunity. Obviously, the United States is our main market, and that's going to continue to be the main market forever. With that being said, there are opportunities to continue to grow south of the border, like we're doing with Mexico. In South America — Brazil and Argentina — you have no idea how big motorsports are down there. It's huge. The race in Mexico is going to be the beginning of a lot more things internationally, hopefully. 12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person, the last one was with Corey Heim. He says (of you): 'Aside from Trackhouse, he's never been able to settle into a groove with one team. He was with the Xfinity team with Gibbs for one year, won the championship, went Cup racing probably prematurely (when Carl Edwards suddenly retired). Once he was getting in his groove (in Cup with Gibbs), he's out the door going to Haas, and then once he was getting his groove there, he's out the door with the next move. What's it been like to have to readjust constantly every year versus being comfortable and finding his groove at Trackhouse?' Once I went to the Xfinity Series, I felt like I had (a) home and I was able to hit home runs fairly early in my career. Once I went to the Cup Series, it was a completely different game. I started to realize talent wasn't just going to do it (alone); it was going to require way more than that. It's going to require preparation. It's going to require the group of people around you. It's going to require a group of people trying to push you to go to the next level. Advertisement I struggled with that. I really struggled to find that home, to find that group of people, that group of leaders in the company. I'm not saying they didn't want me to be successful, but when you have an organization that has several teams, sometimes you have priorities. You have sponsors, and it's a business, right? Unfortunately, I felt like I was always on the short end of the stick until I came to Trackhouse. At Trackhouse, we still obviously have work to do. We want to continue to build this place to be a consistent contender, a team that can be fighting on a weekly basis with the big teams — Penske, Hendrick and Gibbs. Hopefully, definitely I have found a home here. Hopefully, we can continue to build this, to continue to bring Trackhouse to the next level. The next interview is with Christopher Bell. Do you have a question I can ask him? How many dirt races are you doing this year? Do you think it helps you for the Cup races, or is it just something (you've loved) doing since you were younger? (Top photo of Daniel Suárez at last month's All-Star Race: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Vote now for The News Tribune's Girls Athlete of the Week (March 3 to 8)
Vote for The News Tribune's Girls Athlete of the Week for contests played between March 3-8. Voting will remain open until noon Thursday. The poll is located below. You can read about all of the candidates and their accomplishments below. Note: If you are not seeing the poll at the bottom of the story, try opening the story in a different browser, such as Chrome or Safari. Votes emailed will not be counted. Want to nominate a South Sound high school athlete in the future? Email reporter Jon Manley ( or Tyler Wicke (twicke@ or send a direct message on Twitter/X (@manley_tnt or @WickeTyler) with the athlete's first and last name, school, year, position and a stat line from game(s) during the past week. Nominations must be submitted by 5 p.m. Sunday. Jasmine Andrisek, Annie Wright basketball — Gators guard grabbed 18 rebounds with 13 points and two assists in Wednesday's 1A Round of 12 win over Lakeside at the state tournament, 71-57. Kawehi Borden, Sumner basketball — Sophomore guard carried the Spartans to the 4A state championship game averaging 20.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in the Tacoma Dome. All-tournament first-team selection dropped 24 points with five rebounds in a title-game loss to No. 1 Davis. Olivia Collins, Sumner basketball — Junior guard and 4A all-tournament first-team selection guided Spartans to the state championship game, including a 25-point performance over Woodinville (semis) and 14-point, 10-rebound double-double over Camas in the state quarterfinals. Shayla Cordis, North Thurston basketball — Rams shooting guard posted 15+ points and 3+ rebounds in all three games at the Tacoma Dome's 3A state tournament last week, including 23 points, six boards, and four assists in Saturday's third-place win over Garfield. Avery Hansen, Auburn basketball — Trojans guard had 16-point, 12-rebound double-double in Round of 12 win over Redmond, then posted 16-point, 11-rebound double-double in Saturday's loss to Chiawana in the state's fourth-place game. 4A all-tournament second-team selection. Aaliyeh Martin, Annie Wright basketball — Gators guard guided Annie Wright to 1A semifinals with 22 points, six rebounds, and four assists in Round of 12 win over Lakeside and double-double (10 PTS, 10 REB) in quarterfinals vs. Seton Catholic. Soraya Ogaldez, North Thurston basketball — Rams point guard took No. 2 North Thurston to the 3A state semifinals with 29 points, eight rebounds, and three assists in Thursday's quarterfinal win over Bellevue. All-tournament first-team selection had 24-point, 11-rebound double-double in third-place win over Garfield. Maggee Schmitz, White River basketball — Hornets guard dropped 23 points with eight rebounds and five assists in Wednesday's 3A Round of 12 loss to Garfield at the Tacoma Dome, 51-47.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Watch Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman crash in NASCAR Atlanta race
Alex Bowman and Chris Buescher had a quick crash in the NASCAR Atlanta race. Bowman and Buescher collided on lap 204 of the scheduled 260 in Sunday's Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Chris Buescher got clipped by Chase Briscoe and spun out going down the frontstretch and collected Bowman. Bowman's front bumper was damaged and he had a flat front right tire. Both drivers were able to continue at the back of the lead lap. Frontstretch issues once more, this time involving @Chris_Buescher and @Alex_Bowman. — NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 23, 2025 Bowman has eight NASCAR Cup Series wins in his career, which began in 2014. Bowman has 40 top five finishes and 97 top 10 finishes. He has won five pole awards in his career. Bowman's win last year was at the Chicago street course. Last season, Bowman was eliminated from the NASCAR Playoffs in the Round of 12 after being disqualified from the Charlotte ROVAL race for not meeting the required weight at the end of the race. Follow sports writer Austin Chastain on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @ChastainAJ or reach him via email at achastain@ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Atlanta race: Watch Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman crash
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NASCAR top 20 storylines heading into 2025 season, including 23XI Racing lawsuit
The NASCAR Cup Series season begins Sunday with the Daytona 500, the premier race on the series schedule. It's the first of 36 races in the 2025 season, a 10-month journey that will end with the championship race in November at Phoenix. It was not a quiet offseason, with off-track movements and the 23XI-Front Row lawsuit against NASCAR dominating the news cycle. The 2024 season also didn't lack for storylines, with close finishes, controversial officiating decisions and Joey Logano's third title as the prevailing headlines. Here are 20 storylines heading into the 2025 NASCAR season: 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports jointly filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR on Oct. 3, 2024 while not signing the charter agreements for 2025. A U.S. District Court ruled in December that both teams can compete in 2025 as charter teams and could finalize previously-agreed charter acquisitions from Stewart-Haas Racing. The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial after the 2025 season is over, but the judicial jockeying will be a shadow over the season for those teams and the field at large. SVG is the rare Cup Series rookie who already has a victory, two seasons ago at the Chicago Street Course. There's no doubt van Gisbergen will be a favorite at each road course race this season, but he'll need to show marked improvement on ovals to become a true contender as a rookie. But don't doubt his talent. Kyle Busch has not won since June 2023, missing out on the playoffs last season. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in 2024. Is there more of a high-ceiling, low-floor team and driver this season than Busch and RCR? No outcome would surprise. Talladega moves from the Round of 12 cutoff race to the second race in the Round of 8, which should only further irritate matters more than usual in October. Just as important: There will be three tracks shorter than 1.5 miles in the first round (Darlington, Gateway and Bristol). That's not a good sign for any potential regular-season winners who lean on their results from either road courses or superspeedways. Chase Elliott had a better 2024 season than his dreadful 2023 that included an injury, a suspension and no victories. But the reality is that Elliott has just one win since the fall of 2022. Elliott's Cup Series title is now five years in the rear view mirror too. When will the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet return as a multi-time winner and a constant contender? Helio Castroneves could be the first driver to utilize the open exemption provisional if he cannot qualify the No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet into the Daytona 500 field via speed or the duel races. It's not expected that too many race fields will be large enough for the OEP to be necessary, though the races at Chicago and Mexico City could create chances for drivers in other series. Will the OEP allow star drivers a chance to be competitive, or will it create a scenario where a driver is out of their depth as a 41st car in the field? A few drivers are primed to have a career-best season and vault into the championship favorite conversation. Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick immediately come to mind; neither have had more than three wins in a season, and few would be surprised to see either post five or more wins in 2025. How about Chase Briscoe in a new ride? Ty Gibbs enters his third full-time Cup season with one goal: Get his first Cup Series victory. Gibbs is 22, so the best years of his career are well ahead of him. But it's also rare for a Joe Gibbs Racing race team to go three seasons without victory. In the last decade, the Cup garage has lost a massive amount of starpower via retirement. That list includes Jeff Gordon (2015), Carl Edwards (2016), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2017), Matt Kenseth (last full-time season in 2017), Kasey Kahne (2018), Jimmie Johnson (2020), Kurt Busch (2022), Kevin Harvick (2023) and Martin Truex Jr. (2024). Who's next? Denny Hamlin turned 44 in November but is still a title contender. Brad Keselowski is already an owner as well as a driver, and he turns 41 on Wednesday. Kyle Busch is 39. Barring a surprise, NASCAR's retirement parade can halt for a while. LET'S GO RACING: When is the Daytona 500? See the full NASCAR Speedweek schedule, including Daytona Duels Joey Logano earned his third career Cup Series title last season, and another will put him in rarified air. Only four drivers have ever won four or more Cup titles (Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon). Despite what some may think about how he performed in 2024 before the playoffs, Logano's career is befitting of his Sliced Bread nickname. Thinking back, it's surprising that all four SHR drivers from 2024 landed full-time rides in the Cup Series. Chase Briscoe is replacing the retired Martin Truex Jr. at Joe Gibbs Racing. Josh Berry is the new driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. Noah Gragson joined the now three-car team at Front Row Motorsports. Ryan Preece is the driver of the new third full-time car at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. Too many races throughout the summer last year did NASCAR Senior VP of Competition Elton Sawyer speak postrace to the media about a controversial decision related to something that happened on-track. It was even more pronounced at Martinsville, as Christopher Bell and William Byron waited for several minutes on a decision from race control about the legality of Bell's wall ride on the final lap. If anything improves this season, it needs to be the overall function of race control. I know, the 2025 season hasn't began yet. But the rumors and speculation about the 2026 schedule will crank up with the heat once the schedule hits May and June. What else do Ben Kennedy and NASCAR have up their sleeve after adding the Mexico City race and a trip to Bowman Gray Stadium in 2025? Canada is a logical next step. CLASH: NASCAR Clash winners and losers: Ryan Blaney nearly goes from worst to first, while Kyle Busch struggles NASCAR will have streaming-only Cup Series races for the first time in its history when Amazon Prime Video broadcasts a stretch of the schedule. starting with the Coca-Cola 600 in May. Even with a year's advance notice, it's certain that NASCAR fans will be agitated by the move no matter how good the initial broadcast is on the Sunday before Memorial Day. But it's an established part of the sports and TV ecosystem and increases the available broadcast partners for the sanctioning body. The Cup Series heads south to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City in June for the first points race outside of the United States in the modern era. It's a new market (and a very large one), and NASCAR has done well recently in presenting races at new locales. It's the most anticipated race of the season. NASCAR announced that the playoff format won't change, which creates a collision course for havoc and chaos on Oct. 19 in the second race of the Round of 8 at Talladega Superspeedway. This will be the first time Talladega's fall race takes place in the Round of 8. It's a recipe for future controversy. Chase Briscoe began his Cup career at Stewart-Haas Racing, but expectations were low. Briscoe's No. 14 Ford never was expected to be a title contender a la Kevin Harvick's No. 4, and last season was overshadowed by SHR closing at the end of the year. Briscoe now steps into the No. 19 Toyota, driven over the last several years by Martin Truex Jr. We know it can be a strong race team and can contend consistently, and Briscoe should be expected to perform accordingly. RFK (Ryan Preece), Trackhouse (SVG), Front Row (Noah Gragson) and 23XI (Riley Herbst) are all adding a third full-time car in 2025. Doing so can be a tricky proposition; all four teams have been trending up in their own ways over the last few seasons, but stretching resources further can be risky. Will the NextGen car help these teams in Year 1? Berry struggled in his rookie Cup season at SHR, while the Wood Brothers' No. 21 Ford struggled all season outside of the shock win for Harrison Burton at Daytona in August. Berry and Wood Brothers Racing both have something to prove. Rumor has it that Joey Logano is still running on fumes at pace car speed at Nashville Superspeedway, somehow. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR top 20 storylines heading into 2025 season, including Kyle Busch
