A karting start in Monterrey, the 2016 Xfinity title and Cup wins at Sonoma, Atlanta and Charlotte, traced season by season.
Daniel Suarez is a Mexican stock car driver from Monterrey who won the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with Joe Gibbs Racing. He has raced in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2017, won races at Sonoma and Atlanta, and drives the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports.
From karting in Monterrey to the NASCAR Cup Series, Suarez has built a career that includes an Xfinity title and Cup wins at Sonoma, Atlanta and Charlotte. His 2016 Xfinity Series title also made him the first foreign-born champion of a NASCAR national series.
Who is Daniel Suarez?
Daniel Alejandro Suarez Garza is a Mexican professional stock car driver, born on January 7, 1992, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. He races full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series and part-time in the Craftsman Truck Series, and his Cup car is a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 carrying No. 7 for Spire Motorsports.
Suarez is a native of Monterrey, and he began karting in 2002. He won his class championship in 2007, and the following year he moved into the Mini-Stocks category of NASCAR Mexico, where he was the youngest to take a race win in that category.
A karting start in Monterrey, an Xfinity title in 2016 and Cup wins at Sonoma, Atlanta and Charlotte.
How did Suarez climb through Mexican and regional racing?
Suarez began to climb the regional ranks in 2010, when he joined the NASCAR Mexico Series with Telcel Racing. In 2011 he also started seven K&N Pro Series East races and took eleventh at the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway. That season ended with three poles, a podium and ninth place in the Mexico standings.
In 2012 he finished third in the Mexico championship with two victories, and his K&N East finish was sixteenth overall.
The 2013 season brought a full campaign in the K&N Pro Series East, driving a Toyota for Rev Racing. He won his first series race at Columbus Motor Speedway, added six top-fives and nine top-tens, and finished third in the championship. That same year he was named to NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, and in the NASCAR Toyota Series he was runner-up with three wins and five podiums.
The 2014 season started strongly. He won the first two K&N East races of the year, and in April he made his Nationwide Series debut at Richmond International Raceway, driving the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and finishing nineteenth.
What did the 2016 Xfinity title mean?
His first Xfinity Series victory came at Michigan in 2016, a pass on Kyle Busch on the last lap. That made him the first Mexican-born winner in a NASCAR national touring series, and at Homestead he dominated, then on the last restart, with two laps remaining, he moved into the lead.
A second Xfinity win came at Dover in October, which carried him into the Round of 8 of the Chase. In November he won at Phoenix, his first Camping World Truck Series victory, after William Byron lost an engine.
The title also set a precedent: no foreign-born driver had taken a NASCAR national series crown before him. His Truck and Xfinity wins came in the same season, both in 2016.
How did his Cup career begin at Joe Gibbs Racing?
After Carl Edwards retired, Suarez took over the No. 19 Arris and Stanley Tools Toyota in 2017, working with crew chief Dave Rogers. His early Cup results included an eighth-place finish in the Advance Auto Parts Clash after starting sixteenth, and seventh-place runs at Phoenix and Auto Club.
The season also brought a career-best sixth place at Dover in June and a third-place finish at Watkins Glen. In May he took the last stage of the Monster Energy Open, a result that qualified him for the All-Star Race. He also made his K&N Pro Series West debut at Sonoma with MDM Motorsports, qualifying seventh and finishing eleventh.
In Xfinity he made fourteen starts that year, and his best result was second at the fall Bristol race behind teammate Kyle Busch. He also ran that season with Joe Gibbs Racing's Xfinity program alongside his Cup starts, which kept him busy across both series.
How did the 2018 to 2020 seasons go?
In 2018 Suarez won his first Cup pole at Pocono after two qualifying times were disallowed, and he finished second in that race, a career-best result. The 2019 season with Stewart-Haas Racing, in the No. 41 Ford Mustang GT, ended without a playoff berth. In 2020 he moved to Gaunt Brothers Racing and the No. 96 Toyota.
The 2019 year also included an on-track clash with Michael McDowell in qualifying at Phoenix, which spilled into a fight on pit road. In November it was announced that he would be leaving the No. 41 car.
At Gaunt Brothers he was 22nd in Duel 1 at Daytona after a collision with Ryan Blaney, which kept him out of the Daytona 500. His Las Vegas debut ended 30th, four laps down, and his best finishes were two eighteenth places, at Bristol and Kansas. In October 2020 he confirmed a move to Justin Marks' Trackhouse Racing for 2021.
How did Trackhouse Racing revive his career?
At Trackhouse he drove the No. 99 car, which Carl Edwards had last used. In 2021 he scored the team's first top-five with a fourth at the Bristol dirt race, and top-tens followed at Dover, Nashville and Texas, which helped the team earn a name for competitive racing.
Many observers saw the 2021 move as his strongest remaining opportunity to restart a career that had stalled in the seasons before. Trackhouse quickly built a reputation for close, busy racing, and Suarez was at the centre of much of it.
Trackhouse had acquired several charters from Chip Ganassi Racing before the 2022 season, and Freeway Insurance took primary sponsorship rights for five events. At Sonoma Suarez claimed a Cup Series victory, the first by a Mexican-born driver, and he finished the year tenth in points, a career best.
Not every race went well. He went out in the Round of 12 following a 36th-place finish at the Charlotte Roval. That year he also took over the Truck Series entry at Sonoma on lap 11, after Carson Hocevar was injured.
What happened in 2023 and 2024?
In 2023 Suarez missed the playoffs, ending the year 19th in the points. In March he was fined US$50,000 for bumping Alex Bowman on pit road after the COTA race. In 2024 he won the Mexico Series race at Los Angeles on February 3 and then took his second Cup win at Atlanta three weeks later.
The Atlanta race is the standout result of this period. On February 25, 2024, Suarez took the checkered flag at Atlanta in the Ambetter Health 400. The result was the fourth-closest photo finish in the history of the Cup Series, His margin over Ryan Blaney was 0.003 seconds, and his margin over Kyle Busch was 0.007 seconds.
How did the 2025 season unfold?
The 2025 season opened with thirteenth place in the Daytona 500, but a late wreck at Atlanta left Suarez 33rd. A later wreck with teammate Connor Zilisch at COTA produced a 36th-place result. At Las Vegas he finished second after losing the lead to Josh Berry.
In the Xfinity Series he drove the JR Motorsports No. 9 to victory at Mexico City. On July 1 it was announced that Trackhouse and Suarez would separate once the season finished, closing a run with the team that had begun in 2021.
What did Spire Motorsports bring in 2026?
It was announced in October 2025 that Suarez would take the No. 7 Chevrolet for 2026, succeeding Justin Haley. His season opened with a thirteenth-place finish at Daytona, and his first win with the team came at Charlotte, where rain canceled the rest of the race.
On the Truck side it was announced on April 1 that Suarez would be back in the Craftsman Truck Series at Bristol in the No. 71 for Spire, his first Truck start since 2021. The Spire seat itself had been held by Justin Haley, so the move came a few months after his Trackhouse exit was confirmed.
What does his career look like season by season?
| Season | Team and series | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Rev Racing, K&N Pro Series East | Third in the championship, first series win at Columbus |
| 2015 | Joe Gibbs Racing, Xfinity | Rookie of the Year, fifth in points |
| 2016 | Joe Gibbs Racing, Xfinity | Series champion, first Xfinity win at Michigan |
| 2017 | Joe Gibbs Racing, Cup | No. 19 after Carl Edwards retired; career-best sixth at Dover |
| 2018 | Joe Gibbs Racing, Cup | First Cup pole at Pocono, career-best second place |
| 2019 | Stewart-Haas Racing, Cup | No. 41 Ford; no playoff berth |
| 2020 | Gaunt Brothers Racing, Cup | No. 96 Toyota; best finishes eighteenth at Bristol and Kansas |
| 2021 | Trackhouse Racing, Cup | No. 99; first team top-five, fourth at the Bristol dirt race |
| 2022 | Trackhouse Racing, Cup | First Mexican-born Cup winner at Sonoma; tenth in points |
| 2023 | Trackhouse Racing, Cup | Missed the playoffs; 19th in points |
| 2024 | Trackhouse Racing, Cup | Second Cup win at Atlanta, fourth-closest photo finish |
| 2025 | Trackhouse Racing, Cup | Second at Las Vegas; parted ways with the team in July |
| 2026 | Spire Motorsports, Cup | No. 7 Chevrolet; first Spire win at Charlotte |
Has Suarez appeared outside racing?
Yes. In 2017 he gave his voice to a character named Danny Swervez in Cars 3, the Pixar release, and had a cameo role in Stuber in 2019. In 2020 he appeared on The Bump, a video podcast in the WWE Podcast Network, where he spoke in a segment alongside a wrestling figure.
He also appeared on the Today Show twice. On October 14, 2022, he spoke with Tom Llamas about his first Cup win, and on January 25, 2023, he appeared alongside Jeff Gordon to promote NASCAR's 75th season.
What is his legacy in NASCAR?
His lasting marks include a 2016 title that broke new ground for foreign-born drivers, the first Mexican-born winner of a Cup Series race at Sonoma, and a Truck and Xfinity career that ran alongside his Cup years. Those firsts, together with the Atlanta photo finish, define his place in the sport.
His career has covered karting, Mexico's national series, the Xfinity and Truck series, the Cup Series and a voice role in a Pixar film. Each stage reflects a driver who moved between teams several times and kept finding a way back into the top level.
