Mexico’s Daniel Suárez is riding a wave of popularity ahead of Sunday’s race at PIR.
Can you keep a secret? Daniel Suárez can. The Mexicanborn NASCAR driver was celebrating the end of his wildly successful 2016 season as Xfinity Series champion, feasting privately with a small circle of family and friends at a high-dollar restaurant in his homeland, when his cell phone rang.
It was Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I knew something was up because he was, like, on a conference call with three other people and I said, ‘Man, something beautiful is about to happen here,’ ” Suárez said, recalling the late December conversation during a phone interview on Wednesday with azcentral sports.
Indeed, Gibbs was calling to formally offer Suárez a full-time ride in the Monster Energy Cup Series this season. But it came with a hitch. Suárez would be replacing veteran driver Carl Edwards, who had yet to formally announce his retirement, and Suárez was instructed by Gibbs not to say a word about anything to anybody.
“He told me it was top secret,” Suárez said, laughing. “When he called me and asked where I was, I told him and he said to me, ‘Get up from the table and excuse yourself.’ So I told everyone I would be right back, and it turns out I was gone for like 45 minutes.
“I came back to the table and everyone is looking at me like something happened. They were just waiting for me to say something, and I just sat there and didn’t say anything. My girlfriend said, ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘I can’t tell you.’ I just told her I had a call with these people and someday next year, I’d tell her what it’s about.”
The cat has been out of the bag for a while now, but it should come as no surprise that Gibbs picked Suárez to join his four-driver team alongside Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth. After all, in just his second year in the Xfinity Series, Suárez became the first foreign-born driver to win a NASCAR championship when he captured the second-tier series title at age 24. He finished fifth in the Xfinity Series the year before as a rookie.
“Once we learned that Carl would not return, Daniel was really the obvious choice to take the wheel of this newly designed 2018 Camry,” Gibbs said in announcing the agreement. “He is a great fit for our team and our partners. He’s worked extremely hard and proven to be a quick learner, and he will have great teammates to lean on. This might be a bit earlier than we anticipated, but he has earned this opportunity, and we are excited for his future.”
Given that NASCAR has a new title sponsor for its Cup series, not to mention a brand new points system and playoff format, it only figures that the sport is primed for a new rising young star as well. How about Suárez? He’s already so popular, especially here in Arizona, that Phoenix International Raceway is celebrating Suárez and his No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry by offering $19 ticket packages for Sunday’s Camping World 500.
The deal comes with a Suárez-autographed trading card (limited to the first 250 fans) and a chance to win a meet and greet with the driver before the big race. For details, visit PhoenixRaceway.com/ Suarez19.