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Carl Edwards' move opens opportunity for Daniel Suarez
The plan was originally for Daniel Suarez to defend his Xfinity Series championship in 2017.
Plans change.
Carl Edwards’ decision to step away from NASCAR in 2017 means Suarez won’t have the opportunity to become the first back-to-back Xfinity champion since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Instead, he’ll be going for a Chase berth in the Cup Series in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 car.
Suarez said he found out about his promotion for this season while having lunch with his girlfriend and her parents. After realizing the calls he was getting were important, he stepped away from the table for a while. Then was sworn to secrecy when he got back.
“And then when I came back, Silvia and her parents, they were asking me what was going on because I came back with a smile like this. So they were asking me what was going on. Well, really I wasn’t able to say anything, so I didn’t say anything.”
Suarez became the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR race — and subsequently a NASCAR championship — in 2016. Now he’ll be the first Mexican driver to compete full-time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
He’s already got a taste of the fame he’s earned over the last year when he went back to Mexico over the offseason and attended an exhibition race for the NASCAR Mexico Series.
“Everyone was thanking to me and everyone was asking me for pictures,” Suarez said. “Actually some big names in México, they were asking me for pictures, where normally three years ago I was asking them for pictures. So it was something huge. It was something huge for me.”
While Suarez is joining a team that was the best in the Cup Series in 2016, it may be a tad optimistic to expect a Chase berth in 2017. Teams getting every driver into the Chase doesn’t happen that often, and it’s hard to see Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth missing out in 2017.
But few, if any, people predicted that Suarez would be in the Cup Series starting this season. NASCAR truth is always crazier than fiction.
“I feel like it’s really a dream come true,” Suarez said. “Since I moved to NASCAR when I was 16 years old, this has been something that I’ve been dreaming about, and right now to be in this position is just something amazing.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
