Daniel Suárez, the star of NASCAR’s Mexico City weekend and most recent Xfinity Series race winner, has spent nearly a decade carving his path in the Cup Series. Though his win column holds just two victories, Suárez made history as the first Mexican driver to capture a victory at NASCAR’s top level. His journey, however, has been anything but smooth, a story marked by hard-earned breakthroughs and brutal setbacks.
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When asked to recall the lowest moment he has ever endured behind the wheel, Suárez didn’t hesitate: “In 2022, at the (Charlotte) Roval, when my steering rack broke.” Heading into that race, Suárez was ready for a strong playoff run, with solid stage finishes putting him in prime position to advance to the Round of 12. But it turned into a nightmare drive.
Suárez described learning the hard way that there are degrees to power steering failure, and what he faced at the Roval, in his words, “was nearly impossible to drive.” The ordeal left his hands blistered and battered. “My hands were destroyed. The gloves didn’t even work anymore because the whole fabric was almost like a tortilla, like a little roll,” he recalled.
After banking third and sixth in the opening stages, Suárez’s No. 99 Chevrolet began to falter early in the final segment, around Lap 65 of the Bank of America Roval 400. As the power steering faded, so did his shot at the next playoff round. Still, he fought through exhaustion, holding out for a caution to minimize the damage. That lifeline never came.
By Lap 72, Suárez dropped a lap down, prompting his team to gamble on green-flag repairs. But as he wrestled the car around Charlotte’s demanding 2.32-mile road course, the damage was already done. Two lengthy pit stops compounded his struggles, and his 36th-place finish, five laps behind, left him nine points below the cut line, erasing the 12-point cushion he had entering the race.
Despite the heartbreak, 2022 stood as Suárez’s most impressive Cup campaign to date. He captured his maiden win at Sonoma and tallied a career-best six top-five finishes. But for Suárez, the sting of what slipped through his fingers at the Roval still lingers, showing how one mechanical failure can unravel a season meant for greatness.
Suárez’s 2024 season also ended at Roval due to brake issues
Daniel Suárez’s playoff hopes unraveled after two finishes of 26th or worse in three races leading up to the Roval, capped by a frustrating 30th-place run at Charlotte, where brake issues left him out of contention. While elimination from the postseason stung, it was the manner of his exit that cut deepest.
“It’s just painful. It’s painful to be out of the playoffs this way. That’s the part that’s more painful than anything. If we would have finished fifth and I was out of the playoffs, I would be happy. We worked really hard, but for some reason, it didn’t show today,” Suarez said after the race.
Ultimately, Suárez closed the year 12th in the final driver standings — a campaign that ended not with a bang, but with a bitter sting of what might have been.
