Daniel Suarez

Last season's move to Gaunt Brothers Racing didn't go quite as planned for Suarez. He earned just three Top-20 finishes, and wound up a distant 31st-place in the driver point standings. The 28-year-old Mexican has parted ways with the team after just one season, and has joined Justin Mark's new race team, Trackhouse Racing. It will field the No. 99 Chevrolet for Suarez and have a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing. This should be a modestly better team for Suarez in 2021, however, a new race team. Travis Mack comes to the team as crew chief and brings four seasons and 96-combined starts of experience between the Cup and Xfinity Series. Suarez will be challenged to make many gains with this new team, but there are some encouraging signs even before their first race.

After three seasons of racing at NASCAR's top level, Suarez finds himself without a ride heading into 2020. Stewart Haas Racing parted ways with the young Mexican at the conclusion of 2019. Cole Custer's star was rising fast, and there was no preventing him from taking over the No. 41 Ford at SHR. Suarez is still looking at his options for 2020, but Cup prospects are growing thin. Rumors have him more likely heading to the Xfinity Series. Richard Childress Racing has been courting Suarez to take over one of the team's Chevrolets in that division of NASCAR. It would be a good landing spot for Suarez and a much more competitive situation than what he has available to him in Cup. Suarez has some good potential if a decent door opens in NASCAR's top division, but it's more likely that he'll go race for wins and a possible championship in Xfinity with RCR this season.

At the time of this writing it's not official, but it looks like Suarez is poised to take over the No. 41 Ford at Stewart Haas Racing. This is the same car that Kurt Busch raced to one win and 22 Top 10s last season. Before we go off extrapolating all kinds of weird stats for this young driver, let's take a quick look at his Joe Gibbs Racing experience the last two seasons. Suarez took over the No. 19 Toyota in January 2017 when Carl Edwards unexpectedly retired. He was decent enough in his rookie season, collecting 12 Top 10 finishes and finishing 20th in the standings. However, the sophomore campaign showed no growth at all. Suarez labored to just nine Top 10s and finished a similar 21st in the final driver standings. While his flirtation with victory lane and runner-up finish at Pocono in the mid-summer opened some eyes, it proved to be just a blip on the radar screen. Suarez was forced out at the No. 19 Toyota by incoming star, Martin Truex Jr., so you could say there's some ill feelings and bad blood between the young Mexican and his former boss. However, Suarez has a lot to prove and some big shoes to fill once again in a new race team. Can he measure up to the pressure?

With the sudden retirement of Carl Edwards last January, Suarez was thrust into the spotlight. He took over the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota and he performed extremely well given his brief period of racing in the Xfinity Series. Suarez notched 12 Top-10 finishes and waged a spirited battle with Erik Jones for last season's rookie of the year. The young Mexican hit a bit of a rough patch to close out last season, but he learned a tremendous amount in his first full season of racing at NASCAR's top level. The entire No. 19 team returns intact for the new season, so Suarez will have the same cast and support as last year. We expect to see him grow and continue to improve in 2018. Suarez missed the Chase for the Cup in season one, but he should have no trouble making the playoff field in season two.

With the shocking and late-breaking news in mid-January that Carl Edwards would not be returning to the No. 19 Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing, Suarez was suddenly thrust into the Rookie of the Year discussion. The 24-year-old Mexican is fresh off the Xfinity Series championship in 2016, and was looking to defend that title in the upcoming season before the unexpected promotion. Suarez will be paired with Edwards' crew chief, Dave Rogers, and he'll look to make the Chase for the Cup in year one and win ROTY honors. The talented youngster has made his mark in the Xfinity Series in a very short time. Suarez piled up one championship, three victories and 45 Top-10 finishes in just 68 starts. He has loads of ability and is very coachable, but has zero experience in the Monster Energy Cup Series car.

The 2015 Rookie of the Year in this racing series returns to up the ante. Suarez didn’t break into victory lane in his rookie year, but he steadily progressed as the season wore on and put up some very good numbers. The first-full season of racing in the Xfinity Series yielded three pole positions and 18 Top-10 finishes for the driver of the No. 19 Toyota. Suarez ended last year with a flurry of six-straight Top-10 finishes to serve notice he would be a power in the upcoming season. The young driver gets a change in crew chiefs this season with Scott Graves taking over, but that should be of little concern. Suarez was really figuring these Xfinity cars out over the stretch run of last season and that learning curve should continue upward into 2016.