Daniel Suarez reiterated Saturday he doesn’t want his Atlanta Motor Speedway victory to be the only highlight of the season.
Suarez is looking at a return to the NASCAR postseason for the first time since 2022, courtesy of being the first to the finish line in a three-wide photo finish last weekend. But the Trackhouse Racing driver isn’t looking that far ahead.
“We have a long way [to go] before the playoffs,” Suarez said at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “In my mind, I don’t want to be one of those drivers that wins one race to get into the playoffs and that’s it. I don’t want to be part of that. The goal here is to do more than that, to be strong in the regular season championship.
“I know that to be able to contend for the championship, you have to win three or more races and that’s the goal. The goal is to build a strong season where we have stage points, where we have wins, so that when we get into the playoffs, it’s not just, ‘Oh, we made the playoffs,’ but in a strong fashion. That’s the goal and we’re working hard, everyone at Trackhouse Racing, to be able to deliver that.”
He scored his first career win at Sonoma in 2022 in his sixth full season as a Cup Series driver. It was his only victory that season. Last year, he went winless and failed to make the postseason, and Atlanta marks his second career win.
Suarez has seen that winning multiple races is the key to success. Ross Chastain, his Trackhouse teammate, won two races in 2022 and competed for the championship. Chastain won twice last year and finished in the top 10 in points again.
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By winning early in the season, Suarez admitted his No. 99 team may now be able to find more ways to earn points. Unless there are more than 16 different winners, he has a guaranteed playoff spot through his win, so focusing on stage points and playoff points for his seeding can become more of a priority.
“I had a meeting with Squid (Matt Swiderski), my crew chief, about it,” Suarez said. “It definitely gives us a lot more freedom. We want to gamble wisely; you don’t want to do just wild gambles and hope for the best, like a stage running long and hoping for things to just fall in your lap. But you can gamble a little bit in the setup. You can gamble a little bit on the strategy. You can push the limits a little bit harder in a few areas. I think it’s a very good thing.
“With that being said, it’s also very important to continue to be consistent, to continue to be strong, and to have in mind that yeah, we’re in the playoffs, but in my mind, one win won’t do it to be able to get to Phoenix to fight for a championship. You have to really build your resume over the year, and we have to continue to do that.”
Suarez finished a career-best 10th in the championship standings when he made the playoffs in 2022. Saturday, he qualified 16th at the first intermediate racetrack of the season.
“I think, honestly, this weekend for us is going to be a very, very important weekend,” Suarez said. “For everyone, because we have a lot of mile-and-a-half [tracks], and this is the first one with this package, and we have to see where we stack up and where we’re strong and where are the areas that we aren’t very strong that we have to work on. We’re going to find out a lot of things today and tomorrow, and I’m very excited for that.”