Daniel Suárez and his No. 99 Chevrolet team are ready to make a playoff push in the final 10 races of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series regular season that begins with Sunday night’s race at Nashville Superspeedway.
Suárez is 17th in points just three behind the 16th and final playoff position. He knows he needs to climb above that mark and even higher to guarantee a second consecutive year in the playoffs.
He’ll be wearing the colors of the home team in Nashville this weekend as his No. 99 carries the Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge livery.
The world famous honky tonk will certainly be a hangout of Trackhouse team members during the weekend and the site of a victory party Sunday night if Suárez wins the trophy.
He arrives in Nashville after an off weekend when he returned home to Mexico to visit family. In the two races before the off weekend, Suárez had notched a 22nd-place finish at Sonoma and a seventh-place finish at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis.
The Nashville area is Trackhouse Entertainment headquarters. The weekend will be busy with three days of track activity on and off the track as well, beginning with practice on Friday, qualifying Saturday and the race Sunday.
The 1.33-mile track in Lebanon, Tennessee hosted its first Cup Series race in 2021 where Suárez started 22nd and finished seventh.
NBC will broadcast Sunday’s race at 7 p.m. EDT.
Daniel Suárez:
What is going to happen in these next 10 races?
“There are a lot of things still to happen. We have a lot of wildcard races coming up like the Chicago Street Circuit, road courses, things like that. I think we will be OK. We are getting better and better. Points wise we are about the same as we were last year, but speed wise we are probably a bit better. Our challenge has been execution this year. We have been fast at 90-percent of the tracks.”
Are you thinking about points and playoffs?
“No, I try not to even think about those things. My belief is if you focus on today, not tomorrow or next week or next year, then everything will take care of itself. If we run good Sunday and follow it up with more good runs then we will be fine playoff and points wise.”
How do the short practice times impact race weekends?
“When you have limited practice there are two things that matter. The drivers don’t have much time to familiarize themselves with the track and you have little time to make major setup changes. That’s why you see drivers entering the Xfinity, truck and ARCA races some weekends. We also put a lot of time in the simulator back at the shop. As for making changes, the winning car usually shows up at the track that way. We put a lot of work into getting the car right before we get to the track. You can make changes at the track, but it it’s the work at the shop that matters most.”
Trackhouse Racing PR
