NASCAR Cup rookie Daniel Suarez could be about to make a big impression on stock car racing’s top tier.
NASCAR’s biggest race, the Daytona 500, has had only one foreign-born winner in its history.
Could Daniel Suarez become the first to follow in the wheeltracks of 1967 winner Mario Andretti this weekend? Or bigger yet, the first foreign-born champion of NASCAR’s premier series? Both are possible this season.
Just over five years ago, Suarez could hardly speak a word of English. He left his home in Monterrey, Mexico, to chase a dream in NASCAR, not knowing if could he find acceptance as a foreigner, or as a racer on the track.
If he can master an unexpected ascension to the rebranded Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this year in the same fashion as he has the language, NASCAR may be set to go truly international.
The departure of Carl Edwards from NASCAR in the off season left Joe Gibbs Racing scrambling for a replacement in the Cup series. It immediately turned to Suarez.
Even though he didn’t turn his first lap in the Cup car until a test at Phoenix International Raceway earlier this month, Suarez had already been turning heads. When he captured his first victory in the Xfinity Series last June at Michigan International Speedway, NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr, was on hand watching from the broadcast booth.
“He made a statement today that he’s the real deal,” Earnhardt said of Suarez. “I think a lot of people knew that, but if they didn’t, they found out today.”
This weekend, Suarez will make his Cup series debut in the ‘Great American Race’. The bar has been raised even further. Once again, he will face daunting odds in sometimes uncomfortable and unfamiliar surroundings. But that has never stopped him before.
An unlikely racer
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