Daniel Suárez and the No. 41 Walmart Family Mobile Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) make the trek to Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA Texas 500.
Texas is special for Suárez for many reasons. Not only is it the track closest to his hometown of Monterrey, Mexico, but Walmart Family Mobile adorns the No. 41 Mustang for its first race as primary sponsor. Walmart Family Mobile offers wireless plans and devices that meet the needs of NASCAR fans across the country.
Additionally, this weekend is the fourth and final Daniel’s Amigos event of the season. Texas expects to host approximately 1,000 Daniel’s Amigos attendees at the track Sunday. Daniel’s Amigos is a fan-focused movement to engage and celebrate with the Latino community with support from Coca-Cola, NASCAR, International Speedway Corporation, Speedway Motorsports Incorporated and SHR.
And finally, November 1 and 2 is the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos or “Day of the Dead.” In honor of the holiday, Suárez had a special helmet design created to commemorate the weekend. The design was created by Agustin Chavez, a Dallas-based artist who originally hails from Suárez’s hometown of Nuevo Leon. Locally, Chavez in known for his mural designs. The helmet is modeled after the calavera, or sugar skull, which are traditionally decorated with icing to be colorful and fun.
Fans watching Sunday’s race on television will also have the opportunity to view Suárez’s perspective from inside the Walmart Family Mobile Mustang while he makes laps at Texas via his helmet camera courtesy of Coca-Cola.
On the track, Suárez earned his best finish of the season at Texas last spring with a third-place result. He started April’s race fourth, led nine laps, and earned 12 bonus points throughout the 334-lap event. In his five Cup Series starts, he’s earned one top-five finish and one top-10. He has an average starting position of 12.6 and an average finishing position of 18.6 at the 1.5-mile track.
The Mexico native has five starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Texas with one top-five finish and two top-10s, along with three laps led. In the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, he made three starts in 2015 and 2016 with top-five finishes in all three, including two runner-up results, along with six laps led.
In Suárez’s last 10 Cup Series starts at tracks 1.5-miles in length, he has accumulated one top-five finish and three top-10s with 109 laps led, with an average starting position of 12.8 and an average finish of 17.6.
SHR has three wins at the Fort Worth track, the most recent by Kevin Harvick in November 2018.
The Haas Automation driver is 18th in the standings with 764 points and has three top-fives and 10 top-10s this season, along with 141 laps led. He has an average start of 14.3 and an average finish of 16.9. He earned his second career Cup Series pole, first with the No. 41 team, in July at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.
DANIEL SUÁREZ, Driver of the No. 41 Walmart Family Mobile Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Texas is the final Daniel’s Amigos activation of the season. How do you feel about the success of the program?
“It has been incredible to see the Daniel’s Amigos program grow so much this year. It’s great to bring new people to the racetrack and make them fans. I’m extremely happy to be in the position to actually help move the needle for Latinos in NASCAR. Coca-Cola, NASCAR, ISC and SMI have all invested so much time and effort to really bring this program to life. I’ve heard that Texas might be the most attended one, yet, which will make it really special.”
How do you feel going into Texas?
“We’ve had our best finish this year at Texas, and I hope we can finish a couple of spots higher this time and end up in victory lane. It’s going to be a busy weekend with Walmart Family Mobile, Daniel’s Amigos and I’m also celebrating the Dia de los Muertos holiday, which is very special to my Mexican culture. We’ve had a rough couple of weeks on the track with accidents, but we have three more races to go and I think we can get solid finishes.”
