Daniel Suárez and the No. 41 Haas Automation Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) heads out west for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The SHR driver will pilot the traditional red-and-black Haas livery for this season’s 27th race.
Last weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the final regular-season event with Suárez among the drivers vying for last two of 16 playoff spots. Suárez’s 11th-place finish in the race was not enough to earn him his first playoff berth, leaving him just four points shy of the 16th and final spot. So, moving forward, he’ll still devote his on-track efforts to finish the best Cup Series season of his young career. Currently 17th in the point standings with 10 races remaining in the season, Suárez has accumulated three top-five finishes and nine top-10s, along with 105 laps led. He has an average start of 15.1 and an average finish of 14.8.
This weekend marks the second and final time this season the Cup Series will race at Las Vegas. In the March race at the 1.5-mile oval, Suárez started 22nd, led 12 laps, earned two bonus points, and ultimately earned a 17th-place finish.
The 27-year-old has four career Cup Series starts at Las Vegas with a best starting position of 11th earned in March 2017 and a best finish of eighth in September 2018. He has an average Las Vegas start of 17.5 and an average finish of 17.8, and has completed 99.6 percent of all possible laps.
Sunday kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States and, appropriately enough, approximately 500 “Daniel’s Amigos” guests will be at the Las Vegas track to support the Monterrey, Mexico driver. “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. This weekend marks the third time this year the “Daniel’s Amigos” experience has been hosted at-track. The final “Daniel’s Amigos” experience of the season will be held in November at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
Additionally, fans will have the opportunity to view Suárez’s perspective from inside the Haas Automation Mustang while he makes laps at Las Vegas via his helmet camera courtesy of Coca-Cola.
In addition to his four Cup Series starts at Las Vegas, the Ford driver also has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts there. He twice earned a best starting position of third, and a best finish of second. He’s accumulated an average start of 7.0 and an average finish of 5.0, along with three laps led and 100 percent of laps completed.
Haas Automation, founded in 1983 by SHR co-owner Gene Haas, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.
DANIEL SUÁREZ, Driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You didn’t make the playoffs. How do you look at the rest of the season now?
“Of course I’m disappointed that we didn’t make the playoffs. That’s a goal for every driver who’s racing in the Cup Series. It certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort, though. Billy (Scott, crew chief), the engineers and all of the guys on the Haas Automation team have worked so hard this year. I know that even though we didn’t make the playoffs, everyone is still going to continue to work very hard. We still have chances to win races and finish the year out strong. Just because we aren’t in the playoffs doesn’t mean that we’re going to give up.”
With just 10 races to go this season, how do you feel you’ve changed this year, and felt at Stewart-Haas?
“I’ve always been the same person. I’m the same Daniel Suárez on and off of the track with my personality. The difference this year is that maybe I feel a little more open. I’m an aggressive driver and respectful, but I’m going to ask for the respect back and, if I don’t get it, I’m not going to be very happy. Overall, I’m very comfortable at Stewart-Haas Racing. Everyone has made me feel at home. We’re supportive of each other as teammates. Something I really like is that while we all weren’t the fastest at the beginning of the season, we were all in it together. As the season has progressed, we’re still all in it together. We are all very transparent in everything we do and I’ve learned so much from that.”
