- 2 days ago
HOT ROD Pod: Where It All Began hosts Brian Lohnes and John McGann talk with Daniel Suárez at Trackhouse Racing about the challenges he overcame to become a Cup Series driver.
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00This was my first time racing in the United States.
00:02I start to see tires with half a life while we're waiting all the way until the night
00:08and we're picking all of them.
00:09I'm not kidding you, we grab like 60 tires, we put all of them on the trailer.
00:13For a year and a half, I didn't buy one set of tires, and I won the championship with
00:18used tires.
00:21Hey everybody, we are back, it's the Hot Rod Pod.
00:27Brian Loans, John McGann, and we are here at Trackhouse Racing in Concord, North Carolina
00:31with this guy, Daniel Suarez, driver of the number 99 Chevrolet, and a guy who has an
00:36incredible story in the world of stock car racing, and certainly an incredible story of
00:39how he came to this point in his career.
00:41So man, first off, thank you for taking some time out of a really busy weekend in Charlotte
00:45at the Coke 600 this next couple of days.
00:48Yeah, you know, this week is one of my favorite weeks of the year, really, starting because
00:53it's actually the week that I get to have my family here with me.
00:56You know, they don't come very often, they come maybe once, sometimes twice.
01:00This is the week that they come, so I get to spend a lot of time with them.
01:03Yesterday, actually, we went to bed like two in the morning playing just games, you know,
01:07table games.
01:08I feel like that's the other reason why maybe I'm a little bit late, but no, it's an amazing
01:14weekend over the Memorial Day weekend, you know, with NASCAR 600 miles, the Coke 600,
01:19I'm a Coca-Cola driver, so it's one of my favorite race of the year.
01:22You know, you mentioned the family aspect, and really that's where we got to start your
01:25story.
01:26I mean, we go back to you racing go-karts, what, 23 years ago, this whole kind of trip
01:30started, and what I found interesting kind of going back in your history was you came
01:35from a really kind of normal working class family.
01:37You know, it was not a big money operation to get you started, and that really, to me,
01:41is something that sets you apart from a lot of the young talent we see coming in.
01:45Yeah.
01:46Listen, I have learned that every single athlete out there has a unique journey, you know, every
01:53journey is different.
01:54Some are more difficult than others, and none of them are easy.
02:00Sure.
02:01You know, you have some obstacles in every single one of them, and certainly my journey,
02:07I believe that is in the category of the most difficult ones because, you know, if you had
02:12to make a bet on myself 20 years ago, do you think he's going to make it as a professional
02:18racing driver?
02:1999% of the people were going to say no because I didn't have the connections, I didn't have
02:22the money, you know, I went to public school, like, I just didn't have any relationship,
02:28you know, every time that I was going to a racetrack with my go-kart, you know, all the
02:33people I was racing against, they didn't know where I live, they didn't know my neighborhood,
02:37they didn't know my school, they didn't know my, we didn't have any mutual friends.
02:40So it was different, right?
02:42For me, it was different, but at the same time, that one made me unique, and that's, I feel
02:46like that really made me be very hungry, you know, and I understood since a very early
02:51age what kind of sacrifices my family was making for me just to have an opportunity.
02:57Nothing was guaranteed, just to have a shot.
02:59And I believe that that's one of the reasons why I was able to make it all the way here.
03:03When did you start to realize the level of talent that you had, right?
03:06Because every, you know, young racer has the vision, has the idea of where they want to
03:11land, but the reality is, it is a minuscule amount of people that actually have the talent
03:15to pull it off.
03:16What were your days in your career, even as a young man, did you start to realize,
03:18I'm actually good enough to do this?
03:20You know, I started racing when I was 11.
03:21So in my entire career, I had probably one or two new go-cars, and that was later on.
03:26So I always had used go-cars, I always had used motors.
03:29I raced more races with used tires than with new tires in my career, and I was still winning.
03:35A lot of people used to tell me, Daniel, you just have a talent, right?
03:40And then people started hiring me to help their kids, and then to set up their cars.
03:46And then when I started to believe that actually I was different, right?
03:51Because my dad always told me, I mean, you're very good.
03:54But then people start telling me, and my dad, you know, every single dad out there believes
03:58that their son is the best, right?
04:00Yeah, it's 100%.
04:01So it's just, I really, I will say that when I start hearing that from other people,
04:06that's when I start to believe that I had a special talent.
04:09And then, you know, I start to develop that talent, because talent is going to take you
04:13only so far.
04:13Sure.
04:14And you have to work hard.
04:15And then the funny thing is that once you start making it to the higher ranks, you start
04:18to see more of that talent.
04:20You know, you start racing against people that is talented, and then more talented.
04:24And then once you get to a cup series, you realize that everyone is talented, right?
04:28Everyone is gifted.
04:29Then it's a matter of the little things.
04:33What do I mean with that?
04:34About the team, the crew chiefs, the engineers, the decision-making, the mind.
04:39It's just so many different things that you have to work on.
04:42And that's a beautiful part that I have learned to realize that talent was going to take me
04:48only so far.
04:48And after that, it was going to be disciplined and hard work and be consistent.
04:53I like what you said about the used parts, where some people would see that as a detriment.
04:57Like, I can't, I'm not competitive.
04:59Because I'm using used tires.
05:00I've got used equipment.
05:03I like how that showed that in spite of this, I'm a good driver.
05:07I can sit down here with you guys for hours.
05:09And I have so many stories.
05:10The very first time that I raced outside of Mexico, it was in an international race in
05:18Las Vegas.
05:19And my dad told me, he said, we have to go to that race.
05:22We want you to go try that race.
05:24That was only my second year racing.
05:25He said, and if you finish in the top five, you're going to have a shot to go to, for the
05:30world championship in Europe.
05:31And they're going to pay, you know, your expenses and everything.
05:34So we went there.
05:35My dad said, hey, you know, we can fly.
05:37But if we fly, we're not going to have money for tires and things like that.
05:42But if we drive, we're going to have extra self-tires.
05:45So anyway, we ended up driving with the team, with the mechanics and with the trailer, all
05:49the way from Montreal, Mexico, which is east.
05:51Yeah.
05:51It was two days and a half.
05:53It was a long, long drive.
05:54I remember in a very, very small Dodge Dakota.
05:59It wasn't even a double cab.
06:00It was like a one and a half.
06:01I mean, we were like cramped like this.
06:03It was the most uncomfortable trip of my life.
06:05And then we raced there.
06:07We finished in the top five.
06:08We ended up going to Spain for a world championship.
06:10But this is the funny part.
06:12This was my first time racing in the United States.
06:15And in Mexico, I was taught that the tire was gone all the way until the little hole.
06:24Okay.
06:25Until the wear holes are flat.
06:26Yeah, they were completely gone.
06:27You cannot see them anymore or you have the course.
06:30Well, the very first day I went to Las Vegas, this race, this weekend, I started to see tires
06:35with half a life in the trash.
06:39And I told my dad, I said, look at that, man.
06:41What's going on?
06:42He said, well, I guess they have a lot of money.
06:44Well, we're waiting all the way until the night and we're picking all of them.
06:47We're picking all of them for all the week.
06:49I'm not kidding you.
06:50We grabbed maybe 60 tires.
06:53I'm not kidding you.
06:54Like 60 tires.
06:55We put all of them on the trailer.
06:57And when we finished the race, we brought them back.
06:59It was a whole deal in customs.
07:01We had to pay a few Mexicans there to let us go through the tires.
07:05And I raced for a year and a half.
07:08I didn't buy one set of tires.
07:10And I won the championship with used tires.
07:12Sometimes when I tell these kind of stories, people don't believe it because that's the
07:15way I grew up.
07:16I grew up really working very hard to try to find it.
07:20It's a classic racer story.
07:21It's the type of stories that we hear about, whether it's NASCAR, whether it's drag racing,
07:25those are the type of stories that make people root for a guy like you, that endear people
07:30because it's very real.
07:31You know, it's a very real thing.
07:32There's a picture of you on your website.
07:34You're a young kid next to a green Volkswagen Beetle.
07:38The headlights hanging out of it.
07:39What is going on there?
07:40What is that?
07:41When I was a baby growing up, you know, born, my dad had a restoration shop.
07:45You know, he worked on cars.
07:47He used to have like a little parts, you know, like a auto parts sale kind of thing.
07:52And his main thing was the Beatles, you know, and the bosses and things like that.
07:57So I grew up working with these things.
07:59And I remember when I was maybe five, six years old, Fridays and Saturdays, I was going
08:04to a shop all day and then coming back with him.
08:06And as you saw in that picture, you know, since I was a baby, a kid, a very young kid,
08:10I was already like, you know, with hanging in the stairwell and things like that.
08:14And, I mean, to this day, that's kind of like what I do.
08:18This morning, I'm not kidding you.
08:19This morning, I was adjusting the, how do you call these things in English?
08:23The balancines, the rockers, you know, the little...
08:25The adjusters?
08:26The adjusters, the rockers, right?
08:27Yeah.
08:27That's what I call it.
08:28With the push rods, the rock arms.
08:30I was adjusting those things this morning.
08:31Like, I just love doing that.
08:32Like, I look at my hands.
08:33Like, I'm a part-time mechanic sometimes.
08:36Is the bus, is it a stock air-cooled motor?
08:38Is it hot-rodded or is it swapped?
08:39The one that I was messing with this morning is a double-calf, 1963.
08:43And it's a, it has a 17, 1710.
08:46So, it's a little bit bigger motor.
08:48I have some that I have a stock motor.
08:50And I have some, I have one of them that is my favorite.
08:53I have like 200 horsepower.
08:54Nice.
08:55Yeah.
08:55Yeah, I have a little bit of everything.
08:57I saw on your Instagram page, the link to, is it DNS Restoration?
09:02Yeah.
09:02Is that the name of the shop?
09:03Yeah, that's the name of, now, you know, it's my dad's and myself shop.
09:08I don't know if you guys know this story, but when I was like 16 years old, my dad sold
09:12his business to continue to support me.
09:14You know, it was one of those deals that I was already kind of like making it, but it
09:18was still like, I needed a little bit more.
09:20So, he went all in and he sold his business.
09:22You know, he had like his auto parts store and his restoration business.
09:26Nothing huge, but he sold it.
09:28He kind of like trespassed it and he got some money out of that.
09:30And, uh, a good portion of that money went towards myself and luckily, you know, things
09:34work out, you know, fast forwarding, you know, eight years later, I started making some money
09:38and I said to my dad, Hey dad, I want to restore a bill, man.
09:41I want to restore a bill.
09:42So, he started talking to a few guys, a few of his friends and he said, Hey, you know
09:45what?
09:46Like, I, uh, I don't know if I'm going to do the job that, uh, that I really want.
09:52I said, Hey dad, why you don't, why we don't put a shop together?
09:54I actually, I feel like I owe you that.
09:56He said, man, I don't know.
09:58And I said, let's do it.
09:59So I convinced him and I, and I partnered with him and I pretty much, I gave him the shop
10:03that he, he sold for me.
10:04And right now he has a lot of fun and, uh, and he enjoys the, you know, messing with the
10:09shop and working with cars.
10:10It works beautiful.
10:11Yeah.
10:11We were looking at the pictures on the, on the Instagram page.
10:14Yeah.
10:14You got the F 100.
10:15There was a Buick, a lot of air cooled Volkswagens.
10:17Yeah.
10:18Super cool.
10:18Great work.
10:19Yeah.
10:19Yeah.
10:2060, 60, 70% of the stuff that he does is needles and buses and a 30% is like, uh, everything,
10:26you know, V eights, American muscles.
10:28And Mustangs and Camaros and things like that.
10:31It's a lot of fun.
10:32Every time I go to Mexico, that's kind of like my, my relaxed time going to the shop.
10:37How old were you when he sold the shop?
10:39I was around 15, 16.
10:40That's a significant weight on your shoulders too, right?
10:42Because I mean, they're betting the house on you.
10:44And so for you to, to, to understand what that commitment is, is, is a next level thing
10:48as well.
10:49It's like, it's one thing to get, Oh, here's the check, go race.
10:52I mean, but now you, you really got to deliver the goods.
10:54If, if this guy's willing to commit this much to you.
10:56It was huge, man.
10:57And, and as you, as a question, you know, when you're 15 years old, you already understand
11:01what, what the, the level of, of commitment that the family is doing.
11:08Not just that, he sold his shop and we kept going in the right direction.
11:14And I started winning races in the second division of NASCAR.
11:17And I thought our goal was, okay, with this, it's kind of like you winning races in the
11:22truck series and expecting a cup team to hire you from the truck series.
11:26So it didn't happen, right?
11:28Like, like the cup, the cup series team, they want to see you in the cup series.
11:32Once you have success in the cup series, sometimes they get you.
11:35So that's kind of what happened.
11:37So we kind of like, we're in the middle of the bridge again.
11:39And guess what my dad did mortgage on my mom's house a year later.
11:43So, so after that, after that mortgage on my mom's house, I was able to get six races
11:48in, uh, in the, in the NASCAR Mexico series.
11:51And then eventually with those six races, I was able to take the attention of some of
11:55the big teams and they hired me.
11:56But my dad was all in.
11:57If I didn't have a father like the one I have, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have made it.
12:01We moved to 2016.
12:02You captured the championship in the Xfinity series.
12:07I'm interested in talking to you about this because I'm a fan of all four levels really
12:21from ARCA on up.
12:22And to me, it's always interesting to watch.
12:24And to me, what you should see when you go series to series is you should see the advancement
12:29and you should see the maturity and you should see the decision-making improve.
12:32My question is, is Xfinity now the same or different as it was in 2016?
12:38Do you think it was more mature as far as driver activity and approach and everything back when
12:42you won the championship or has it changed into something different now?
12:46I feel like a lot of things have changed.
12:48You know, uh, almost 10 years have gone by nine years, uh, when I won the championship.
12:53And I remember that my very first win, I had to be at Kyle Busch for the last lap, my championship.
12:59When I won the championship, I was racing against Kyle Larson.
13:02I was racing.
13:03He wasn't racing for the championship, but he was in the same race because the cup drivers
13:07back then, they were allowed to race as many races as they wanted.
13:10So I believe, uh, that I will have won way more races if there were no cup drivers like
13:15there is right now that now the cup drivers are allowed to, uh, I think a handful of races
13:20and that's it, I will have won my curriculum will look way nicer, but I wouldn't have learned
13:24what I learned, right?
13:25Like I was racing against the best of the best every single week.
13:31So it's different now.
13:32I, I, I actually, I don't dislike the new rules of NASCAR of limitating the cup guys.
13:38With that being said, now the, the guys from Xfinity and trucks, they go to cup and the,
13:44the jump is bigger, the jump is bigger because the bar, they don't really know what is the
13:48bar.
13:48I actually, I think Larson said, it was great a couple of weeks ago.
13:51He's, he's right.
13:52Like, you know, they're winning and they're doing all these things, but they don't really
13:55know what is the, the bar.
13:57They think that, okay, that's, that's it.
13:59But once they go to a cup series, a completely different level, not just in drivers, but
14:02in engineers, in big crews, in everything.
14:04To reference what Daniel's talking about, Kyle Larson did an interview where he said he
14:08enjoyed going down to the Xfinity series because he kind of gets to show these guys what
14:12it's supposed to look like.
14:13And he, and it was, he was on a bashful, he's like, yeah, you know, I enjoy doing this to
14:16kind of give them the idea of as good as you think you might be right now, that ain't
14:20it.
14:21Like there's a way to go.
14:22I think that perspective would be hugely valuable as a, as a driver in that series to just see
14:26what, what that next level is.
14:28Of course.
14:28And there is a lot of talent in, in the truck series, in the Xfinity series, but it's very
14:33important also to continue to improve, right?
14:35And to stay humble and always to continue to move forward.
14:39And I believe that when you had a cup drivers almost every single weekend, nine years ago,
14:44you were pretty humble because they were kicking your butt 90% of the time.
14:48So, you know, it's different, different times, but I don't, I don't, I don't dislike the new
14:54system.
14:54I just think that it's, it's just different and, and it gives more, more opportunities
14:59to winning, you know, to the Xfinity regulars.
15:01You know, to jump back a little bit, when you first came to the country, you, uh, you
15:04know, famously were in Buffalo, New York for a stretch of time, uh, through the dead cold
15:08of winter and it was snowing every day, but you know, that was a formative moment in your
15:12life.
15:13And you go into the, the K and N pro E series at that point, outside of the normal cultural
15:17barriers of that, and that adjustment, what was the most intimidating part of that portion
15:21of your career or was it intimidating?
15:23It was, it was very intimidating, especially for myself, because I come from a family that is
15:27very humble, very, you know, family oriented, like my mom until maybe around when I moved
15:35here, she has never flown in a plane, very old school kind of family.
15:39So for me to leave my country, to leave my family, my friends, my home, and different
15:46language, different people, different culture, it was a change.
15:50It was a very big change and, and, and that was intimidating, right?
15:53Like, because if I needed help, there was nobody to ask, there was nobody to ask.
15:58You just have to figure it out.
15:59And, uh, and that's why I always tell people that the most difficult years of my life were
16:04from 2011 to 2013, because at that, at that time I moved here, I didn't have money, I didn't
16:10have friends, I didn't have connections and, and I, I didn't speak English and I couldn't
16:15communicate, right?
16:16Like if I wanted to talk to you to ask for a glass of water, I, I couldn't, you know?
16:21Uh, so it was a challenge, it was a challenge.
16:24I, uh, at the same time, you know, I had a lot of, a lot of lonely nights by myself and
16:32I really, it really made me think how bad I wanted this, you know, how bad do you want
16:37this?
16:37And like I said earlier, you know, everyone's journey is unique and, uh, and I believe that,
16:43uh, at the time, it didn't look great, but, uh, that's what makes my journey very different.
16:47When Troy Williams first called you for that opportunity, was there any hesitation?
16:51I mean, you knew this was the path you wanted to take.
16:54Obviously this was going to be a huge leap to, to kind of get completely outside of anything
16:59you're comfortable with, but was there any hesitation in saying yes?
17:01The reason why I met Troy Williams is because, uh, a guy from, from Mexico, um, Jose Zavares,
17:09uh, his, his brother of Felix Zavares, he's the one that connected me with Troy and put
17:15me into a race in the Toyota All-Star Showdown in California in 2011.
17:20At Irwindale.
17:21At Irwindale.
17:21Yeah.
17:22Uh, the very last year, actually, the very last year they did it and they were not expecting
17:25me to qualify.
17:26Like there were like 60 cars.
17:27Nice.
17:27Okay.
17:27We're going to make it long story short and we qualify 11 or something like that.
17:32So we, I mean, everyone was impressed, especially for, for Troy, because Troy, you know, it was
17:36a very, very small team from Buffalo, New York.
17:38Yeah.
17:38And, uh, and the very first thing that Troy told me after the race was, Hey man, you
17:42are, I think you are very good.
17:44And, uh, and I think that if you can, if you can communicate, if you're going to speak
17:47English, you, you can have potential.
17:49What about if you said the same thing about me?
17:54So, so the guy, uh, Troy, he say, why you don't come to.
17:57Buffalo, New York and, and, and start practicing your English.
18:01And I said, you know what, maybe that's a great idea.
18:03At the time, you know, without speaking English, without knowing much about NASCAR, I was very
18:09naive on the situation.
18:11And, uh, and I thought literally, I thought that the Charlotte was in Buffalo, New York.
18:17So I got there and, uh, and it's full of snow and, and, you know, I couldn't ask these
18:23questions that I had in my mind.
18:24Right.
18:25And, uh, and then, you know, I started learning and then I see Troy shop that is very small.
18:30And, uh, and I started looking for more stuff and racetracks.
18:33And I said, man, this is not as big as I thought it was going to be.
18:37And, uh, and then, you know, I watched the, the Daytona 500 2011.
18:42I watched it from his home, Trevor Wayne won that one.
18:45And I thought to myself, man, NASCAR is not here.
18:47It's in Charlotte, North Carolina.
18:48So I called my dad and say, Hey dad, this NASCAR thing is not here.
18:53It's over there.
18:54A couple months later, uh, I leave the, I leave there for a few months.
18:58Uh, I came back to Mexico.
18:59I prepared my Beetle, a 1994 Beetle.
19:02I rebuilt the engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, everything very quick.
19:06And I drove all the way from Mexico to here.
19:08You drove it down Volkswagen all the way to Charlotte.
19:10That's cool.
19:10Yeah.
19:10I still have it.
19:11I still have that car in my house.
19:12And I got here and I started to look for opportunities.
19:15And then, then I realized I couldn't even rent an apartment because I didn't have social security.
19:20And, and I had to live with friends of friends for a little while.
19:23And that's how I started in the middle of 2011.
19:26It's an incredible story.
19:27And like everybody's career, you have, you have, you know, peaks and valleys.
19:31I want to talk about a valley 2020 season was a very difficult one for you, right?
19:35How difficult is it to get yourself to the racetrack and knowing in reality, you're not really in competitive equipment, right?
19:42You're out there, you're doing the thing, but for a guy who's been a champion, that has to almost break your heart.
19:46But I mean, you have to do something to stay active.
19:48So talk to me about the struggle of that.
19:51That particular season was very difficult.
19:52So 2020 was a, was a very strange year, not just for me, but for the entire world.
19:58You know, after everything that happened in, in, in 2019, you know, the way I, I, I left Stuart Haas very late and how everything happened.
20:09You know, I always had a great relationship with, with Toyota.
20:12So they, they had this project to start another strong Toyota team.
20:18And, and I was going to be the beginning of that, of that, of that project.
20:22And, uh, and everything looked great on paper.
20:24Uh, we knew we were going to struggle the first, uh, six months, but the second six months, the second half of the year looked actually very promising with a partnership with, uh,
20:32uh, you'll be racing and all these different things.
20:35Toyota was very involved in it.
20:37Unfortunately, COVID hit.
20:38And when COVID hit, obviously everything changed, everything, the money that was going to come in, didn't come the car, the partnerships, the things, everything changed.
20:49So, you know, if it came, uh, uh, it was, it was, I knew it was going to be a difficult year and then it just became a nightmare, you know, it became a nightmare.
20:57And, uh, I, I was just, I started to realize that, you know, I was, I'm not built to go and make an appearance to a racetrack.
21:06I'm built to compete.
21:07To go out there and just ride around.
21:08That's not my thing.
21:09Like, I, I just can't do that.
21:10You know, if, if, if that's, that's what I'm going to do for a living, I'm going to do something else because I'm just too competitive to accept that I can win.
21:18In all the time, I promised to myself that the work and the discipline, it was going to be exactly the same.
21:25I, I, I make sure that I was organizing the competition meetings because we didn't have any.
21:29I was making sure that we organized the reports, pre-raised reports, post-raised reports.
21:33Like I was doing all that.
21:34Like if we were in a big team, I wanted to continue to push myself, to continue to set the standard to myself.
21:40Even though that I knew I was going to raise for 20th, 25th, 28th, I needed to continue to put the bar high for myself because I knew that I was, that was not going to be for me.
21:50Either they were going to get much better or I was going to leave.
21:53Yeah.
21:53And, uh, and then, you know, shortly after, you know, uh, I had a few offers from other, other, other groups.
21:59Uh, one of them being Trachouse, which was in a piece of paper.
22:02And, uh, and that's how, that's how we, we got started, uh, with Trachouse.
22:07Your whole story is about being self-motivated.
22:09Yeah.
22:09Even in, even in like that, that mess of a situation, you still managed to find some way to push yourself and engage yourself somehow.
22:17So what, is that rooted in your mom and dad?
22:19Is it rooted in something that started before racing?
22:21Where is that part of you from?
22:22I have something, man, inside of myself that, first of all, I feel like I'm very, very thankful to God that I have, that I just have a fire inside of myself.
22:30That I just cannot look at my mirror every morning or every night, knowing that I didn't give everything I got.
22:37I just can't do it.
22:37I just can't, like, I have to give everything I have.
22:41That's number one.
22:41And number two, seeing my family make all these sacrifices for me.
22:45And, you know, growing up with a family of five in a two, two bedroom, one bathroom, uh, house.
22:54Yeah.
22:55Having to fight to get, to get into a shower, having to fight to go pee.
22:59Right.
23:00Yeah.
23:00And things like that.
23:01I guarantee you that 99% of the drivers didn't have to experience this.
23:05So I have this extra motivation, excel myself, that I'm like, I have had to go through way more than most of the drivers.
23:13So for me, having to push myself harder, having to work extra hard is, is okay.
23:18You know, it's not my first, the first time I've done it.
23:20It won't be the last one.
23:21I always tell people this, like, when I was younger, I used to feel like, man, sometimes I feel like I'm, I'm very, very unlucky.
23:27You know, that I grew up with a family, you know, with a lot of financial support or with all these connections and things like that.
23:32I came to realize when I get more mature and more smart that all these unlucky situations were actually the best thing that could have happened to me.
23:40Because this built me to be able to get to this point.
23:44And I guarantee you this, if I didn't have all these different challenges, all these different situations, I was not going to be the first to do many things as a Mexican here in NASCAR.
23:53Absolutely.
23:53And you appreciate things that much more too, don't you?
23:56Of course, yeah, you just appreciate things and being grateful.
24:00Yeah, you have to be, you know, for me, one of the most important things is that if you forget where you came from, you don't know where you're going anymore.
24:07So that's why for me, it's extremely important just to stick to my roots and my friends, not my new friends, but my old friends, the ones that I have known since I had nothing, you know, and that for me is special.
24:21So you make the decision to come to Track House, which is another kind of risky decision to a degree, right?
24:26Because this is a team, you know, Justin Marks, I think his story in a lot of ways mirrors yours.
24:30I mean, this is a guy that's taken some big chances and he's done some incredible things.
24:33And obviously we're sitting in this palatial race shop right now.
24:36You know, this team strikes me as so unique in the sport because of the approach is very modern.
24:40It's very young.
24:42It's very cool.
24:42Why do you fit here the best?
24:44In 2020, when Ty Norris at the time, when he was here and Justin Marks, they reached out to me about this project.
24:51I went to my dad and I went to my American grandpa.
24:56I call him that he's my manager, Gustavo Arenas.
24:59And I told him about this Track House project.
25:02At the time, I also had a couple other offers from pretty decent teams.
25:06But there was something about what Ty Norris and Justin Marks were telling me, the vision that they had.
25:14And I told my dad and Gustavo and said, hey, I think I want to do the Track House thing.
25:19They said, man, I don't think that that's the best option.
25:22Like, they didn't want me to do it because we were just coming from a project very similar that didn't work out.
25:28But I knew that it didn't work out because of COVID.
25:30Like, there were a lot of external situations that happened that didn't work out.
25:34So my dad and Gustavo said, man, I don't know, man.
25:37I would take one of the other options instead.
25:39So you stable yourself again and you start being competitive again.
25:43And I said, dad, I think this is, I think these guys believe in me.
25:47You know, I haven't had a team believe in me like these guys are showing me in the Cup Series.
25:53So I think I want to do this.
25:55My God feeling, I have always believed and listened to my God feeling a lot.
25:59And I told my dad and Gustavo, I said, I think I want to do this.
26:05Listen, if it's the right answer, if it's the right decision, good.
26:08And if it's not, you know, we make decisions, right?
26:11In life.
26:12That's the way life works.
26:14And here we are right now.
26:16You know, like after a year, they told me, hey, I guess you were right.
26:20You know, really, Justin has been amazing.
26:23Ty was amazing on his time here.
26:24These two people were extremely important to grow Trackhouse the first few years and already to have what we have today.
26:33Does that tie into what you were saying before about how that becomes sort of the intangible thing that once you're at a cup level driver,
26:40then it's the gelling between you and the team and the engineers.
26:43Is that the kind of thing that makes you feel like you can excel here in this team?
26:47Something that I have learned with time is that it's very important to have the leaders of the team that believe in you and understand what you need.
26:58In instance, if you need an engineer of X type or a cruise ship or whatever that may be,
27:05if you're asking for something that we need to pay attention, you have to feel that that voice has a weight, right?
27:13Because if he doesn't have a weight, you don't feel important.
27:16Maybe you can win once in a while, but you're not going to be super strong.
27:20So I learned I have that here in Trackhouse and it's something that is very important to continue to grow.
27:28Like I said, in my cup career, I have never felt so supportive of everything that I need.
27:34Like I have here in Trackhouse, especially in the early years, you know, when we're building things, you know,
27:42like, I mean, we have to get these people, we have to let's go talk to him.
27:44Okay, let's go talk to him, things like this.
27:47And already we always want more, right?
27:50I believe that Trackhouse, you know, starting in 2021, you know, we're getting our feet wet and 2022 was an amazing year.
27:5923 was a good year, 24 was a decent year, but we still have work to do.
28:05You know, we are never comfortable and we know that.
28:09We still have things that we want to improve.
28:12We know our strengths and we know our weaknesses as well.
28:15So we have to continue to work in both our strengths, make them even better.
28:19And our weaknesses, we have to continue to put a lot of attention to them.
28:22I want people to understand the relationship among team drivers in an operation this size.
28:26Obviously, you're three guys, you all have your own life, but when it comes to Sundays at the racetrack, you are a team.
28:31So between you and Ross Chastain and SVG, are there shared goals?
28:35Is there, what is the communication level?
28:37Like, take me now to the bottom line of what it means to have two other guys on your team.
28:41Yeah, so right now, this year, in 2025, is way better than what it was really the first few years.
28:48Because the first few years, in my opinion, we were operating in a way that the one team was doing his thing.
28:55Three teams in the same building instead of one team.
28:58Exactly, yeah.
28:59That's the way we used to do it.
29:01And, you know, sometimes the one team was hitting something amazing, and sometimes the 99 team was hitting something amazing.
29:07But we didn't work together as good and as efficient as we should.
29:11But it worked for some time.
29:13But then, when the competition catch up, we learned very quick that it was going to be more efficient to work together, right?
29:19I feel like right now, we are just, we're working well together, you know?
29:23We're not just here in the shop during the week in the simulator doing all these things, but also sharing information during the weekend.
29:31So, obviously, once the race starts, it's every man for himself.
29:34Mm-hmm.
29:35Because there's only one trophy, right?
29:37So, we have to do our thing for our team.
29:41But in the entire journey, in the entire process, which, if you ask me, you win races during the week.
29:47Yes.
29:47On the weekend, you go to execute.
29:49That's a good point.
29:49You go to execute.
29:50That's a good point.
29:51But if the car is not fast when it's loaded to a truck, you're not going to win.
29:55Yeah, there's no magic.
29:56No.
29:56Yeah, when it comes out of the trailer, it's not going to be any faster.
29:58You have to be fast from Monday to Friday.
30:02That's when you know that you are going to compete for the win.
30:05And then, you go to the weekend to execute it.
30:07Execution is extremely important.
30:08But you are not going to take a slow car from Monday to Friday and make it a winner for the weekend.
30:14One last thing I want to hit you up on before I let you go.
30:16Phoenix this year, you were incredibly classy about a situation that happened that you got caught up in
30:20that was none of your own doing.
30:22You got a top five car.
30:24You have a race car that is as good as anybody else is on a racetrack.
30:27You have a driver that has very limited experience in the series, causes a very unfortunate situation.
30:32You end up, I think, somewhere around 23rd.
30:34And again, you handled it with a lot of class because you didn't throw the driver under the bus.
30:37You talked about the idea of the level of experience and skill you should have to be on the racetrack.
30:42So I guess my last question to you is, and we touched a little bit on it before,
30:46are the drivers we see coming out of Xfinity of the caliber and quality for you guys that are veterans
30:52to trust on the racetrack out of the gate?
30:54I think that most of them they are.
30:57I think most of them, most of the drivers that are leaving the Xfinity series to the Cup series,
31:02I think they have what it takes to start the process of continuing learning because they're not ready.
31:09No.
31:09No, they're not ready.
31:10But they are going to continue a different journey now to be competitive in the Cup series.
31:15One thing is to be competitive in the Truck series.
31:17One thing is to be competitive in the Xfinity series.
31:19And another whole different thing is being competitive in the Cup series.
31:22So it's funny because I remember when I was racing Xfinity, you know, man, you had a little bit of an off day,
31:28you know, like you were not great, that the car was okay.
31:32And you finish top five, finish top 10.
31:34In the Cup series, when you have one of those days, you finish 25th, 20th.
31:38So the competition is that much tighter.
31:40With that being said, I also think that we race in the most prestigious, more difficult,
31:48and competitive stock car series in the world.
31:50So in my opinion, the process to allow people to race with the best drivers of a stock car racing in the world,
31:56it should be difficult, right?
31:58Amen.
31:58If I want to race a Formula...
32:00I believe I'm one of the best racing drivers in the world, especially to race NASCAR cars.
32:04But if I want to race a Formula One car tomorrow, I'm not allowed.
32:08No.
32:08Because I don't have the experience to run that.
32:12Do I have the talent?
32:13Of course.
32:13I know that if I have the time and if I have the support, I can run those things.
32:17Yeah.
32:17But I'm not qualified to run those cars next week, right?
32:21So I think we should make it a little bit more difficult for drivers to get into the Cup series.
32:28Regardless of where they come, you know, you have to have X amount of results or experience,
32:33even in the Xfinity Series, to be able to go into the Cup series.
32:35Well, man, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out.
32:37It's a fascinating conversation.
32:39I wish you all the luck this weekend at Charlotte.
32:41And truly good to do, man.
32:42Great to catch up.
32:42Thank you so much.
32:43Thank you so much.
32:44The Hot Rod Pod will be back as we continue a lot of great stuff we're doing out here
32:47in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
32:49Way more to come.
32:50He's John.
32:51I'm Brian.
32:51He's Daniel.
32:52And he's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:13And he's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:19He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:20He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:20He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:22He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:22He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:23He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:24He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:25He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:26He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:27He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:28He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:29He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:30He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:31He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:32He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
33:33He's leaving in a way cooler car than us.
Recommended
58:15
|
Up next
5:24