“I didn’t feel like this was my home anymore”: Daniel Suarez candidly reflects why he walked away from Trackhouse Racing 

Daniel Suarez recently made comments about leaving Trackhouse Racing on RACER.com. He explained why he chose to walk away from the team after the 2025 season.

Suarez built his career after moving to the United States with little money, one friend, and no English. He spent his early NASCAR years working through teams, including Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart Haas Racing, Gaunt Brothers Racing, and, most recently, Trackhouse Racing.

Now he's prepared to shift his base again as he heads toward his 2026 move to Spire Motorsports. Speaking of his decision, Daniel Suarez said he no longer felt at home at Trackhouse. He told RACER,

“The last year has been very difficult and I haven’t been happy. A lot of things have changed, like everything in life. People change. Business change. It is OK. It is part of it.”

Daniel Suarez also made it clear that he had no negative feelings toward Trackhouse. The next step will be joining Spire Motorsports in 2026, which will make it the fifth Cup team of his ten-year tenure. After winning the Xfinity Series title in 2016, he moved to the Cup Series when Joe Gibbs Racing needed a replacement for Carl Edwards.

Suarez said he was still learning then, calling it a moment when he was “drinking from a fire hose.” His time with Gibbs lasted two years before he went to Stewart Haas Racing for one season, then to Gaunt Brothers Racing for a challenging

In 2021 Justin Marks made him the first Trackhouse driver. Daniel Suarez said that both he and Marks had no choice but to trust each other, and that their early years together worked well. His first Cup win came with Trackhouse at Sonoma in 2022, and another followed in 2024. Those four years included two playoff appearances and a place in Trackhouse history.

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A look back at Daniel Suarez’s hard-fought home win

Daniel Suarez had one of the most meaningful wins of his career at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. It was his first one in front of his home crowd, but the race was tough from the start.

During qualifying, Daniel Suarez crashed on his first flying lap in the JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevy. He went off at Turn 11 and hit the barriers head-on. The crash ended his run and forced him to start at the back of the field in a backup car. It put Daniel Suarez in a tough position before the race even began.

Once the Chilango 150 started, Suarez moved through the pack while avoiding trouble. With 19 laps remaining, a crash triggered by Ty Gibbs and Connor Zilisch caused a 13-car pile-up. The restart that followed gave Suarez a chance to fight for the lead.

After the restart, Suarez took control of the race. He led 19 laps in the 65-lap event and held off the field to the finish. Speaking to Frontstretch Media after the race, he said,

“It’s very, very special to be here in front of my people. All these people have supported me for many, many years. They have loved me since my NASCAR Mexico [Series] days, and now fighting with the big boys. It feels good.”

Suarez won by 0.598 seconds over Taylor Gray in the No. 54 Toyota. Austin Hill finished third, Christian Eckes placed fourth, and Connor Zilisch rounded out the top five.