Daniel Suarez is a free agent; looking to be competitive next year
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September 14, 2020 at 6:27 AM
The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season has been a tough one for Daniel Suarez.
At the end of January, Gaunt Brothers Racing announced it had signed on Suarez, 28, full-time for the 2020 season.
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"I knew the season wasn?t going to be easy," Suarez recently told Frontstretch. "I knew there were going to be a lot of challenges ahead of us. I was up for the challenge with the new team, with Toyota, which has always been extremely helpful when you have a lot of support from a manufacturer, like we do from Toyota.
"It?s been way more difficult than what we were expecting."
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That?s when Toyota stepped in.
"To be honest with you, the reason why I did this was because of Toyota," Suarez said. "I have a lot of respect for those guys and everything they?ve been accomplishing and the way they work. I really like the way they operate."
Suarez admits he had a few competitive options to go back down to NXS and chase a second title, among other choices, including a few established Cup teams.
"I did have some more options for Cup, and to be very honest with you, a couple of those options are running better than us," he said. "The reason why is, sometimes I have just a gut feeling, and I trust my gut feeling a lot."
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Come this offseason, Suarez is a free agent. With less than two months remaining until the checkered flag waves on the 2020 season, the hope is to to set himself up well to get his NASCAR career back on track.
But nothing is solidified. Any shift would place him with a fourth Cup Series team in four years.
"There?s a lot of talks, a lot of things moving around and we don?t really know what?s going to happen," Suarez stated. "I enjoy working with Toyota, with Marty [Gaunt, team owner], great people, great organizations. At the same time, I want to win races.
"There are a lot of parts and pieces moving around. Hopefully we can find out soon what?s going to happen, but as of right now, the main goal is to make sure that I?m going to be able to be competitive next year. The last thing I want to do is head into next year to run 25th and to feel like a top 20 is a win."
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