Daniel Suarez told reporters at Richmond Raceway on Saturday that he is close to finalizing a contract extension at Trackhouse Racing to continue driving the team's No. 99 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series. The extension would bring Suarez back for a third season at Trackhouse in 2023, and presumably longer as well.
Suarez expressed a sense of security in contract talks, emphasizing that he was focusing more on a potential NASCAR Playoffs run. Suarez earned a spot on the playoff grid with a victory at Sonoma in June and is now poised to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in his career.
Daniel Suarez says his deal to remain at Trackhouse is not signed yet but is “very, very close” to being done. pic.twitter.com/GosiDOwpeA
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 13, 2022
"I'm gonna be honest, I haven't even paid a lot of attention to it. I'm so focused now on the playoffs, on making my team stronger," Suarez said. "But I know that my manager and the people at Trackhouse are very, very close. We have never had doubts about where we're at on those kind of things.
"It's just working out a couple details. We're gonna be fine. It's not done yet, but it's close."
A contract extension for Suarez has been long expected, as Trackhouse team president Ty Norris told NBC Sports in June that there was a "100% chance" the driver from Monterrey, Mexico would be re-signed. Speaking to reporters at Richmond, Suarez stated he expects to re-sign before the end of the season in November.
After being dropped by both Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing and spending the 2020 season with Gaunt Brothers Racing, Suarez joined Trackhouse in 2021 to try and revitalize his Cup career with a brand new race team. Suarez has since played a major role in Trackhouse's second-year leap and has turned in the best season of his Cup career.
Suarez has posted a career-high five top-five finishes to go with nine top 10s and a career-high 236 laps led, including at Sonoma Raceway where he led 47 of 110 laps on his way to his very first Cup Series win. Suarez currently sits 13th in points and would enter the NASCAR Playoffs as the No. 12 seed as it stands.
Assuming a deal gets done, Suarez would become the latest Cup driver to sign a contract extension with his team in the past several weeks. Erik Jones recently signed a multi-year contract extension with Petty GMS Racing, as did Bubba Wallace with 23XI Racing.