Justin Marks and Daniel Suarez took time to talk things out in their hotel lobby on Saturday.
The news was made official earlier in the week that the two-time Cup Series race winner, and the first driver hired to race at Trackhouse, would be moving on at the end of the season.
The vibes have not been particularly great around Suarez and his No. 99 team this season. He appeared on the June 25 episode of the ‘The Dale Jr. Download’ and said there were things he felt uncomfortable with his year.
He used the same word this past week when detailing the reasons for his departure. Suarez said there was a lack of ‘love’ five years into their journey together.
What does that mean? Suarez admitted it was difficult to answer. He’s said he has known for months that his one-year contract extension to remain with the team was going to be the end of the road.
“There have been several situations in the last eight months, 10 months, that I haven’t felt like I used to for different situations,” Suarez said on Saturday. “Sometimes when you don’t have that feel, there is no chemistry anymore. It’s like being in a relationship and living together because you bought a house together. It just didn’t feel good anymore, and this is both ways. I’m pretty sure it was both ways.
“It was just a matter of time. Sometimes when you don’t have that, when you’re fighting with the best of the best, you need to have everything clicking in the right direction, and unfortunately, I have felt a few things are missing for the last several months.”
Suarez is 29th in the championship standings a year after he needed a win at Atlanta just to make the Cup Series playoffs. He was paired with Matt Swiderski this year and Suarez said his crew chief mentioned some things that wasn’t working either.
“Since my new crew chief came to Trackhouse, he told me a lot of things that he didn’t think were right within the organization and a lot of things that needed to be changed,” Suarez said. “I’ve been very vocal with the team, ‘Hey, we need to adjust this; we need to adjust that.’ I’m not the only one seeing it. There are more people seeing it.’ And not a lot of things happen; everything happens so slow.
“I don’t think that’s the only reason. I think there are more things, but I just think that lately there have been things that have made me feel that I’m not as important. I believe we can run good. In Pocono, we were the fastest Trackhouse car in qualifying and the race. But we’re extremely inconsistent … and that’s something we have to work on, and I feel like there are a good amount of people that feel like there is still things to work on as an organization. I just feel like my voice was [not] really heard anymore, and when that happens, in my opinion, that could be the beginning of the end.”
Of course, Suarez was also pressured by the arrival of Shane Van Gisbergen, who has now won twice this year, but also the emergence of top prospect Connor Zilisch, likely to replace him at Trackhouse next season.
As part of the race winning press conference on Sunday in Chicago, Marks credited Suarez for the early years of Trackhouse and simply said it was time for a change.
Why were the results not there in recent years?
“Yeah, as far as results, I don’t know,” Marks said. “Look, Daniel has been a huge part of this company for four and a half years now. When we sat down and looked at our — kind of mapped out our three-year and our five-year plan and the sponsorships and everything that we’re trying to accomplish over the next five years of the company, we just got to a point where we felt like that relationship had borne a lot of fruit for us, but it was time to move on.
“As we grow and as the team grows, obviously we have to identify different opportunities. Look, Daniel has been a huge part of this company and a great friend of mine. We met last night, me and him in the hotel for an hour down in the lobby and we just talked about our time together, everything that we’ve accomplished together, and him and I are in a really good place.
“It’s just this isn’t a sport where you do the same thing forever. As we grow, we just felt like it was time to wrap up that relationship and work to try to help him to find the next opportunity but continue to grow as a company what we’re trying to accomplish.”
And Suarez, on Saturday, felt confident that he is going to find his next step in the Cup Series too.
“I’m confident things are going to work out,” Suarez said. “Good things happen to good people, and I’m 100 percent sure I’m going to be fine.”
