By Jerry Jordan, Editor
PLANO, Texas – Despite there being only three races left in the season and knowing that he is out of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (JGR) when the checkered flag falls at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Daniel Suarez, confirmed he has yet to finalize plans for 2019 – meaning he doesn’t have a ride at the present time.
Still, the Mexican-born driver told Kickin’ the Tires during a break at Toyota’s Motorsports Day, on Thursday, that he isn’t as worried now as he was several weeks ago. He added it’s a complicated situation but he isn’t just locked-in to waiting on one option.
“I feel like we are going to be fine, a lot of people have been working extremely hard,” Suarez said. “Like I said, we were not expecting to be in this position two months ago but we are, so we have been working very, very hard to make things work. And honestly, I feel very, very fortunate to be in the position that I am in because two months ago I was worried. Right now, not that much.
Suarez said he has some good memories at Joe Gibbs Racing but admits, sometimes, things have to change. For him, it is part of the motorsports game and even though he wants to talk more about the plans he is working on for next season, he said, he can’t.
“It is like everything in life, in racing, even in your job, sometimes you just have to start something new,” Suarez said. “Honestly, I have been extremely happy with Joe Gibbs Racing and extremely happy with Toyota. They (Toyota) have been with me since Day 1 in NASCAR, not just here in the U.S. but in Mexico, as well. They have nothing but good to me, a lot of good people, a lot of great friends. You know, that makes things a little more difficult but I know this is my life and this is my career and I am one of those lucky drivers that get to do this in the Cup level and there is not a lot of drivers that get to do this.
“There is a lot of good things to say. Back in 2014, I was just a K&N driver and I got a good opportunity to jump into the Xfinity program with them and we won a championship together. We won a lot of races together there and then I got my opportunity in Cup. That was good.”
When news first broke that Furniture Row Racing was shutting its doors at the end of the season, many speculated Suarez would end up at Leavine Family Racing (LFR) and Martin Truex Jr. would go to Joe Gibbs Racing. Truex hasn’t confirmed he will be at JGR but the LFR spot went to Matt DiBenedetto. When that happened, news leaked that Suarez was talking with Stewart-Haas Racing to take over the No. 41 seat that many believe is being vacated by Kurt Busch. However, Busch has yet to sign a deal and hasn’t confirmed his departure despite most of the industry is expecting him to go to the No. 1 car at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“Yeah, there are just a lot of parts and pieces moving around,” Suarez said. “And honestly, we are more than that (SHR) but, you know, everything as the time goes on the pieces and parts start getting less and you have a better direction of where you go. But, you know, fortunately, I am with a great race team with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota and I feel like that helps me to go to another great place.”
We are still working on it. I wish it was done and I wish I can say everything that I know but it is not like that,” Suarez said. “We are still working a lot of pieces. Unfortunately, we found out about all of this very, very late so everything is kind of happening late but that is not a bad thing. I wish I can say more. It is just a lot of contracts and a lot of things legal in the middle, not just the ego of not saying anything. It is more than that. Hopefully, we can get this done. Like I said, when you start working on things late the results you are going to get are late. So, we started to work on this a little bit over a month ago.”
Suarez could not say when an announcement would be made about his racing future.