“All that stuff is just noise”: Daniel Suarez on the pressure of imperative Trackhouse’s ‘hot seat’ amid Connor Zilisch’s rise

NASCAR driver Daniel Suarez recently appeared in a virtual interview with journalist Kyle Dalton (Athlon Sports). During the session, the Chevy icon revealed if his future at Trackhouse Racing was at stake, given his recent underwhelming performances and the rise of Xfinity Series driver Connor Zilisch.

In 12 starts this year, Suarez has delivered only one top-five. He has suffered three DNFs so far and sits 27th in the driver standings with 209 points to his name. The last time he won a race was in February 2024 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Zilisch, on the other hand, has been making the headlines since winning his first Xfinity career start at Watkins Glen last year. His second victory came at COTA earlier this year.

Dalton proceeded to ask Daniel Suarez about being on the hot seat and Zilisch's rise in the sport. The 33-year-old driver shared his thoughts and spoke about focusing on improving his on-track performance.

“Everyone is on the hot seat once in a while. I’d be on that hot seat if you wanted to the last three years. But right now, we have to compete better, we have to find more speed. Because what is the point of competing for 15th, 20th, (or) 24th?”

“That hot seat and all those things for me is just noise. It just happens. At the end of the day we have to better as a team. Because if we don’t get better, Trackhouse will not want to have me back,” Suarez added.

Daniel Suarez is in his ninth season of contention in the NASCAR Cup Series and his fifth driving for Trackhouse Racing. The Mexican-American is currently preparing for this coming weekend’s race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

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“Donkey holding a wooden spoon”- when Daniel Suarez’s wife fired unfiltered shots at Trackhouse Racing

Last year, Daniel Suarez found himself face to face with teammate Ross Chastain during a playoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 1. Despite being teammates, Chastain’s group didn’t seem to have helped Suarez.

Detailing the same on Season 2 of NASCAR: Full Speed, Julia Piquet, daughter of three-time Formula 1 champion Nelson Piquet, and Suarez’s wife, said,

“Honestly like a little angry because we sent our boy to war on a donkey holding a wooden spoon. Is it just me or is it completely unacceptable that our teammate runs 10th and is not even in the playoffs? Like why the (expletive) aren't the two teams helping each other?”

During his interview with Kyle Dalton, Daniel Suarez reflected on his wife’s comments, saying,

“Honestly, I have a little bit more of a filter in some situations than Julia. But at the same time, she's not wrong. Everything that she say, she's right. And nothing can say anything about it. At that time we did a horrible job with the race car.”

That being said, the next points-paying race that Daniel Suarez is going to take part in is the iconic Coca-Cola 600, scheduled for May 25 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Fans can watch him in action exclusively on Amazon Prime or listen to live radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (6 pm ET onwards).