Daniel Suarez battles sickness to finish 16th on Daytona Road Course

The 16th-place finish by Daniel Suarez at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 on the Daytona Road Course was a show of grit as the Trackhouse Racing driver was not feeling 100 percent.

The driver of the No. 99 Chrevrolet revealed on Twitter that he started to feel sick with 25 laps left in the 70-lap race and ended up vomiting in his helmet with 15 laps to go.

An overall positive day for our iFLY Chevy Camaro.There are a lot of different areas that we have to improve on, but that’s the fun part about racing! We are just building this team and it will only get better from here 💪🏽 @TeamTrackhouse #SuarezNation #TeamChevy pic.twitter.com/2xx9CueZbz

— Daniel Suárez (@Daniel_SuarezG) February 22, 2021

A day after the race, Daniel Suarez tweeted the possible reason for him feeling sick and said he was fast recovering.

My guess is that I had a higher than usual heart rate towards the end from being sick & weak... Feeling better today though thanks so much for all the messages 🙏🏽

— Daniel Suárez (@Daniel_SuarezG) February 22, 2021

The 16th-place finish by Daniel Suarez and Trackhouse Racing is the best to date among the three new teams that are part of the 2021 NASCAR season.

23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace finished 26th, while Live Fast Motorsports' Scott Heckert registered a 28th-place finish at Daytona.

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How has Daniel Suarez performed so far in 2021?

Daniel Suarez posing with the No. 99 Chevy. Photo: Getty Images

Daniel Suarez is the only Mexican driver in NASCAR's three national touring series. In his fifth season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Daniel Suarez has driven for four teams in as many years.

Daniel Suarez began his career with Joe Gibbs Racing before moving to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2019. He drove last season for Gaunt Brothers Racing.

Daniel Suarez won three NASCAR Xfinity Series races but has no Cup Series wins. He has eight top-five and 32 top-10 finishes in 145 career Cup starts. He is off to a decent start this season with a 10th-place finish in one of the qualifying races for the Daytona 500.

In the Feb. 14 Daytona 500, Suarez was involved in a multicar wreck that resulted in the No. 99 being sent to the garage without finishing the race. He finished 36th.

Daniel Suarez will now eye the Dixie Vodka 400 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the home track of Grammy Award-winning rapper and Trackhouse Racing co-owner Armando Christian Perez, also famously known as "Pitbull."

The race at Homestead-Miami was initially the second race on the schedule but will host the third race and will be broadcast live on FOX beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 28.

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