MEXICO CITY (AP) Daniel Suarez has become the unofficial tour guide for all things Mexico City as NASCAR prepares to race internationally this Sunday for the first international points-paying Cup Series event of the modern era.
From where to eat, what to do, how to navigate the city and even basic conversation in Spanish, Suarez has been the go-to guy in the garage since NASCAR said it would take the Cup Series outside the United States for just the third time in 77 years.
The Monterrey native has made multiple trips to NASCAR as the face of Sundays race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where hes raced on a different course layout 13 times, with three wins in NASCARs Mexico Series.
Hed like to win at the Cup level if he pulls it out in his home country Sunday it will be his first victory of this season but Suarez is juggling a very difficult balancing act. Hes elated to be racing in front of a home crowd, honored to show of the culture and magic of Mexico City, but at the same time tremendously concerned about his NASCAR future.
Suarez is in a contract year with Trackhouse Racing, which has Ross Chastain and Shane van Ginsberg under contract while Connor Zilisch is its development driver and on loan to several teams at lower national levels of NASCAR racing.
Trackhouse only has three Cup Series seats, math Suarez cant ignore as he heads into Sunday ranked 28th in the standings.
Its not the first time that Ive been in this position. Definitely the first time with the Mexico race, but its not the first time that Ive been in the position that we have to win or in the position that we have a contract negotiation in the middle of the season, Suarez said. Its definitely a distraction. I wont sit here and tell you that it doesnt really matter. Im trying to be as smart as possible and to put all this stuff on the side and just do my thing on the track.
Return to Mexico
Suarez, the only Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national series race, has two Cup victories, three Xfinity Series wins and one Truck Series win. His 2016 championship in the second-tier Xfinity Series made him the only foreign-born driver to win a national series title.
Suarez has faced adversity before, but never like the pressure hes feeling hoping to deliver in front of the local crowd. This weekend in Mexico is special to Suarez, who expects well over 100 of the spectators in attendance Sunday to be friends and family.
Theyve watched from afar as hes worked his way into the NASCAR spotlight, a journey full of ups and downs that have seen Suarez drive for four different Cup teams. He joined Trackhouse Racing in 2021 and last year signed a one-year extension through 2025.
At the time, he said he wanted to reassess where the program was before signing a long-term deal. But its been a disappointing start to the season and his average finish of 21st is three spots worse than last year.
The Mexico race is something that Ive been hoping and waiting on for many, many years, and Im not going to let anything else from outside take that week and that moment from myself, Suarez said. We have to just continue to put one foot in front of the other and continue to move forward. I think that in Trackhouse, we have found some decent speed in the last few weeks, so thats promising, and hopefully we can continue to move in that direction.
Suarez will have Mexican communication company Telcel on his car this weekend.
For many years, I never had a sponsor deal with a company from Mexico because I wasnt racing there, Suarez said. So right now that were going to be having an event down there, it opens a whole new world of opportunities and thats great, obviously for me, but for the entire sport.
Contract Distractions
Its another layer of pressure for Suarez, who wants nothing more than to balance the demands of being the star of Sundays show with delivering a strong showing.
Once we get into the race, we dont want to deal with any of this stuff, and I just want to focus and have fun driving race cars, he said. There is going to be more on my plate just by nature, just being the local guy, the very first race ever in Mexico City in the Cup Series. I have to accept that. With that being said, I have to protect my space for the competition stuff because if we dont do the competition stuff right, everything else doesnt really matter. So we have to put a balance on everything.
As Suarez noted, a win on Sunday would dramatically improve his hopes of remaining with Trackhouse on a contract extension. It could happen: Suarezs first Cup victory came on the road course at Sonoma, and the next five Cup races include road-course races at Mexico City, Sonoma and the Chicago street course.
He admitted honestly, I dont know about what hed like out of a contract extension, but said he speaks regularly with team owner Justin Marks.
The trajectory of Trackhouse has been tremendous, Surez said. We have learned so many things. I really want to help Justin bring Trackhouse to the next level. I believe that 2022 has been our best year as a company, still. So why is that? Are we missing something? Do we have to change something? What do we need to do better? As a new team, to have your best years that early, its kind of uncommon. One of the reasons, I believe, was because of the new car. So I believe that we have to continue to grow.
Ross just won a race a couple weeks ago, and thats brought a lot of energy to the team and some more momentum. Before that, it was a little bit of a struggle. So we have to continue to find that speed in a consistent basis, just like the big teams, he continued. So were having all these conversations. I wish I didnt have to have these conversations, and I didnt have these distractions, but its part of life, right? Sometimes you have to do several things at the same time. But Im trying not to think about it too much and trying to work in my job and push as hard as possible for competition and trying to help the team slowly get better and better.
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AP auto racing:
墨西哥城（美联社）——随着纳斯卡赛车本周日即将迎来现代首个国际积分制杯系列赛，丹尼尔·苏亚雷斯（Daniel Suarez）已成为墨西哥城的非官方导游，向人们介绍这里的风土人情。
从推荐餐厅、活动建议、城市交通指南到基础西班牙语会话，自从NASCAR宣布77年来第三次将杯赛移师美国境外举办，苏亚雷斯（Suarez）就成了车队维修区里的万事通。
这位来自蒙特雷的车手作为本周日赫尔曼诺斯·罗德里格斯赛道比赛的代表人物，已多次参与NASCAR赛事。他在该赛道的不同布局赛道上参加过13次比赛，并曾在NASCAR墨西哥系列赛中三度夺冠。
苏亚雷斯渴望在杯赛级别夺冠——若本周日能在祖国主场取胜，这将是他本赛季的首场胜利——但他正面临极其艰难的平衡抉择。他既为能在主场观众面前竞速而振奋，也为能展示墨西哥城的文化与魅力感到荣幸，同时却又对自己在NASCAR的未来忧心忡忡。
苏亚雷斯与Trackhouse Racing车队的合同已进入最后一年。该车队目前与罗斯·查斯坦（Ross Chastain）和沙恩·范·金伯格（Shane van Ginsberg）签有合约，而康纳·齐利施（Connor Zilisch）作为其发展车手，正被外借至NASCAR全国低级别赛事的多支车队效力。
Trackhouse车队仅有三个杯系列赛席位，这一数字苏亚雷斯无法忽视——他目前以积分榜第28名的成绩进入周日的比赛。
苏亚雷斯表示："这种处境对我来说并非首次。虽然墨西哥站比赛是头一回，但赛季中必须赢得分站或面临合同谈判的情况，我早已不陌生。""这确实会分散注意力。我不会坐在这里假装它无关紧要。我正尽力保持清醒，把这些事情搁置一旁，专注于赛道上的表现。"
重返墨西哥
苏亚雷斯是唯一一位在NASCAR全国系列赛中夺冠的墨西哥裔车手，共获得两次杯赛冠军、三次Xfinity系列赛胜利和一次卡车系列赛胜利。2016年，他在二级赛事Xfinity系列赛中夺得总冠军，成为该赛事首位外籍冠军车手。
苏亚雷斯曾多次面对逆境，但从未像这次一样承受着在主场观众面前证明自己的压力。这个周末的墨西哥站对他意义非凡——预计周日观赛的观众中将有逾百名亲友到场助阵。
他们一直远观着苏亚雷斯（Suarez）一步步闯入NASCAR的聚光灯下，这段旅程充满起伏，他曾为四支不同的杯赛车队效力。2021年他加入Trackhouse Racing车队，并于去年签署了一份延长至2025年的一年期合约。
当时他表示，希望在签署长期合约前重新评估项目进展。但本赛季开局令人失望，他21位的平均完赛排名较去年下滑了三位。
苏亚雷斯表示："墨西哥站的比赛是我多年来一直期盼并等待的时刻，我绝不会让任何外界因素夺走这一周和这个属于我的时刻。我们必须一步一个脚印，继续向前迈进。我认为在Trackhouse车队，过去几周我们已经展现出不错的速度，这令人鼓舞，希望我们能继续保持这一势头。"
本周末，苏亚雷斯的赛车上将出现墨西哥通信公司Telcel的标识。
苏亚雷斯表示："多年来，由于我从未在墨西哥参赛，所以也未曾与当地企业达成赞助协议。如今我们将前往那里举办赛事，这显然为我乃至整个赛车运动都开启了全新的机遇之门。"
合同干扰
这对苏亚雷斯而言无疑是另一重压力，他最大的愿望就是在成为周日赛事焦点的同时，也能交出亮眼的表现。
他说：“一旦进入比赛，我们就不想理会其他事情，我只想专注驾驶赛车并享受乐趣。但作为本土车手，加上这是杯赛系列首次在墨西哥城举办，我自然要承担更多责任。我必须接受这一点。话虽如此，我必须为竞赛事务保留精力，因为如果竞赛表现不佳，其他一切都毫无意义。所以我们必须平衡好所有事情。”
正如苏亚雷斯所言，周日的胜利将极大提升他与Trackhouse车队续约的希望。这种可能性确实存在：苏亚雷斯的首个杯赛冠军就是在索诺玛赛道获得的，而接下来的五场杯赛还包括墨西哥城、索诺玛以及芝加哥街道赛等公路赛道赛事。
他坦言：'说实话，我也不确定'自己希望从合同续约中获得什么，但表示与车队老板贾斯汀·马克斯保持着定期沟通。
苏亚雷斯表示：“Trackhouse车队的发展轨迹令人瞩目。我们学到了很多经验，我真心希望能协助贾斯汀将车队推向新高度。尽管我认为2022年已是公司迄今最成功的一年，但为何能取得这样的成绩？我们是否还有不足？是否需要调整？哪些方面可以做得更好？作为一个新组建的团队，能在初期就迎来巅峰期实属罕见。我认为其中部分原因要归功于新赛车的优势。因此我们必须持续发展壮大。”
罗斯几周前刚刚赢得了一场比赛，这为团队注入了大量活力并带来了更多势头。在此之前，我们曾经历过一段艰难时期。因此我们必须像大车队那样，持续稳定地保持这种速度。”他继续说道，“所以我们一直在进行这些讨论。我本希望不必进行这些对话，也不必面对这些干扰，但这就是生活的一部分，对吧？有时你不得不同时处理多件事情。但我尽量不去过多纠结，专注于本职工作，在比赛中全力以赴，并努力帮助团队逐步提升。”
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