“In my mind, I am already in the playoffs,” Daniel Suarez is all set to secure yet another road course win at Watkins Glen
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Daniel Suarez
In just one and a half years after its founding, Trackhouse Racing has established itself as one of the teams to beat in the NASCAR Cup Series. The Justin Marks-Pitbull-owned squad has long-term ambitions like the PROJRCT91 intended to expand the market for the sport, so they are not just a fledgling cup team pursuing glory.
The Daniel Suarez-Ross Chastain duo is taking the team only to the top. The team will achieve yet another milestone this weekend at Watkins Glen as former F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen will be making his NASCAR cup series debut in the No:91 car as part of the team’s PROJECT91. Though the Ex-F1 driver dominates the headlines going into the race weekend, Daniel Suarez has the right to claim a portion of it as he will surely be a top contender on race day.
Daniel Suarez made history on the Sonoma Road course race by securing his first cup win and getting into NASCAR history as the first Mexican driver to get in the victory lane. The No:99 Camaro ZL1 driver will hope to get another win before the postseason starts, and the remaining two races in the cup series, being road course races, gives the veteran an advantage over others as he has been a dominant racer in the road courses.
Find out what Daniel Suarez had to say about his Watkins outing
Daniel Suarez acknowledged that he has already built up the mindset of racing in playoffs over the last six weeks, as it isn’t easy to just flip the mindset switch when you enter the playoffs. He pointed out that he is building that mindset to facilitate his and the 99 team’s performance in the playoffs, as it isn’t easy to enter the post-season mode.
“In my mind, I am already in the playoffs. I have had that mindset over the last six weeks. I believe it is not possible to go into the playoffs and flip the switch and say, ‘okay, we are in the playoffs; now we have to push hard. I don’t think it works like that, and you kind of have to start building that up, and I feel like that is what we have been doing, especially with the 99 teams,” Daniel Suarez said.
Daniel Suarez went on to say that entering the playoff mindset earlier has helped him to perform at the track as they had capable cars of finishing in the top five every single week “That shows on the track because the last two months, we have had race cars capable of finishing in the top five every single week,”.
Daniel Suarez added that Road Courses have been a good source of results for the Trackhouse team and pointed out that he has been able to top perform well on tracks such as Sona Ma and COTA, where they came out victorious. He added that the top 5 finishes in other road course races also give him the expectation that he can be fast at Watkins Glen.
“We have been fast at every road course this year. Ross won at COTA, and we won Sonoma, both of us were in the top five at Road America, and we were second and third in overtime at Indy. I expect to be just as fast Sunday at Watkins Glen,” Daniel Suarez explained.
Daniel Suarez talking about Kimi Raikkonen’s cup debut acknowledged the racing style most drivers employ on the grid. He reiterated that if you even bring in the best driver in the world to race in the cup series, he would find the racing part difficult and added that Kimi Raikkonen would be fast at Watkins.
“It’s different, and he doesn’t know all these drivers. He doesn’t know how they race, he doesn’t know how aggressive they are, so that part will take a little bit. You can bring the best driver in the world, which would take some time in the racing part. I think [as far as] the speed; I think he’ll be good,” says Daniel Suarez.
Can Daniel Suarez secure one more win before the playoff?
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Justin P Joy
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