Daniel Suárez became the first Mexican-born driver to win a race on NASCAR's top series Sunday when he ran away with the Cup series event at Sonoma Raceway.
Suárez, who came to the U.S. from Monterrey, Mexico, 11 years ago with little money and even less familiarity with English, took the lead from Chris Buescher at the start of the third stage and held it for most of the final 49 laps, beating Busecher to the finish line by more than 3.8 seconds.
Suárez entered the 350-mile race over Sonoma's winding road course 20th in the Cup series standings with four top-10 finishes this season. His best previous best finish was fourth. But Sunday's win qualifies him for NASCAR's 10-race playoff this fall, and he drove the race of his life to earn it.
He muscled by Buescher heading into Turn 7, a sharp right-end turn at the end of "the chute," a downhill portion of the 1.99-mile road course, on the first lap of the third stage and methodically lengthened his lead the rest of the way. When he took the white flag for the final lap, he led by more than half the straightaway.
A graduate of both the NASCAR Drive for Diversity and NASCAR Next programs, which are designed to groom minority and female drivers, Suárez, 30, had accomplished a number of firsts before Sunday. He was the first Mexico driver to win the Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year award, the first foreign-born driver to lead the championship points standings in any of NASCAR's three national series. He is the only Mexican driver to win a race in those series, having captured an Xfinity Series title at Michigan International Speedway in 2016.
Suárez started racing as a 10-year-old, competing in karting events in Mexico. Five years later he won the class championship, and by the time he turned 16 he was racing in the preliminary category of NASCAR Mexico, becoming the youngest driver to win a race in the mini-stocks series.
In October 2020, Suárez joined newly formed Trackhouse Racing, part of a sports and entertainment group owned by the Grammy-winning rapper Pitbull.
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