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[h=2]NASCAR: Suarez to replace Edwards in Cup series[/h] Wednesday, 11 January 2017


Kelly Crandall / Images by LAT

Daniel Suarez was having lunch with his girlfriend and her family in late December when the phone rang.
Disappearing for 40 minutes, Suarez first heard from ARRIS, the sponsor of the No. 19 Toyota in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Then came a call with team owner Joe Gibbs, who laid out the plan of how Suarez was going to drive said car beginning this year – because its current occupant, Carl Edwards was walking away. Suarez, having just won the Xfinity Series championship, was being promoted.


“When I came back, Silvia and her parents, they were asking me what was going on because I came back with a smile like this,” Suarez described. “So they were asking me what was going on. Well, really I wasn't able to say anything, so I didn't say anything.”
Suarez could finally expound on the news on Wednesday, immediately after Edwards held a news conference to announce he was stepping away from full-time racing.
Gibbs joked that while he had sworn Suarez to secrecy, including not being able to tell his parents, Gibbs forgot to tell Suarez not to tell his girlfriend.
“I was so paranoid it was going to get out,” Gibbs said with a laugh.
Suarez will make his Cup Series debut in the 59th annual Daytona 500 on Feb. 26. Of his 86 career Xfinity starts, Suarez has three wins. In November, Suarez won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to clinch the Xfinity championship in the series’ inaugural Chase. He was crowned Rookie of the Year in 2015.
“It was just an amazing moment,” Suarez said Wednesday of the news. “I wasn't expecting that at all. I was actually already working with [Xfinity crew chief] Scott [Graves] and the amazing team that I had in 2016 in Xfinity to be ready to open 2017 the same way that we closed in '16, winning races. And then this came out.
“Very happy for this opportunity. It's something that we really were waiting for. It came a little bit sooner than what we were expecting, but I think we are ready, and we're ready to go, and we are ready to start learning about everything and ready to perform well.”
Suarez will have the same 19 team who worked with Edwards last year. Dave Rogers will continue to serve as the crew chief for the team and said nothing will change on that front.
Following Wednesday’s media obligations, Suarez and Rogers will immediately begin to get to know each other. The first time the two will work together at the track will be later this month when Suarez gets behind the wheel during an organizational test at Phoenix International Raceway.
However, Rogers (pictured with Edwards) has watched Suarez grow since he signed with Joe Gibbs Racing nearly three years ago. Having been nothing but impressed, Rogers is eager to work with the 25-year-old.
“I had heard of Daniel Suarez, and I love this sport, so I pay attention to what’s going on,” Rogers said. “I heard Daniel was going to run an ARCA race (a few years ago) and so I watched it – he’ll probably be mad at me one day for saying this – I watched him make mistakes. I watched him sit in a really good car and make mistakes, and I’m like, ‘Wow, that kid’s got some talent. He’s gifted, but he’s young.’”
After Suarez won the Xfinity Series championship and was included in Champion’s Week festivities with the Cup Series in Las Vegas last month, Rogers approach him.
“You deserve to be a champion,” Rogers said he told Suarez. “You made intelligent decisions through the year, and that’s Daniel in a nutshell. He is a sponge. He’s obviously willing to listen to people. He makes mistakes, and he learns from him, and I really think from the outside watching, he works his butt off. He not only wants to do this, he’s going to put in the effort it takes to do this, and that’s really exciting.”
Suarez will be the sixth driver Rogers has worked with at the Cup level. In 266 starts, Rogers has 18 career wins with fellow Gibbs drivers Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Edwards.
“I think this is going to be a lot of fun working with someone as motivated as Daniel,” Rogers said. “I was joking with Carl – Carl’s one of my best friends, love him to death, we’ll be best friends forever – but I told him, ‘Hey, you know what Carl, if you won we’d have the whole state of Missouri cheering us. We’re going to have a whole country (Mexico) cheering us when Daniel wins!’ So this is a lot of fun.”