The inaugural Cup Series race in Mexico City will serve as a career milestone for Daniel Suarez, a native of Monterrey. However, while he celebrates this historic moment for NASCAR, he will also face additional distractions.
Suarez is currently in the middle of a contract year with Trackhouse Racing. He has not yet set his plans for next season. This is something that will linger as he goes through a busy weekend packed with appearances and responsibilities in Mexico.
"Definitely, it's a distraction," Suarez told media members on Wednesday. "I won't sit here and tell you that it doesn't really matter. It's definitely a distraction.
"But I'm trying to be as smart as possible and to put all this stuff on the side and to just do my thing on the track."
Suarez is one of four drivers currently under contract with Trackhouse Racing. He forms the Cup Series lineup alongside Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen. Development driver Connor Zilisch competes full-time in the Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports while also making select Cup Series starts.
Chastain, SVG, and Zilisch are all under contract beyond this season. Only Suarez is negotiating with Trackhouse Racing, something he also did for much of last season before inking a one-year extension in August.
"It's not the first time that I've been in this position, though definitely the first time with the Mexico race," Suarez said. "But it's not the first time that we have to win or have a contract negotiation in the middle (of the NASCAR season)."
While Suarez has two wins in the Gen 7 era, this season has not progressed as he and Trackhouse Racing had hoped. He is 28th in the Cup Series standings with only three top-10 finishes. His best finish is a runner-up at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Suarez is not the only driver in the stable who has struggled with consistency. Ross Chastain's team struggled mightily in qualifying during the first 13 races of the season, which forced him to drive through the field each week while fighting for top-10 finishes.
The No. 1 team ultimately turned a corner during the Coca-Cola 600 weekend, albeit before a practice crash sent Chastain to a backup car. He still went on to win the crown jewel race and punch his ticket to the playoffs.
"We just have to execute," Suarez added. "We have to do the little things right, and I believe that we are capable of doing that. We just have to continue to move forward. We win next week, and all these conversations are going to be out the window.
"A few weeks ago, Ross in a post-race interview, he was bitching about the cars and everything that we need to do better. Then he wins a race, and everything is amazing now. So winning fixes everything."
The contract negotiations, the added responsibilities in Mexico City, and the on-track performance of the No. 99 team are all distractions for Suarez. He openly acknowledged that he wished he didn't have to have the conversations and distractions while preparing for the inaugural Cup race in Mexico City. That's just not how life works.
All Suarez can do is try to push as much to the side as possible when it's time to practice, qualify, and race. That will only set him up to potentially contend for a better finish or a win.
"Once we get into the race, we don't want to deal with any of this stuff, and I just want to focus in, and have fun driving race cars," Suarez 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 don't do the competition stuff right, everything else doesn't really matter."