Daniel Suárez Ready for Atlanta

Daniel Suárez and his new Trackhouse Racing team will take on the ultra-fast Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday in the sixth race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Suárez, 29 of Monterrey, Mexico, will pilot the No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet for the second consecutive week. Last Sunday in Phoenix, Suárez finished 21st and moved to 24th in the season standings.

CommScope, a global leader in network connectivity, marks the seventh year of its support for Suárez.

In four starts on the 1.5-mile Atlanta oval, Suárez has notched two top-15 finishes.

Watch Daniel Suárez talk about racing at Atlanta

Team Mexico

No. 99 Crew Chief Travis Mack is suspended for the Atlanta race because of loose lug nuts found after the Phoenix race.

Replacing Mack at Atlanta will be No. 99 lead engineer José Blasco of Mexico City.

Blasco, 47, has worked in engineering at Richard Childress Racing, Halmar Friesen Racing, and BK Racing. He served as a crew chief in the NASCAR Mexico Series for eight years, worked at General Motors in Mexico and served as a vehicle dynamics professor at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico City for more than 10 years.

He holds a master’s degree from Cranfield University in England.

Daniel Suárez, Driver of the No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet Camaro

What are your thoughts on racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend?

SUAREZ: “Atlanta is a lot of fun. I can’t even remember exactly what happened the last time we were there, but I love that place. It has a lot of character. It’s very difficult. It has a lot of bumps. It’s very rough on tires. Every driver is going to be screaming for grip and for downforce. But it’s a fun place. I really enjoy it a lot and I’m looking forward to going back.”

What are your thoughts on José Blasco serving at interim crew chief in Atlanta?

“I have known José for ten years, but this is the first time we have worked this closely. We will certainly miss Travis on the pit box this weekend, but I have a lot of trust in José and everyone on this Trackhouse team. It’s really cool to have a Mexican driver and crew chief. I hope this exposes more people to the sport of NASCAR.”

How has the learning curve been with the Trackhouse team?

“We’re still a new team. We have a lot of new people. We’re still gambling in many different areas trying to understand what we need and how to communicate and how hard should we push the splitter. At this point of the season, I wish we were having at least a couple of practices. That would be golden for our team right now because right now, the whole thing is brand new and we get to practice on the simulator, put that set-up on the real car, go to the race track and hope for the best. If for some reason the simulator was off, we’re going to be off the rest of the day in the race. And that’s exactly what happened in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, we were making some big adjustments in the car, we’re going to be competitive like we were in Miami. But we have the chance to do that. We could change shocks or heights or stuff like that. It’s one of those things that we’re just still learning. We are building our notebook and we’re learning from each other and I feel like my team has a lot of potential. But we’re in the learning process at this point.”