The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Silly Season only saw two driver moves. Interestingly, both of which involved Daniel Suárez. It was announced on August 1, 2026, that Suárez would not return to Trackhouse Racing. About three months later, his move to the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro for Spire Motorsports was announced.
Entering the 2026 season, expectations were varied for both Suárez and his former team. But generally, the expectation was that Trackhouse would put at least one entry in the Chase and that Suarez would miss.
“I don’t want to only remember the negatives, you know,” Suárez said. “I also want to remember the positives because we also had a lot of positives together. But unfortunately, over the last year, it was just difficult — difficult on performance, difficult on the communication, difficult in the way that things were going in leadership within the team. So things were just not aligning anymore.”
Daniel Suárez Season
Suárez had a respectable, but not strong start to the season. The No. 7 finished top-13 in both superspeedway races, but finished 25th and 30th place at Circuit of the Americas and Phoenix Raceway. This, followed by an 18th-place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, did not spell a strong season for the combination.
Las Vegas started a 13 race top-20 streak for Suárez, a first for the Mexican driver. Included in this stretch were three top-10s and an emotional victory in the rain shortened Coca-Cola 600. A 31st-place at Sonoma Raceway broke the streak, but was his only finish worse than 23rd-place in the final 22 races. Suárez’s quiet consistency earned him enough points to lock into the Chase after the penultimate race of the season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
This year, 34-year old earned one more win, one more top-five, one more top-10, and five less DNFs than his 2025 regular season. His biggest improvement comes in the points standings. Suárez exited the 2025 regular season 27th in points. This year, he’s entering the 2026 Chase field as the 11-seed.
“The reality is that I have never wanted to prove anyone wrong,” Suárez said. “Maybe that has happened by accident, but I just wanted to prove myself, right, because obviously I never stopped believing in myself. And yeah, I’m just happy the way that things have gone so far. Not satisfied. We want to win more, and we want to be even faster, but definitely we have shown what we can do.”
Trackhouse’s Season
While Suarez had a career-high season, his former team has had a career-low season. The 2025 regular season saw five victories for the organization with two drivers in the postseason. This season, they only have two victories and missed the postseason entirely.
First, Ross Chastain went from a Coca-Cola 600 win and a Round of 12 appearance in the playoffs to going winless and missing the postseason entirely. Secondly, though Shane van Gisbergen improved on ovals, he ended the regular season outside of the postseason despite two victories. Worst of all, Connor Zilisch (the driver who replaced Daniel Suarez) currently sits 34th in points with only one top-10 and six top-20s.
“Bits of it were good,” van Gisbergen said on his 2026 season. “As a team, obviously we struggled. I’m proud that I’ve been able to match my teammates on the ovals. I think I’ve stepped up this year. But yeah, obviously you want to be in that Chase, and didn’t make it.”
Notably, development driver Zilisch announced that he would leave the organization to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 2028.
Looking Forward
Suarez has had a career season so far, but will have to continue his consistency in the Chase. Darlington Raceway, which saw a top-10 in the spring, Charlotte Motor Speedway where he won the Coca-Cola 600, and Talladega Superspeedway, a track type where Suarez has two top-fives this season, could stand out for him to have strong runs and potentially secure a second victory.
Similarly to Suarez, Talladega poses a big opportunity for Trackhouse. Chastain has a win at the track in 2022 and van Gisbergen has run strong at the superspeedways. Additional tracks that could see victories are Kansas Speedway and Charlotte, which Chastain has wins at in 2024 and 2025 respectively. Kansas and Charlotte are also strong tracks for van Gisbergen. The former saw his first Cup Series oval top-10 in 2025 and he ran strong at the latter in 2026.
