The opportunity to race in Brazil came about due the NASCAR Cup Series being on a two-week break for the Olympics, giving the Mexican driver, who recently obtained American citizenship, the opportunity to get married, but also compete at the legendary Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.
The marriage to his longtime girlfriend Julia Piquet, daughter of three-time Formula 1 world champion Nelson Piquet, was certainly one of the highlights of his personal life, but the following days certainly marked his professional life.
On Friday, with two practice sessions, Suarez had his first experience in a NASCAR Brazil car, which is a bit different from the machinery he is used to. The car has a 300 horsepower V6 engine, versus the Next Gen Cup car, which boats a V8 engine with 670 horsepower.
The initial results were promising: He led both sessions, one of which was only with fellow rookies. On Saturday in qualifying, Suarez was fourth, about four tenths behind pole-sitter Gabriel Casagrande.
The Special Edition weekend of NASCAR Brazil included three races, unlike the national championship, which has two. In Race #1, Suarez quickly adapted to the car and used an aggressive style commonplace in the United States.
He drove from fourth to first in a chaotic final lap, but the victory was not to be his. He was handed a five-second time penalty for earlier contact with Leo Torres (the defending NASCAR Brazil champion), which was surprising due to the minor nature of it.
Finished first on track in race 1 but got a 5 second penalty for this 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/iU9AT57jad
— Daniel Suárez (@Daniel_SuarezG) August 3, 2024
Officially, Suarez finished in sixth place. As consolation, Torres believed the incident should not have resulted in a penalty. However, these things have a way of balancing out in racing.
In Race #2 at sunset, Suarez started seventh. The race was wild, but Suarez escaped the carnage and ended up challenging young Lucas Mendes as night overtook the race track.
Mendes crossed the finish line first, but he was penalized for a series of incidents, which allowed Suarez to officially take victory at Interlagos.
The triumph made Suarez the first driver to win in the same year in three international NASCAR championships. He was victorious in the NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta and won in NASCAR Mexico exhibition at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.
The sum of the points in the first two races – the criteria for forming the grid for the third race – put Suarez in pole position for the main event of the weekend in Interlagos.
After dominating much of the race, the Mexican had to deal with two of the greatest drivers in Brazilian motorsports today: Gabriel Casagrande and Julio Campos.
The frantic battle, especially in the final half of the race, had the fans in the stands on their feet. Casagrande overtook Suarez with about three minutes remaining. The Mexican tried to get it back, but he overdrove the entry of Turn 1 on the final lap moments after retaking the lead. Campos also pounced, pushing Suarez down to third in the final order.
Upset about losing the victory? Far from it.
“It was a very entertaining race,” said Suarez after climbing from the car. “Casagrande and Campos, they are great drivers, they did a great job.
“The race was fun, aggressive, but fun. I enjoyed it. I wanted to be a little bit faster to stay ahead, but they were a little bit better than me and eventually they managed to beat me.”
In an overall assessment of the weekend, Suarez was positive, despite the penalty that stripped him of victory in the first race.
“It was great, it was a lot of fun to race here at Interlagos and learn a lot about the race, about the cars, about the drivers and about the rules too. Overall, it was a very positive weekend.”
Asked if he would return to Sao Paulo to compete, Suarez said, "I hope that one day I can come back and race again."
