The first shoe has dropped in NASCAR’s 2026 Silly Season cycle. Daniel Suarez confirmed in a statement shared to his social media channels on Tuesday that he will not return as the driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Suarez, who has recorded two NASCAR Cup Series wins for the team, has competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series as the driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet since the 2021 season. In his statement, Suarez called the decision to part ways with Trackhouse Racing “mutual” between the team and him.
“Trackhouse and I have mutually agreed to part ways at the end of the 2025 season,” Suarez said in his statement. “I’ve had some of the best years of my Cup Series career at Trackhouse. We had great successes as a team and I gained some incredible friends. We took a team nobody had even heard of in 2021 and in just a couple of years we were winning races and running upfront on a weekly basis. Just like the seasons in a year, sometimes things change and we have agreed to each go in our own direction. I wish Trackhouse nothing but the best, this 99 team will always be special to me. And like I always say, the best is ahead!”
A message to my amigos ?? pic.twitter.com/iipemPKW0O
— Daniel Suárez (@Daniel_SuarezG) July 1, 2025
Trackhouse Racing’s team owner Justin Marks also shared a statement on the parting of ways with Suarez, and spoke about Suarez’s pivotal role in helping launch the team off the ground in 2021.
“The role Daniel has played in the Trackhouse origin story and its first five years will remain a valued part of the company’s history forever. His commitment, work ethic, and dedication to the effort is one of the most impressive things I personally have seen in my career,” Marks said. “We will forever be thankful and honored that Daniel chose to spend many incredible years with us. We are proud of his wins, his successes, the growth of his brand, and his emergence as a valuable athlete in America’s greatest motorsport. But, most of all, I’m proud of him as a friend. I’m truly excited to see what awaits him in the next chapter of his amazing career. We are grateful for the professionalism, effort, and heart he’s brought to our organization.”
NEWS: We've mutually agreed to part ways with @Daniel_SuarezG at the end of the season. pic.twitter.com/Ac1d5ACuYe
— Trackhouse Racing (@TeamTrackhouse) July 1, 2025
Suarez was the first driver signed to drive for Trackhouse Racing as the team was founded ahead of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. In 2022, Ross Chastain joined Suarez as a teammate in the No. 1 Chevrolet. The team further expanded to three full-time Chartered entries ahead of the 2025 season, and added road course standout Shane van Gisbergen as the driver of its No. 88 Chevrolet.
With 18-year-old Connor Zilisch, who has three NASCAR Xfinity Series wins, quickly rising through the ranks as a Trackhouse Racing development driver, and Suarez suffering through a rough season, it appeared that Trackhouse Racing would likely have to make a decision sooner rather than later on what to do with its NASCAR Cup Series driver lineup down the road.
Suarez agreeing to mutually part ways with the organization at season’s end certainly makes the situation of what to do exponentially easier for Trackhouse Racing.
The 33-year-old native of Monterrey, Mexico, has suffered from potentially his toughest season in the NASCAR Cup Series ranks, aside from his 2020 stop-gap season with Gaunt Brothers Racing. Through the opening 18 races of 2025, Suarez has just one top-five finish, three top-10s, and ranks 29th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings.
His teammates Chastain and van Gisbergen are each locked into the Playoffs by virtue of wins scored at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez earlier this season.
