Daniel Suárez reflects on crew chief change: 'Nobody was really happy'

Trackhouse Racing made a few moves this offseason, and that included changing crew chiefs for Daniel Suárez in the No. 99 car. Suárez had worked with Travis Mack since the beginning of Trackhouse, now the NASCAR duo has split.

Travis Mack is now with Kaulig Racing. Matt Swiderski from Kaulig is now with Daniel Suárez at Trackhouse. A little bit of a crew chief swap, maybe on purpose, perhaps not. Either way, there is a change for the 99 team.

Going winless in 2023 was not the plan for Suárez. He was hoping to build off of his strong 2022 season, but it just didn’t happen. Expectations are only rising at Trackhouse with the additions of Shane van Gisbergen, Zane Smith, and 17-year-old Rolex 24 winner Connor Zilisch – there is a talented crowd at The House.

Talking to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, Daniel Suárez talked about why the change was made to make a crew chief change.

“The reason for the change, it’s a little bit complicated. It wasn’t because one person decided to make a change, or because I wanted to make a change. I will say that nobody was really happy with the way we performed last year.

“Last year was one of those years that we had a lot of lessons and a lot of those lessons you have to try to learn from them and try to be better. The team got together and they decided that we needed to make a change, we didn’t know where to start, and they felt the need to make a change. It was quite difficult, to be honest.”

Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez has a new crew chief in 2024 as Matt Swiderski comes from Kaulig Racing to replace Travis Mack (now with Kaulig). Suarez said nobody was happy with the performance, but he has a strong personal relationship with Mack so parting is difficult. pic.twitter.com/FNmVa8ZLTZ

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) January 29, 2024

So, it was an organizational decision it seems. Daniel Suárez only wants to get better. Hopefully, the partnership with Swiderski pays off in 2024.

Daniel Suárez could feel pressure in 2024

Speaking of the talent at Trackhouse Racing right now, it might add to the pressure of the season. Suárez has to show he is a consistent playoff driver. The only thing is, that the talent level in the entire Cup Series is rising every year now.

Ross Chastain is the Melon Man, Mr. Hail Melon – he’s the new Busch Light guy! SVG is a three-time Supercars champion. Zane Smith is a Truck Series champion. Connor Zilisch just won the LMP2 category of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The big issue here for Daniel Suárez is that he is supposed to be the road course guy, right? Well, you add SVG and Zilisch into the mix and that gets harder to argue. Van Gisbergen went out and won the Chicago Street Race in his debut for goodness sake.

For now, Suárez is going to be just fine. I think Trackhouse Racing values him from a marketing standpoint, and there’s something that tells me they will make room for him as long as they feasibly can. The next couple of years could change that, though.