Daniel Suárez Trackhouse Racing St. Louis Race Advance
No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet driver Daniel Suárez is looking for just a little bit of luck Sunday when the NASCAR Cup Series races at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis.
The No. 99 Trackhouse Racing team arrives in St. Louis after a 23rd-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on Monday.
But the result only tells part of the story.
Suárez raced from 24th into the top four and appeared to be one of the cars destined to battle for the victory.
But a lap 177 spin by Kyle Busch collected Suárez and the damage caused to the front and underneath of his car was too extensive to keep up the earlier pace.
Suárez stayed on the lead lap and finished a respectable 22nd, certainly not what he expected in the race's early going.
He hopes that luck will change Sunday at the 1.25-mile track in Madison, Illinois - just five minutes from downtown St. Louis. Last year, Suárez drove from the back of the field to the top five, but saw his chances for victory go away with a broken jack on a pit stop with just over 50 laps remaining in the race.
It's going to be a busy week for Suárez.
He's visiting the street circuit in Detroit on Thursday and Friday logging some practice laps in the TeamSLR Trans Am car in preparation for the Cup Series Chicago Street race on July 2.
He'll fly to St. Louis Friday night then practice and qualify the Cup Series car on Saturday.
At 3 p.m. CDT Saturday he'll visit the Freeway Insurance store at 3431 Nameoki Road in Granite City, Illinois for an autograph session and to meet fans. He and Freeway Insurance have been holding autograph sessions whenever Suárez is racing its No. 99 paint scheme.
FS1 will broadcast Sunday's race at 3:30 p.m. EDT.
Meet Suarez in St. Louis
Suárez Notes
Career Statistics
This Weekend Will Be A St. Louis Homecoming
For Trackhouse Racing Founder and Owner Justin Marks
Sunday's race at World Wide Technology Raceway is a sort of homecoming for Trackhouse Racing founder Justin Marks who spent the first eight years of his life in St. Louis.
"If it weren't for St. Louis, I am not sure I would be at Trackhouse Racing or that I would have ever fallen in love with racing," said Marks, who showed he retains his driving skills when he started seventh and drove through the field Monday to earn his first win of the 2023 season in the Trans Am Series at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.
St. Louis is where Marks first caught the racing bug thanks to his grandfather.
The 41-year-old Marks, whose team will field Chevrolet Camaros for No. 1 Ross Chastain and No. 99 Daniel Suárez in Sunday's second NASCAR Cup Series race at the 1.25-mile track, was born at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and grew up in the Webster Groves/Kirkwood area.
He still has family in the area and credits his grandfather Albert Wyrick from Keokuk, Iowa who first took the youngster to area dirt tracks. The two watched Midwestern racers like the Wallace brothers, Ken Schrader, Dick Trickle, and scores of others careen around the local tracks.
He saw the passion of the fans, the commitment from the drivers and the sheer enjoyment of speed. Marks's father Michael moved the family to Silicon Valley, California when Justin was eight.
Although he left the Midwest, racing never left him.
Marks decided to be a driver, hopping in a variety of sports cars with great success even reaching the pinnacle in 2009 when he joined four co-drivers winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Marks ventured into NASCAR where he competed in 38 races in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series posting four top-10s and capturing two pole awards. He made 35 starts in the Xfinity Series posting a win, three top-five and seven top-10s. He won the Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Aug. 13, 2016, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.
He even entered the ultra-competitive Cup Series where he competed in six Cup Series races with a best finish of 12th-place in the 2018 Daytona 500.
"I started to look around and realized if I wanted to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish in NASCAR it wasn't going to be as a driver," said Marks. "Deep down, I think I always felt that if I was going to forge a career in racing, it was going to be with an initiative like Trackhouse."
He made the decision to retire from full time competition and devote his energies to the business of motorsports and entertainment. He moved to Nashville in 2020 and created the Trackhouse Entertainment Group and its Trackhouse Racing division.
Timing his race team's entry into NASCAR as the sport moved toward a new more economical model, Marks’ Trackhouse team began competition in 2021 as a single car race team with Mexican driver Daniel Suárez behind the wheel and international entertainment superstar Pitbull as a partner.
The team achieved success on and off the track in 2021 running competitively and reaching out to non-traditional NASCAR audiences. It's multicultural pit crews, new sponsors and fresh openness were pillars of the Trackhouse philosophy.
Trackhouse Racing won the 2021 NASCAR Diversity Team Award and quickly became a fan favorite. The Trackhouse logo appeared on sports stars like the PGA's James Hahn, UFC matches and Miesha Tate.
In June of 2021 Marks shocked the racing world when Trackhouse announced the acquisition of Chip Ganassi Racing's NASCAR assets, a move that secured two full-time NASCAR Cup Series entries and cleared the path for expansion.
In its first season as a multicar team in 2022 working out of its Concord, North Carolina race shop, Suárez and Ross Chastain won three races and both finished in the top-10 in the standings - both are career bests.
Chastain's "Hail Melon" move on the final lap at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway to earn his way into the final round of the NASCAR Playoffs went viral with hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.
Marks won the 2022 National Motorsports Press Association's (NMPA) Myers Brothers Award during the 2022 NASCAR Awards in Nashville. The award recognizes individuals and/or groups that have provided outstanding contributions to stock car racing.
Marks won the 2022 "Byrnsie Award" from Fox. The award was established to celebrate an individual in the NASCAR Cup Series who showcases the same principles as the late Steve Byrnes embodied — preparation, teamwork and family within the garage area.
Marks pursuits are manyfold.
He is a co-manager of Marks Family Foundation, with several different philanthropic endeavors. The family, led by father Michael Marks, has been a highly successful private equity leader in the Silicon Valley for years.
Justin owns the Trackhouse Motorplex (go kart) racing facility near Charlotte, is an investor in the CARS Tour and the Music City Grand Prix Indycar race in Nashville to name just a few.
Marks now splits time between the NASCAR team's North Carolina race shop and his home near Nashville where he and wife Erin are raising two daughters.
Marks Business Career
Racing Career
Career statistics as a driver
Career statistics as a Cup owner
Pitbull To Name Upcoming Album "Trackhouse"
Concord, North Carolina – Tens of millions of people all over the world are about to say the word "Trackhouse."
In a remarkable next step for the Trackhouse brand promise of merging the worlds of motorsports and entertainment, multi-platinum Grammy-award winning artist Pitbull will release his 12th internationally distributed album on July 7, under the title "Trackhouse."
Pitbull, aka "Mr. Worldwide," joined Trackhouse Racing in 2021 in a partnership with Trackhouse Entertainment Group founder Justin Marks, with a mission to promote positivity through the unifying love of music and sports.
Pitbull, aka "Mr. Worldwide," joined Trackhouse Racing in 2021 in a partnership with Trackhouse Entertainment Group founder Justin Marks, with a mission to promote positivity through the unifying love of music and sports.
Pitbull was intimately involved with the album cover artwork created by Trackhouse which includes the familiar Trackhouse blue, a cityscape of his hometown of Miami, the historic landmark Freedom Tower overlayed in a form of street art as a reminder of his rise from the streets of Miami.
"When I joined Trackhouse in 2021, I told the team, we wanted to make history," said Pitbull who became a fan of NASCAR after watching the movie Days of Thunder as a kid and is now a business partner with Trackhouse Racing.
"Music is the universal language and music is culture. Our mission has been to build a culture at Trackhouse. We want to share it with the world. This is just the beginning of all we are going to do together not only in racing but music and more importantly education. Want to say Justin, Ty (Norris), Daniel, Ross (Chastain) and the entire Trackhouse team it's an honor to make history together… now let's step on the gas, Dale!"
The bilingual Trackhouse album features new singles "Me Pone Mal" with Omar Courtz and "Jumpin" with Lil Jon.
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Meet Suarez in St. Louis Su á rez Notes This Weekend Will Be A St. Louis Homecoming For Trackhouse Racing Founder and Owner Justin Marks Marks Business Career Racing Career Pitbull To Name Upcoming Album "Trackhouse" Concord, North Carolina –