After just one season, Daniel Suárez has lost his ride with Stewart-Haas Racing. On Thursday, amid reports that Cole Custer would replace him in SHR’s #41 Ford Mustang for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series, Suárez confirmed his departure via Twitter video.
“I’m here to confirm the bad news that some of you guys already know and some of you guys are trying to figure out: I won’t be back next year in the 41 car,” he began. “I was as shocked as you guys are late last night, but I can promise you that I worked my heart off to make this happen and to try to put everything together. The team did us well.
“We just were not able to put all the funding and all the sponsors together right on time. We were extremely close, pretty much there, but it just wasn’t quite enough and we just ran out of time. I’m extremely disappointed for the outcome, but that’s the way it is sometimes.”
A Spanish-language version of his announcement was also posted:
The 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, Suárez joined SHR for the 2019 season after spending the last two seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing. He is currently seventeenth in points with eleven top-ten finishes, four top fives, a pole at Kentucky Speedway, and a best finish of third at both Texas Motor Speedway races.
On Thursday morning, Motorsport.com reported Custer would replace Suarez in the #41 for 2020. Custer, who has seven wins and six poles in 2019, is in the hunt for his first Xfinity championship.
SHR posted a statement shortly after the announcement: “Daniel Suárez is the epitome of class. He is a world-class racecar driver and an even better person who has represented Stewart-Haas Racing and its partners extremely well. He have much respect and admiration for Daniel, and genuinely wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”
