Suárez: 'Little bit of work to do' to improve in second half of 2026
2026 Coca-Cola 600 victor Daniel Suárez discusses the No. 7 team's season so far and where there can be improvement in the second half.
Video Transcript
Zach Starnio, nascar.com.
Daniel, this weekend starts the second half of the regular season.
From your perspective, what do you, you and the seven team need to accomplish over this next, 13 weeks to give yourselves a shot at, really contending in the Chase?
Yeah.
I mean, I think that we have to continue to improve our, our program, right?
I think the seven team has shown good speed.
I still feel that we have a little bit of work to do, from Saturdays to Sundays.
I feel like our Saturdays have been pretty strong, practice and qualifying, but we still have a little bit of work to do Saturday to Sunday.
We, we hit it right, I would say, 50% of the time, but we still have a little bit of work to do in the other 50% of the time.
And, and sometimes we, we just put ourself a little bit behind, and eventually we, we get it right and then, and then we see the potential of the car.
So we still have a little work to do.
there has been, a lot of changes in our pit crew side.
so we, we ne- we just need a little bit of time, you know, with the, with the new group, to get some more reps and, and, and, and do things right.
The last couple weeks, the pit crew has been working very, very hard.
With that being said, the last couple weeks we have had issues.
You know, we, we crashed in the All-Star Race because a loose wheel, and, and we had a loose wheel in the first pit stop in the Cox's hundred that put us behind as well.
So, w- we, you know, we won the race, but we still have a lot of work to do, you know?
and that's, for me, that's something that I'm not forgetting about that.
You know, I'm not naive.
and, and I, and I'm really pushing my team to continue to, to continue to push in these areas to, to continue to improve because every single team out there is gonna continue to get better, so we, we have to continue to move the bar higher and higher.
How can you u- how can you utilize this weekend to set the to, to ride the momentum from, from getting the victory last week and still finding those ways to improve this week at Nashville?
Yeah.
I mean, to me, to me, the main thing, you know, momentum is key in this sport, right?
In any sport.
so we have to make sure that we I mean, the energy, the spirit of the entire team right now is very high and, and that helps a lot.
That's a, that's, that's a, that's a huge step forward already.
With that being said, that's not gonna fix the problems, right?
And, and, and we don't have, like, huge problem.
Like, we're a very competitive team.
We, we're not tending points by luck, you know?
We, we've been competitive team the entire, you know, first few months of the year.
So we just have to continue to, to be, to be honest with ourselves and, and to analyze the areas of improvement and, and, and put a plan together to improve these areas.
Like I said, you know, the pit crew, I believe that my guys have a lot of talent.
We just need a little bit of time, you know?
And, and in that process, we can have loose wheels because, you know, if, if I wasn't detecting the loose wheel last week, I wouldn't be sitting here right now.
So, you know, it's, it's, it's one of those things that we just have to be aware of, of our strengths and weaknesses and, and, and go to work in the weaknesses.
