Trackhouse Racing came one heartbeat, one breath, one bumper short of a very, very good day at Daytona. They weren’t chasing a fairy tale—two of their three cars were already locked into NASCAR’s Playoffs. No, Saturday night under the Florida lights was about one thing only: getting Daniel Suárez a win, the golden ticket into the postseason.
And they almost did it. Almost.
The night began with hope, chaos, and the usual cocktail of nerves that comes with Daytona, where the racing gods tend to enjoy a bit of mischief. On paper, Trackhouse had the firepower: Ross Chastain, the Melon Man who can crash through walls and somehow still finish a race; Shane van Gisbergen, the Kiwi road course assassin who’s still learning how to survive NASCAR’s ovals; and Suárez, the man who needed this one more than anyone else.
Van Gisbergen’s evening was a lesson in progress. The Kiwi admitted long ago that while he can carve corners with a surgeon’s precision, ovals remain the language he’s still learning. Daytona doesn’t exactly hand out dictionaries. Yet there he was, running with the lead pack, leading six laps—no small feat in a place where even legends can end up upside down before they know what hit them.
“It was awesome,” van Gisbergen said. “We set out and achieved what we wanted to do. I wasn’t quite a good enough pusher to help the No. 99 (Daniel Suarez). I would just get tight and bound up, and I couldn’t stay attached. But when we were out front, it was good. It was good to lead some laps and control some lanes. I learned a lot. We just have to keep building.”
He finished 16th, respectable and useful for his education. But he wasn’t thinking about himself—he was thinking about Suárez.
Ross Chastain, meanwhile, did his part. He won Stage 2 and brought the No. 1 home in 15th, just ahead of SVG. And in typical Chastain fashion, he did it with minimal fuss.
“I didn’t ask for an adjustment all night, and I wouldn’t ask for anything different for another 400 miles,” he said. “That’s really, really cool to do that. The speedway package is a tight box, and we’ve migrated to a really good spot on the No. 1 team. I think from across the board, listening to Shane (van Gisbergen), he had some issues that I’ve had year’s past, so hopefully we’ll get the No. 88 Chevrolet headed in our direction.”
But Daytona, as always, can be cruel. The heartbreak belonged to Suárez. Second place. So agonizingly close to the win he needed, and with it, a Playoff berth. Instead, it became the last chapter of his Daytona story with Trackhouse. Hours before the race, team owner Justin Marks had introduced Suárez’s replacement for 2026: young phenom Connor Zilisch.
“We just needed one more spot,” Suárez said afterward, his disappointment obvious. “The No. 99 Coca-Cola Chevrolet team did a great job. We just probably needed to be in position a little bit earlier, but our Chevy was strong. We just lost a little bit of control in the final stage and that set us behind a little bit. The No. 12 (Ryan Blaney, race winner) was back there with us at one point. Overall, we had a good car all night, but it was just a little bit too late.”
Chastain felt it, too. Even after the race, his mind was still on his soon-to-be former teammate.
“I’m proud of the effort by Daniel (Suárez) and the No. 99 team,” Chastain said. “He kept his cool tonight. I tried to push him at times; it didn’t work out and he made it up there on his own there at the end and gave himself a shot. It would be better with three, but we’re definitely proud of the effort tonight. We still have three cars going to compete for wins.”
Three cars, yes. But for Suárez, Daytona was the cruelest of reminders: sometimes in NASCAR, one spot might as well be a mile.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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