“All I know is that things are gonna work out.” These optimistic words came from Daniel Suarez recently, despite the storms brewing around his career. The No. 99 Trackhouse Racing driver fetched only 3 top tens and 1 top-five finish across 17 races. With both of his teammates in the playoffs, the pressure is solid. However, the Mexican speedster’s optimism knows no bounds, as he aims for glory in an upcoming challenge against Bubba Wallace.

NASCAR introduced the in-season tournament last season and will finally implement it in the upcoming five races. Pairs of rivals have already been fixed according to points in Michigan, Mexico City, and Pocono. And Daniel Suarez does not intend to go soft on his opponent.

Daniel Suarez is motivated at the right time

Well, a million dollars is not a small amount of money. The NASCAR All-Star Race may not be significant in terms of points, but the million-dollar payout can never fail to capture attention. Starting from 2025, Cup Series drivers have multiple avenues to cash a million dollars. The driver ambassador program is one way, and another method linked to the racetrack is the in-season tournament. TNT will broadcast the grand battle across the next five races, which feature a street course, a road course, and a drafting track. Grand match-ups have been secured, including Kyle Larson vs. Tyler Reddick or Ryan Blaney vs. Carson Hocevar. But right now, the Daniel Suarez-Bubba Wallace pair demands our attention.

In a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Daniel Suarez revealed how pumped he is about the tournament. Bubba Wallace may be his ‘amigo,’ but Suarez has no intentions of softening his blows. He said, “My first battle is gonna be actually in Atlanta with my amigo Bubba Wallace. So if I cannot beat him,” Suarez sent his 7-word wake-up call, “I may put him in the wall.” He continued, “But, you know, it’s going to be one of those things, Dale, where you’re not going to be paying attention to who you’re racing against the entire race until the last 30 laps…But yeah, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I give a lot of credit to everyone involved to make it happen.”

What is more, Daniel Suarez has a solid chance of winning the first round. The Trackhouse star owns one win (February 2024) and four top fives in Atlanta, so the upcoming Quaker State 400 race should be a cakewalk against Wallace. That may be why Suarez was nonchalant about the million-dollar battle until now: “At first, when they came with this program, I was like, ‘Ah, we’ll deal with it whenever we get there.’ I promise to you, I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s a lot of money, but we’ll deal whenever we get there.’ I’m the kind of person, man, I love to live one day at a time. And I love to be present. You know, life is too short not to be enjoying the present moment right now. And when they told me, ‘Man, that thing is going to start in June.’ And, ‘Ah, we deal in June.'”

Now that June is here, Daniel Suarez is rolling up his sleeves to go all out against Bubba Wallace. Nevertheless, the two share a warm bond.

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Rooting for his ‘amigo’

Racetrack battles may tell one story about a pair of drivers. However, their meetings off NASCAR tracks may tell a wildly different story. The same goes for Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez, whose friendship has surfaced several times. It has even withstood rough times like the Pocono incident in 2019 when a late-race aggression led to a middle finger flip and a chippy discussion. Hence, the in-season battle should be nothing. What is more, Wallace was overjoyed about his ‘amigo’s success just two weeks ago. Suarez led a race-high 19 laps and beat fellow racer Taylor Gray by 0.598 seconds to win the Chilango 150 race. It was a magnificent achievement for the Monterrey native to win the NASCAR Xfinity race on his home ground.

What is more, it left one of his best Cup Series buddies absolutely floored. Bubba Wallace penned a heartfelt X post congratulating Suarez: “I was in the spa and didn’t get to see it live….I have chills and may have cried for mi amigo @Daniel_SuarezG. What an incredible feeling that must be for him in front of his home crowd! Wow! VAMOS AMIGO, VAMOS!!!!!!!”

Wallace gave an additional shout-out before the Cup Series race: “I couldn’t be more proud and excited for Suárez and understanding that he’s put in a lot of work with NASCAR to make this all happen and to make it special for all of us. And to see NASCAR support his decisions and needs and wants to make sure everybody is safe.”

Now, this fuzzy friendship would take a serious turn. Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace would go all out to beat each other at the tournament, even though they would come out laughing either way.