Suarez Making First NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Start in Five Years

Mar 22, 2026; Darlington, South Carolina, USA; Spire Motorsports Daniel Suarez (7) comes out for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. | Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

Daniel Suarez will make his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series appearance in more than five years next weekend.

Suarez, who competes in the NASCAR Cup Series for Spire Motorsports, will field the team's No. 71 Chevrolet when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competes at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, April 10. Freeway Insurance will support the effort.

Suarez last competed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2021 at Bristol. That year was the first "Bristol Dirt Race," which saw many drivers take advantage of events - both on the NASCAR weekend and in dirt racing classes and series preceding it - on the dirt surface at Bristol. Suarez was one of those competitors, finishing 17th in a race won by Martin Truex, Jr.

Before that, Suarez's last Craftsman Truck Series starts came in 2016. Suarez appeared 13 times in the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 Toyota that year, including a win at Phoenix Raceway in the penultimate race of the year.

Suarez is a winner in all three of NASCAR's National Series, with two Cup Series wins and four NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victories. He also won the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship in 2016.

Prior to the 2026 season, Suarez moved from Trackhouse Racing to Spire Motorsports. The Monterrey, Mexico native has two top-10 finishes in the first seven races of the Cup Series season, including a fifth-place finish at EchoPark Speedway in February.

Spire Motorsports has won 10 races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series since debuting its Truck Series program in 2022. Most recently, Kyle Busch won in the team's No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado at EchoPark Speedway.

The team won four races in 2025, with the No. 71 winning at Nashville Superspeedway with Rajah Caruth behind the weheel. Busch, Kyle Larson and Carson Hocevar also won Truck Series events for Spire Motorsports in 2025.

Hocevar and Suarez, now teammates in the Cup Series with Spire Motorsports, sit 15th and 16th in the championship standings for NASCAR's premier series. Their third teammate, Michael McDowell, is 17th.

The Tennessee Army National Guard 250 takes place on Friday, April 10 as part of a three-race weekend of action at Bristol Motor Speedway. The weekend culminates with the NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 on Sunday, April 12.

The green flag waves on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Bristol at 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday, April 10. Coverage of the Tennessee Army National Guard 250 will be on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.