MEDIA TOUR: Humorous Exchange Showcases Busch/Suarez Relationship

Kyle Busch (right) and Daniel Suarez, who raced as teammates in the NASCAR XFINITY Series last year, will be teammates again this season at Joe Gibbs Racing. (Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR photo)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If you asked Kyle Busch his thoughts about new teammate Daniel Suarez during this week’s NASCAR Media Tour at the Charlotte Convention Center, he’d readily admit that Suarez “wore him out” during the course of the young Mexican’s rookie season in 2015.

But despite the tiring days, Busch added that he is equally excited to have Suarez joining the Joe Gibbs Racing Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series program and looks forward to what he can do during the new season.

Suarez, a native of Monterrey, Mexico who drove a NASCAR Camping World Truck for Busch’s team last year as well, takes over the No. 19 Toyota for the recently-departed Carl Edwards — who shocked the NASCAR world with his sudden retirement earlier this month, Busch included.

“It was a shock to the entire industry, but it was also a shock to us at JGR,” Busch said. “I know that Carl ran really, really hard and really, really strong and he had the car to beat the entire weekend at Homestead. He had a shot to win the title and then all of a sudden … decided he doesn’t want to do it anymore.”

“It personally shocked me, but it’s his own decision to make … and if he says that he’s done, then you have to respect that.”

Busch noted that Edwards’ presence will be missed within, adding that despite his replacement’s clear talent, Suarez does have a learning curve ahead of him.

“(Carl leaving) will hurt the overall team a little bit, but it won’t hurt the individual cars. All the JGR cars were up front every week and our average finish was like fifth, and then Hendrick was like eighth because one of their cars wouldn’t run as well as the others.”

“We’re gonna have a little bit of a struggle from Suarez … with him being a rookie and coming in and experiencing these Cup cars, that have less downforce and more horsepower. Stuff like that, he just has to get accustomed to. I would presume that for us other three, our average finish will stay at five if you cut out the No. 19 car.”

“But (Suarez) will be alright. We all went through that process, and you’ve seen what he can do already. He’ll get where he needs to be soon enough.”

During Edwards’ retirement announcement, team owner Joe Gibbs credited Suarez for leaning on Busch for the experience to win at the highest level possible.

Busch agreed with those sentiments and expounded on Suarez’s eagerness to learn.

“He is very eager, that’s for sure,” Busch laughed. “He was either told by Coach or Steve DeSouza or both that he better go use the resources as much as he can, so ‘go use Kyle’ because (at that point) we were teammates in the XFINITY Series. His rookie season in XFINITY he came to me every single Thursday. I mean, I pretty much knew … it was set on the calendar: Daniel Suarez, phone call, three o’clock! And we would talk about that weekend’s race track, about what to do and what to expect and this and that and practice and tire wear and everything else. And then during our practice breaks that we would have during with XFINITY, if I didn’t have to go back to the Cup car, he’d come over to my hauler and he’d be right there, you know? He wore me out, that’s for sure.”

“It was a good thing; it wasn’t a bad thing. But when we started getting to the race tracks for the second time, I told him, ‘No, no, no, you can’t do this again! You already were there once! I already gave you everything I knew the first time, so no more!'”

This past season, Suarez admitted that he utilized Busch less than in the past, which Busch responded to in one of the most humorous moments of the entire Media Tour.

“(In 2016) he came to me a couple times and I told him, ‘Hey, you don’t use me as much as you used to,’ Busch said.

Then, mimicking Suarez’s accent, he added, “‘You, you told me not to!'” to uproarious laughter from the assembled media.

Suarez responded in turn the following day, when told of Busch’s antics during his own press conference.

“If I tried to do his accent, then you wouldn’t be able to understand me!” he grinned.

It’s a relationship between two teammates built on mutual respect and a passion for racing … but as this week’s Media Tour showed, a little banter never hurts.

About the Writer

Rence Brown is Race Chaser Online’s West Coast-based correspondent, who currently resides in California and carries a deep passion for NASCAR, but is a follower of multiple forms of auto racing across multiple disciplines.