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From where to eat, what to do, how to navigate the city and even basic conversation in Spanish, Suarez has been the go-to guy in the garage since NASCAR said it would take the Cup Series outside the United States for just the third time in 77 years.

The Monterrey native has made multiple trips to NASCAR as the face of Sunday's race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where he's raced on a different course layout 13 times, with three wins in NASCAR's Mexico Series.

He'd like to win at the Cup level 鈥� if he pulls it out in his home country Sunday it will be his first victory of this season 鈥� but Suarez is juggling a very difficult balancing act. He's elated to be racing in front of a home crowd, honored to show of the culture and magic of Mexico City, but at the same time tremendously concerned about his NASCAR future.

Suarez is in a contract year with Trackhouse Racing, which has Ross Chastain and Shane van Ginsberg under contract while Connor Zilisch is its development driver and on loan to several teams at lower national levels of NASCAR racing.

Trackhouse only has three Cup Series seats, math Suarez can't ignore as he heads into Sunday ranked 28th in the standings.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not the first time that I鈥檝e been in this position. Definitely the first time with the Mexico race, but it鈥檚 not the first time that I鈥檝e been in the position that we have to win or in the position that we have a contract negotiation in the middle of the season,鈥� Suarez said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely a distraction. I won鈥檛 sit here and tell you that it doesn鈥檛 really matter. I鈥檓 trying to be as smart as possible and to put all this stuff on the side and just do my thing on the track.鈥�

Return to Mexico

Suarez, the only Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national series race, has two Cup victories, three Xfinity Series wins and one Truck Series win. His 2016 championship in the second-tier Xfinity Series made him the only foreign-born driver to win a national series title.

Suarez has faced adversity before, but never like the pressure he's feeling hoping to deliver in front of the local crowd. This weekend in Mexico is special to Suarez, who expects well over 100 of the spectators in attendance Sunday to be friends and family.

They've watched from afar as he's worked his way into the NASCAR spotlight, a journey full of ups and downs that have seen Suarez drive for four different Cup teams. He joined Trackhouse Racing in 2021 and last year signed a one-year extension through 2025.

At the time, he said he wanted to reassess where the program was before signing a long-term deal. But it's been a disappointing start to the season and his average finish of 21st is three spots worse than last year.

鈥淭he Mexico race is something that I鈥檝e been hoping and waiting on for many, many years, and I鈥檓 not going to let anything else from outside take that week and that moment from myself,鈥� Suarez said. 鈥淲e have to just continue to put one foot in front of the other and continue to move forward. I think that in Trackhouse, we have found some decent speed in the last few weeks, so that鈥檚 promising, and hopefully we can continue to move in that direction.鈥�

Suarez will have Mexican communication company Telcel on his car this weekend.

鈥淔or many years, I never had a sponsor deal with a company from Mexico because I wasn鈥檛 racing there,鈥� Suarez said. 鈥淪o right now that we鈥檙e going to be having an event down there, it opens a whole new world of opportunities and that鈥檚 great, obviously for me, but for the entire sport.鈥�

Contract Distractions

It's another layer of pressure for Suarez, who wants nothing more than to balance the demands of being the star of Sunday's show with delivering a strong showing.

"Once we get into the race, we don鈥檛 want to deal with any of this stuff, and I just want to focus and have fun driving race cars,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here is going to be more on my plate just by nature, just being the local guy, the very first race ever in Mexico City in the Cup Series. I have to accept that. With that being said, I have to protect my space for the competition stuff because if we don鈥檛 do the competition stuff right, everything else doesn鈥檛 really matter. So we have to put a balance on everything.鈥�

As Suarez noted, a win on Sunday would dramatically improve his hopes of remaining with Trackhouse on a contract extension. It could happen: Suarez's first Cup victory came on the road course at Sonoma, and the next five Cup races include road-course races at Mexico City, Sonoma and the Chicago street course.

He admitted 鈥渉onestly, I don't know鈥� about what he'd like out of a contract extension, but said he speaks regularly with team owner Justin Marks.

鈥淭he trajectory of Trackhouse has been tremendous,鈥� Su谩rez said. 鈥淲e have learned so many things. I really want to help Justin bring Trackhouse to the next level. I believe that 2022 has been our best year as a company, still. So why is that? Are we missing something? Do we have to change something? What do we need to do better? As a new team, to have your best years that early, it鈥檚 kind of uncommon. One of the reasons, I believe, was because of the new car. So I believe that we have to continue to grow.

鈥淩oss just won a race a couple weeks ago, and that鈥檚 brought a lot of energy to the team and some more momentum. Before that, it was a little bit of a struggle. So we have to continue to find that speed in a consistent basis, just like the big teams," he continued. "So we鈥檙e having all these conversations. I wish I didn鈥檛 have to have these conversations, and I didn鈥檛 have these distractions, but it鈥檚 part of life, right? Sometimes you have to do several things at the same time. But I鈥檓 trying not to think about it too much and trying to work in my job and push as hard as possible for competition and trying to help the team slowly get better and better.鈥�