Top Dog: Daniel Suarez
Last year’s silly season was eerily quiet compared to most years, with very little roster shuffling occurring across the NASCAR Cup Series field.
At the center of the movement that occurred was Daniel Suarez, who departed Trackhouse Racing for Spire Motorsports.
In the moment, as well as the few months that transpired leading up to the season-opening Daytona 500, Suarez’s move felt like a ‘take what you can get’ signing.
To put it bluntly, Suarez had played musical chairs between championship organizations like Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing before moving to Trackhouse in 2021, and even after signs of growth, the candle seemed to burn out the longer he was there. The Spire signing felt like Suarez’s thread was barely hanging on the spool, just waiting to fall off after disappointments at the aforementioned organizations.
However, after the 11th race of the Cup season at Texas Motor Speedway (May 3), Suarez once again proved the doubters wrong — including any detractors at Trackhouse.
Suarez pieced together arguably his best race of the season, Texas two-stepping his way to a sixth-place result as the highest-finishing Spire driver. The result comes a week after his teammate Carson Hocevar scored his first-career victory, adding more fuel to a week in which Spire’s growth burned brightly.
The Climb to the Top
Track position was crucial at Texas, and Suarez couldn’t have picked a better seat for the show by qualifying on the front row next to Hocevar to aid a Spire 1-2 effort. However, it wasn’t long before the qualifying speed quickly gave way to race pace, as Suarez began to slide down the pylon through the opening stage, falling outside the top 10 within the first 25 laps and capping off the stage in 15th.
The second stage was where Texas’s nature in the Next Gen era reared its head, featuring more twists and turns than a desert tumbleweed. A treacherous bump in turn 4, wild restarts and a pit road of calamity created a pandora’s box for several drivers throughout the stage. However, Suarez’s No. 7 remained steady through the stage, allowing him to surge to fifth and score six stage points.
The final stage saw a bit of a calm after the stage two storm, creating perfect conditions for Suarez to excel with improved adjustments. The Monterrey, Mexico native fought inside the top 10 for the remainder of the race and even flirted with the top five on multiple occasions.
A final caution with 11 laps to go opened the door for strategy a final time, and Suarez was one of the first to go a different direction by pitting. Suarez took the final restart in 10th, improving to sixth when the checkered flag dropped.
With nearly a third of the season in the books, Suarez has nearly half of his top 10 total from a year ago (three this year compared to seven last season). But even more importantly, his average finish has been sliced nearly in half thus far, improving upon 23.5 average in 2025 with a 12.6 average to this point.
Looking Ahead
The 34-year-old sits 14th in the standings, 36 points above The Chase cut line. At this point last season with Trackhouse, Suarez was mired in 25th.
Remember, Suarez has spoken before about Trackhouse’s struggles in the past couple of seasons, and the red flags are continuing to pop up around his former home. The closest Trackhouse driver to Suarez in points? That would be Ross Chastain in 19th, 55 points behind Suarez and the driver who told his former teammate “You got fired” after a scuffle at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Well, here we are nearly two months later, and the two operations are clearly differing trajectories.
Spire has a win and two drivers in position to make the Chase. All three of Trackhouse’s drivers are 18th or worse in points, and it has a combined four top 10s between its three drivers.
Sure, there’s still a lot of racing to be had in 2026, but if you, like me, were skeptical of Suarez’s prospects at Spire, now is the opportunity to recant those doubts.
Honorable Mention
If it weren’t for Tyler Reddick‘s historic start to the season, one of the emerging storylines at 23XI Racing would be the progress exhibited by Riley Herbst.
It felt like only a few weeks had vanished in 2025 before Herbst landed on the hot seat, and with Corey Heim still waiting in the wings, Herbst’s seat hasn’t gotten any cooler in 2026.
What Herbst has done though is shown significant growth over the past few weeks. He ran inside the top 10 for much of the day at Bristol Motor Speedway before getting into a scuffle with Kyle Busch, finished 14th at Kansas Speedway, and landed his best finish on a non-drafting track by finishing 11th at Texas. Ironically, had Heim not have spun out late in the race, Herbst likely would have scored a top 10.
A slow start that included a stage one finish outside the top 30 was quickly resolved by a strong stage two in which strategy played into the hands of Herbst. After scoring an eighth-place result in the second frame, the No. 35 didn’t fade back into obscurity, but rather, Herbst became a contender around the top five. Before the caution flew for Heim with 11 laps to go, Herbst was running ninth, only losing a top 10 showing because of cars on fresher tires for the final restart.
Sure, his only top 10 came in the Daytona 500, plus he sits 28th in points, but the Herbst we’ve seen the past few weeks is one who needs to continue to show up in order to keep his seat or toss his name in the hat for another ride in 2027.
For now, in baseball terms, Herbst is continuing to hit paper cuts.
Top Dogs of the Lower Series
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: Another week down, another Parker Retzlaff top 10. This time, however, he pushed his No. 99 to a top five, his second of the season.
A couple of weeks ago, Viking Motorsports General Manager Jeremy Lange told Frontstretch that while he has enjoyed the team’s results, it makes him uneasy out of a fear of creating unrealistic expectations. VMS’s goal entering 2026 was to run consistently inside the top 15 or top 20.
Instead, Retzlaff has been, in Lange’s words, “punching outside his weight class” by continuing to deliver top 10s. The withdrawal from lofty goals is valid, especially since VMS is only in its second full-time season as an operation. Yet, Retzlaff continues to put the garage on notice that he was a diamond in the rough.
Retzlaff scored points in both stages and surged through the top 10 in the final stage, beating out the likes of Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, Jesse Love, and many other heavy hitters.
The 22-year-old is already just one top 10 away (six) from matching his career-best in a season (seven), and he’s firmly above the Chase cut line by sitting ninth, 52 points to the good.
Just a couple of weeks after being shouted out by Denny Hamlin on Actions Detrimental, the No. 99 team is the little engine that could, and the ride may be just beginning.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: There’s still a bit of a question surrounding if Kaulig Racing’s new RAM operation is an underdog team, but based on early returns, it certainly seems that way.
Combine the fact that Parker Kligerman climbed into one of its trucks for his first start of 2026, and the pairing became a dark horse duo at Texas for the Truck race (May 1).
Kligerman scored an 11th-place result in his return to the series, leading the way for the quintet of Kaulig’s RAM trucks. The 35-year-old ran solidly inside the top 15 for most of the night, including some laps spent inside the top 10 in stage two. Kligerman entered a restart with just six laps remaining in 16th, but between strong restarts, on-track moves and an overtime restart, he surged to just miss out on a top 10.
Small Team Scheme of the Week
It might be cliche, but what better way to beat the Texas heat by bringing an ice cold scheme to the track?
Cole Custer and Haas Factory Team brought out its familiar No. 41 Andy’s Frozen Custard colors as the company celebrates its 40th anniversary. Andy’s also sponsored Saturday’s O’Reilly race in a weekend full of ice cream.
Unfortunately, Custer’s day went splat when Joey Logano ran into the back of him during pit stops in stage two. Custer did finish the race, but he was relegated to 35th, 94 laps down.
Luken Glover joined the Frontstretch team in 2020 as a news writer before elevating to a columnist, where he served as the longtime writer for The Underdog House. Currently, he is an editor for the site and conducts feature interviews. Glover has covered several forms of racing for the site including NASCAR, CARS Tour, and SRX events.
A 2023 graduate of the University of the Cumberlands, Glover is a promotional writer, elementary athletic director, and basketball coach. He is passionate about serving in his church, playing/coaching a wide variety of sports, and researching motorsports history.