12 Questions with Daniel Suarez

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

Our series of weekly NASCAR driver interviews continues with Daniel Suarez, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and Mexico native who is quickly moving up the stock car ranks. Suarez will do double duty this weekend at Kentucky Speedway, racing in both the Xfinity and Camping World Truck series races.

Q: If NASCAR allowed you to listen to music while you were racing, would you want to?

A: I don't think so, no. I think there's a lot more stuff going on to pay attention to music.

Too distracting?

Yes, absolutely. You need to focus on what you're doing in the race car. The music is to relax you instead of focus.

Q: Where did your first paycheck come from?

A: My dad, he has a restoration shop. So when I was 13 or 14, I was driving a Volkswagen bug that he gave me. I used to drive my car to school and after school, I'd drive to go work with him and work on old cars and stuff.

Would he take any sort of car and try to restore it?

That's right. He's more focused on Volkswagens and Porsches, but he'll restore pretty much anything. It's pretty much what I grew up doing.

Do you ever work on restoring cars today?

Actually, that's my hobby. I have two Beetles and I work on those cars when I have a chance. I have a few cars in Mexico as well, but I don't get to go to Mexico that often anymore. But yeah – when I'm not racing or doing something at the shop, I'm working with those cars.

Q: Who is an autograph you got as a kid that seemed to be a big deal to you at the time?

A: To be honest, I don't think there is one. Because when I was little, I didn't know it was possible to be a race car driver. I started racing when I was 11 and I was doing it because I liked to race, but when I was that age – even 13 years old – I never wanted to be a race car driver because I didn't know it was possible. My family doesn't come from racing at all.

That's interesting. So you didn't have racing heroes because you didn't even know that was a profession?

Exactly. We started racing because a friend of mine invited me. But pretty much the goals were just to have fun and try to be better and win races. We started doing better and better, and at one point, my dad ran out of money and thank God I started getting a lot of support from Escuderia Telmex when I was 16 or 17 years old. They rescued me from nothing, and we kept going.

Q: Where's a place you've never been that you'd like to go visit?

A: I've never been in Hawaii. Many people talk about how good Hawaii is, so I'd like to go to Hawaii sooner than later.

Q: Do people ever accuse you of being addicted to your phone?

A: My girlfriend sometimes, but she's crazy for saying that (because) she's worse! (Laughs) She'll say that, but to be honest, I'm not.

Sometimes I'm with her and I'm busy doing emails or something, and she'll start saying, "What the hell? You've been doing that all day." But I'm working! It's something in racing or about old cars and stuff.

Q: If a genie promised you a championship in exchange for never being able to do your favorite hobby again, would you accept that offer?

A: Give away my hobby? I don't think so. Nope. The championship, I think I can get it anyway if I work hard. (Laughs)

Q: What's your preferred method of dealing with an angry driver after a race?

A: Actually, that can happen very often in this sport. I always make this comparison, but you're not racing one team – it's not like soccer or American football.

I don't have a lot of experience with it, but sometimes the best thing to do is to wait a little bit and wait until things cool down. I can guarantee you every driver has their emotions very high – including myself – so sometimes we get angry and say things we don't want to say. Maybe the best thing to do is just cool down a little bit and then try to see what happened and why.

Q: Do you ever get mistaken for another driver or celebrity?

A: Yeah, that happened before, but I don't remember who it was. It happened maybe a year ago.

Q: If you had a time machine and you could travel to any year and race, where would you go?

A: The '60s, maybe.

What kind of racing? NASCAR? Formula One?

Maybe both! (Laughs) I'd like to experience them both. I don't know why, but in those years, it looked like everyone was having a lot of fun. We are having a lot of fun right now, but it would just be fun to explore different things.

Q: Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?

A: To fly. It can be cool to be invisible, but maybe you can do more things flying than being invisible.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. The last interview was with Joey Logano, and he wanted to know: How often do you talk in your car without pushing the radio button?

A: A lot. I do that a lot, actually. And the good thing is, they wouldn't understand me anyway because it's in Spanish. (Laughs) But sometimes I get mad or really excited and just start screaming and stuff.

It sounds like he has experience with that.

Do you yell to yourself in Spanish only, or some English?

You know what? One year ago, it was just Spanish. But now there's some English in there – which I think is good, because it means I'm learning the language.

Somebody told me once that you know you're fluent in a language when you start dreaming in it. Have you had dreams in English yet?

In the last six or eight months, I've had some dreams in English now. That's good! (Laughs)

Q: And do you have a question I can ask the next driver?

A: Before and after a big race, do they like to eat healthy stuff or do they just eat whatever?

Q: Finally, how did this interview go on a scale of 1-10?

A: Oh, a 10. A nine? 10? One of those. (Laughs)

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck