Mexican champion Daniel Suarez setting the pace for nation's race fans

SAN FRANCISCO - Habrá un piloto mexicano este fin de semana en la carrera en Sonoma Raceway.

Now, the average American NASCAR fan wouldn’t understand Spanish, but for the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Mexican national Daniel Suarez, you’re speaking his language.

Somewhat of an unknown in Northern California, Suarez, a native of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, is the defending Xfinity Series champion and the first driver of Hispanic heritage to win a NASCAR series championship. He races Sonoma Raceway for the first time in his racing career this weekend.

Even with his rookie status, Suarez is slowly becoming a familiar regular to fans. At Auto Club Speedway in Fontana earlier this year, Suarez and a team spokesman recalled a brigade of 30-40 fans who chased the 25-year-old driver for an autograph as he was ferried away in a golf cart from one driver appearance to another.

“It’s pretty cool to see that. It feels very good that people like to support you a lot,” Suarez said.

He’s aware that his presence in the sport can open the door for Latinos to follow the sport regularly, which has never really been the case.

“It’s cool to be able to represent a lot of Hispanic people in this great sport,” Suarez said. “I feel 10 years ago, young drivers in Mexico, they didn’t have a young driver in NASCAR to follow up. I feel now, with what we’re doing right now as a team … I feel like, slowly, we are opening a path for the new generation of drivers from Mexico.”

The Xfinity championship was a long time coming for Suarez, who worked his way up from racing in NASCAR’s Mexico and K&N regional series to ?the Craftsman Trucks series, before earning a full-time ride in the Xfinity series, which is one step below the Cup series, in 2015.

“(The championship win was) definitely the biggest challenge and biggest step in my career,” Suarez said.

Suarez has adjusted well to a somewhat-sudden promotion to the Cup series after Carl Edwards announced his immediate retirement in January.

Suarez got the call that he would be the new driver of the No. 19 while on vacation at home in Mexico. He currently leads the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings, with 166 points to second-place Ryan Blaney’s 160, and sits 19th in the Cup points standings.

The promotion hasn’t been without some shakeups for the No. 19 team.

Dave Rogers started as the crew chief at the beginning of the season, staying with the team after Edwards’ departure, but took an immediate leave of absence in late March. Rogers rejoined Joe Gibbs Racing in a separate role with the organization’s Xfinity teams this week.

Suarez’s former Xfinity crew chief, Scott Graves, filled the role immediately and the tandem has collected two top 10s since Graves’ quick addition.

“Him and I we know each other very well already,” said Suarez of Graves.

Suarez has primarily focused on racing on ovals while racing in North America’s major racing series, but originally started as a go-kart racer in Mexico.

He enjoyed some success on road courses in the Xfinity series last year with two top fives - one at Watkins Glen, New York and the other at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Suarez originally drove on road courses while racing go-karts as a child in Mexico, but he can’t recall racing anything close to the dynamic Sonoma track.

“It’s so different. It’s hard to make a comparison,” he said. “I don’t think we have anything even close to Sonoma Raceway. I wish we had something, but we don’t.”