CRANDALL: Suarez's smooth transition

By all expectations, this was supposed to be a throwaway year for Daniel Suarez. Before the season, even his bosses admitted as much: Suarez's rookie year was to be an uphill battle. Instead, Suarez has been overachieving.

"Daniel has exceeded everyone's expectations," David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development, told RACER. "He's here a year earlier than any of us forecasted. As soon as we had to make that decision, (we) basically looked at this year as a write-off for Daniel: 'Hey, we're going to give him all the leash he needs, all the support he needs, but let's be real.' But what he has done is quite astounding."

Suarez was thrown into the Monster Energy Series fire in January. After a late-season run to the 2016 Xfinity Series championship, Suarez and Joe Gibbs Racing were fully prepared a title defense this season. Then, Carl Edwards shocked the racing world by unexpectedly announcing his retirement.

It was only logical for the organization to put Suarez in the No. 19 Toyota, although the season did start as expected, with quite a few bumps through Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway. He was two laps off the pace in Atlanta in week two. Then after grabbing back-to-back top-10 finishes at Las Vegas and Phoenix, Suarez found himself with a new crew chief. And his familiarity with Scott Graves (pictured at left with Suarez, below), with whom Suarez won the Xfinity title, has slowly begun to pay off. Not only has Suarez climbed atop the Sunoco Rookie of the Year points, but he has also worked himself up to 18th in the championship standings with seven top-10 finishes while completing 98.7 percent of the laps this year.

"Kyle Busch said a few weeks ago, just talking to him about his assessment of our two rookies (Suarez and Erik Jones), he said Daniel reminds him a lot of Matt Kenseth," said Wilson. "I completely agree. (Daniel) takes care of his equipment, he drives a real smart race, and lo and behold, the end of the race there's Daniel in and around the top 10. Like, where did he come from?"

With a seventh-place finish on Sunday at Pocono Raceway, Suarez is working on three straight top-10s. Speaking afterward, team owner Joe Gibbs reiterated how Suarez moved into the premier series sooner than planned, with a lot to learn in a little amount of time.

"He seems to have just kind of a steadiness about him," Gibbs said. "He gets off sometimes earlier in the races, and may fall back some. Towards the end of these races he's shown that right now, he's solid. He can definitely be a solid top-10 car. It's three in a row for him.

"We've been impressed. I think everybody has. ARRIS, DeWalt, everybody that is on that car, Subway. We talk about it all the time. I think they're really pleased with Daniel and the progress he's made."

The 25-year-old Suarez is no ordinary rookie. Most would assume, or even expect, young drivers to take a sit-down-and-shut-up approach to competition meetings. Leave the experienced drivers to sort things out. Not Suarez, as Wilson revealed.

"He doesn't shrink away like, 'I'm a rookie, I don't have a place to input,'" Wilson said. "He is interactive. He'll go at it if he disagrees, and that's good. That's healthy.

"You worry so much about rookies hurting their confidence by pushing them too hard or seeing them disappointed. What I respect about Daniel – and I saw this before he got to this level – is there's a quiet confidence in himself.

"He's one of the most humble drivers in the garage, but he believes in himself as well, and he doesn't let a bad result get too deep in him. He rebounds quickly, and he's got a mental toughness that I think will serve him well as his experience grows."

With the way things have gone, everyone should know now that's likely to happen sooner rather than later.