Giving him even more solace, Suárez stayed at the track to watch Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain lead a career high 83 laps, win Stage 2 and finish third - Trackhouse's best finish in its brief history.

It marked the second week in a row a Trackhouse Chevrolet has battled for victory in the final laps. At Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Suárez led with three laps to go in a bid to secure the team's first victory.

He and Chastain will look to make it three consecutive impressive performances on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.

Fox will televise Sunday's race at 3:30 p.m. ET

Daniel Suárez, Driver of the No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet Camaro

Is running up front in 2022 building your and your team's confidence?

“Definitely a lot. I mean every time you get the opportunity to have a shot at winning, you get more confident. You get hungrier and that happens not just for me as a driver, but for the entire team. My engineers, my crew chief, my pit crew all can't wait to race again.

"Ross and I have amazing teams. All of them, they want to win, be competitive. And when you know that you can, you just show up to the racetrack even more excited. I’m very fortunate to be in this position. I think that we’re going to be able to do some fun things this year.”

What was it like watching your teammate battle for the victory?

"It was great. I mean you wish it were you, but I was rooting hard for Ross and the No. 1. We work very well together and feel like we are one team. It gives you great confidence knowing how fast our Chevrolets have been in 2022."

When you say you will work hard to deserve a victory, what do you mean?

“It’s a combination of many things you know. If you were asking me that question two years ago, I was going to tell you go work out, work physically and trying to watch some film as many hours as possible. But right now, I have learned and realized that it goes just way more than that. Trying to work with your team and trying to realize what we could have done different and better. I look back in California and we left a lot on the table. I did, the car did a little bit. We had a good car, but I believe that we are going to have such a better car this weekend and probably everyone is going to say that, but to our plan and the way that we are growing as a team I feel like we just keep getting better. Learning as we go and learning is a process and I understand that, but I think that you know working hard and smart is going to be very important. Doing that with a team like the one I have is going to be important and really fun at the same time.”