Daniel Suarez’s wife, Julia Piquet, shed light on the overlooked damage that her husband’s car suffered during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Piquet – who comes from a racing background and is linked to Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen – has never shied away from sharing her opinions regarding Suarez’s NASCAR career.
In stage 2 of the Brickyard 400, Piquet once again made her thoughts known following a massive stack-up. On a Lap 56 restart, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got turned while racing at the back of the field on the outside – promptly causing a multi-car wreck involving Ty Dillon, Tyler Reddick, AJ Allmendinger, Riley Herbst and Austin Dillon, among others.
Suarez was additionally caught up in the on-track incident, though fans and pundits alike hardly seemed to notice. Taking to social media, Piquet swiftly pointed out that the front of the No. 99 Chevrolet sustained significant damage from the dust-up. “HEAVY front damage to Daniel’s car. Just reporting it because nobody else seems to be,” she wrote on X.
In a separate post, Piquet shared a video of Suarez’s pit crew desperately attempting to address the issue by tacking on heaps of duct tape to the front of his car. “The damage is insane,” she captioned the short clip.
This is hardly the first time that Piquet has taken a serious interest in Suarez’s endeavors on the track. In Season 2, episode two of Netflix’s ‘NASCAR: Full Speed’ docuseries, the Trackhouse Racing driver conceded that his better half may love racing more than he does.
“I have to rewatch my races every single week and she’s already watched it,” said Suarez, who unofficially finished 27th in the Brickyard 400. “On Monday, the day after. And I’m like ‘Oh my god, she’s intense.’ I don’t think I could have found somebody that loves racing more than Julia. I actually believe that she loves racing more than me.”
Piquet expressed a similar sentiment, chiming in: “I love to watch him race and I love to rewatch races with him racing and being a part of that process.”
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Piquet’s undying love for the sport and extensive racing knowledge can come in handy for Suarez, according to NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NBC’s NASCAR analyst Steve Letarte.
“So for those of you who don’t know, Julia Piquet’s father, Nelson Piquet, Formula 1 race car driver, found success at the Formula One level,” Letarte said.
“Her brother has also raced Formula 1, NASCAR. So it is a world-racing family. She has seen both the highs and lows of autosport. That’s the advantage that Daniel has having her in his corner.
Earnhardt Jr. added: “A marriage can be a massive asset to a driver, or it can be a distraction to a driver. I can say, if your wife has race knowledge, it’s an asset.”