Daniel Suarez won his first NASCAR Cup race at Sonoma, becoming the first Mexican to do so at the top level of stock car racing, but who are the other foreign-born race winners in Cup history
Is there a motorsport legend on the list?
Full List Of Foreign Born Drivers Winners In NASCAR
It was Jim Roper who did it first, and it was Richard Petty who did it most frequently – and it didn’t appear to be happening for Daniel Suarez.
Suarez can finally name himself a NASCAR Cup Series winner after 195 race starts, nearly six years, and a few different teams.
After fighting off the advances of Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher in the last stage on one of NASCAR’s traditional road courses, the 30-year-old secured victory for the #99 crew at Sonoma.
Following Ross Chastain’s victory at Circuit of the Americas and Talladega, Suarez is the 12th different winner of the season. The 16 Playoff places are filling up quickly, but both Trackhouse cars are locked in.
Suarez is only the seventh foreign-born driver to win a NASCAR Cup race. Who are the other four – one of them is a global motorsport legend and a Formula One fan favourite?
Nascar winners from other countries
There have now been 202 race winners in the Cup Series, including Suarez, and the first foreign-born driver to win was also the 100th. Mario Andretti has seen and done it all in his long and illustrious career – and has the trophies to prove it.
Andretti, a motorsport legend, was born in 1940 in what was then the Kingdom of Italy – now Croatia. He is the only racer in history to win the Indy 500, the IndyCar championship, the Formula One World Championship, and the Daytona 500.
In 1969, Andretti won the Daytona 500, one of just 13 races in what would become the Cup Series. Because of Andretti’s adaptability and longevity, the only big event he hasn’t won is the Le Mans 24 Hours, when he finished second overall and first in the WSC class in 1995.
Earl Ross is the only other foreign-born driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race in North America. Ross, who was born in Canada, began racing in NASCAR in the early 1970s, around the same time as Andretti switched to Formula One. Ross, driving the #52 Chevrolet for Junior Johnson & Associates, led Buddy Baker by a lap at Martinsville in 1974.
Barrell-Coming from F1 To Nascar
Juan Pablo Montoya, who had the speed to concern the all-conquering Michael Schumacher in the early 2000s, might be an F1 world winner with a little more luck.
After an ill-fated transition from Williams to McLaren in 2005, JPM’s career came to an end in 2006.
Montoya and McLaren manager Ron Dennis were always going to be an intriguing pairing, which was exacerbated by the Colombian injured his shoulder playing tennis – or was it because he jumped off a motorcycle – and missing a couple of races.
Anyway, Montoya was off to Chip Ganassi in NASCAR after being engaged in an eight-car pile-up at Turn 1 of the 2006 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Between 2007 and 2013, he raced full-time for Ganassi and later Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
His first victory came at Sonoma in 2007, and he followed that up with a victory at Watkins Glen, NASCAR’s other traditional road course, in 2010.
Oh, and who will replace Montoya at McLaren in Formula One? For the 2007 season, a certain L. Hamilton
The only other foreign-born driver on the NASCAR winner’s list is an Australian who won on a road course as well. Marcos Ambrose made the switch to NASCAR full-time in 2009 after a successful career in V8 Supercars in Australia.
By 2011, he was piloting Richard Petty’s legendary #43 car. Ambrose won the Cup Series twice, the first time at Watkins Glen in 2021 & 2012.