Daniel Suarez replaces Carl Edwards at Joe Gibbs Racing

As the reigning Xfinity Series champion and heralded as one of NASCAR’s more promising young talents, Daniel Suarez knew he’d eventually find himself racing in the Cup Series full-time. What he didn’t expect was for that opportunity to manifest in 2017, as he was already set to spend another year in NASCAR’s No. 2 division.

Those plans, however, changed dramatically when Carl Edwards unexpectedly decided to immediately vacate the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing car. That made Suarez, who drives for JGR in Xfinity and is backed by similar sponsors as Edwards, the obvious choice as successor when the sequence of events unfolded around the Christmas holiday.

The 25-year-old Suarez learned of Edwards’ de facto retirement while having lunch with his girlfriend and her family when he received a phone call from team owner Joe Gibbs. After excusing himself and being absent for 40 minutes, Suarez returned to the table with a beaming smile. But because Gibbs had sworn him to secrecy for fear of the news getting out prematurely, Suarez couldn’t disclose the conversation.

“When I got through talking to him and telling him what the plan was, I said, ‘You can’t tell anybody. Do you understand?’ And I said, ‘Not your folks.’ The one thing I forgot to mention was he probably told the girlfriend. But I was so paranoid it was going to get out,” Gibbs said.

On Wednesday, the news became public. JGR officially introduced Suarez in a press conference immediately following Edwards holding his owner presser to explain his decision to no longer race competitively.

“When you are in an organization like Joe Gibbs Racing, you know the opportunity will come at one point,” Suarez said. “And everything that happened in 2016 in the Xfinity Series, I felt like that helped me a lot to be ready for this opportunity.”

Suarez is the first Mexican-born driver to race full-time at NASCAR’s top level and the first foreign-born driver to win a national series championship. He moved to the hub of NASCAR, Charlotte, N.C., in 2011 to race in lower divisions.

After initially struggling on and off the track — Suarez taught himself the English language by watching American television, particularly cartoons — he began ascending through the feeder system. He was named Xfinity Rookie of the Year in 2015 and, on the strength of two playoff wins, stormed to the championship last year.

That success earned Suarez a shot to steps into an ideal situation. Not only did Edwards win three times driving the No. 19 car and qualify for the four-driver championship race in 2016, but JGR and its affiliate team, Furniture Row Racing, dominated the Cup Series winning 16 of 36 races. Overseeing Suarez’s transition is crew chief Dave Rogers, who guided Edwards’ team a year ago, and a pit crew regarded as one of the best on pit road.

To help ease the learning curve, Gibbs has implored Suarez to lean on teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Matt Kenseth. Such advice prompted Busch to call his boss bemoaning Suarez calling so frequently.

“He’s driving me crazy!” Gibbs said he recalled Busch saying. “He’s calling me, like, five times a week.”

Given Suarez has never started a Cup race previously and has a limited amount of experience having only two full seasons of NASCAR national series competition to draw from, expectations will be muted. But given how quickly he’s adapted and accomplished already, it wouldn’t surprise if the acclimation process was brief.

“This opportunity came, and like [Gibbs] mentioned, I was there to take that opportunity, and here we are,” Suarez said. “I feel like it’s really a dream come true. Since I moved to NASCAR when I was 16 years old, this has been something that I’ve been dreaming about, and right now to be in this position is just something amazing.”