NASCAR driver Daniel Suarez felt the best way to honor Kobe Bryant was to give back ... so he's auctioning his personalized Kobe racing gear and donating the money to all the victims of the tragic accident.
"I became a Kobe Bryant fan not for everything he did in the basketball world, but for everything he did on the outside," Suarez tells us.
The 28-year-old says he admired the work Kobe did for the community and other athletes ... so when the tragedy happened on Jan. 26, he decided to honor him the way Mamba would want.