Daniel Suarez’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff hopes took a blow Sunday at Pocono Raceway with an exit after the first stage.
He was collected in a restart crash on lap 36 going into Turn 1. The Trackhouse Racing driver was running on the inside lane when he was tagged by Bubba Wallace, who was sandwiched between Suarez and Michael McDowell as the field took evasive action when Joey Logano was sent spinning.
Suarez’s No. 99 Chevrolet hit the outside wall with the nose. The team made initial repairs to the car, but it began leaking oil when Suarez returned to the track.
“I got turned around on the right rear on a very fast straightaway,” Suarez said. “Just lucky we didn’t get wrecked big time, but unfortunately, we couldn’t continue anymore. But at the end of the day, it’s our fault. We shouldn’t be back there with those guys.
“We fought the balance of the car in the first stage. We lost a bunch of track position. We kind of got it back a little bit. I felt like once we got the balance, we were going to be able to drive the front. But we didn’t get the opportunity to and got wrecked before that. It was a racing incident, but we shouldn’t be back there racing with those guys anyway.”
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Suarez started 17th and finished 12th in the first stage. He and Logano were among the teams who elected to pit at the stage break and were lined up mid-pack for the restart.
“(I’m) definitely frustrated because I feel like we’re better than this,” Suarez said. “I’m frustrated also because I feel like guys are wrecking each other, and I’m the one that ended up out of the race without being in their mess. But what are you going to do – sometimes you’re on the good end of it, and sometimes you’re on the bad end of it. Unfortunately, today, I was on the short end of it.”
The first driver out of the HighPoint.com 400, Suarez will finish 36th. He will fall further behind the cutline after entering the weekend one point out of a playoff spot.
“It’s not great; it’s not ideal,” Suarez said. “But I have to control what I can control, and I cannot control some of the other guys. Like I said, in my mind, we shouldn’t be racing back there. We had a car capable of running in the top 10, top 15 at least, and we were running in the 20s because we missed the balance of the car in the first stage.
“We just have to be better.”