Daniel Suarez came into Pocono Raceway in a pretty decent position when it comes to the Playoffs. He was 17th just 1 point off the 16th and final transfer spot to make it into the Playoff field.
While making it in on points would be nice, a win would guarantee him a spot joining his Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain who won at Nashville. Sunday, for the first part of the race he looked to be in a spot to secure that win.
It all ended at the start of Stage 2. While racing toward the front on the restart Joey Logano was hit by Tyler Reddick. Logano’s Ford was sent spinning down the track clipping the Chevy of Suarez which was sent into the outside wall hard. Suarez tried to continue but the damage was too much, and he was forced to retire after 37 laps, and was scored last.
“I don’t know – I got turned around on the right-rear on a very fast straightaway,” he 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.”
Worse for Suarez with just five races remaining, Suarez dropped to 18th in the standings and his deficit to 16th place Michael McDowell now stands at 23 points.
“Yeah, 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.”
Suarez said he’s angry, especially since the accident was something that wasn’t his fault.
“Definitely frustrated because I feel like we’re better than this,” he 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.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.