LONG POND, Pa.: With just six weeks remaining in the regular season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Daniel Suarez and his Trackhouse Racing team are chasing every point.
But in Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Suarez and his team scored just one single lone point after being collected in an early race accident in the Pocono Mountains.
Without the benefit of a win, Suarez is having to rely on strong finishes and stage points to stack as many points as possible should he be unable to score a win by the conclusion of the regular season at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway next month.
Pocono, however, did not help in the team’s mission. Instead, the group leaves the Tricky Triangle, 23 points below the cutline with five races remaining before the Playoffs begin in September at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
On a Lap 35 restart, Suarez was running 19th and in a hornet’s nest of traffic when Joey Logano was turned ahead of the No. 99 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro.
While trying to avoid Logano, Suarez appeared to get clipped by the No. 23 of Bubba Wallace which knocked Suarez’s car sideways and sent him into the Turn 1 wall.
Suarez drove away from the accident scene and brought his battered race car to the attention of his Travis Mack-led team on pit road.
After spending several minutes attempting to repair his car, the team wasn’t able to stop a fluid leak which sent them to the garage and out of the race in the 36th and final position.
After being evaluated and released from the infield care center, Suarez seemed baffled while describing the incident.
“I don’t know – I got turned around on the right-rear on a very fast straightaway,” offered Suarez. “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.”
Suarez said his No. 99 Trackhouse team should have been running better on the race track to avoid the chaotic mid-pack chaos that often flares at Pocono Raceway.
“We shouldn’t be back there with those guys,” added Suarez. “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.”
Suarez also vented his frustration about Sunday’s race, particularly, because he felt he ended up on the short end of the stick – while drivers who triggered the accident continued on.
“Definitely frustrated because I feel like we’re better than this,” Suarez added. “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.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email: [email protected].
