DOVER, Del. – Daniel Suarez reached a new high-water mark on an oval track in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday, driving to a strong third-place finish in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover Int’l Speedway.
Suarez ran among the top 10 for almost the entire afternoon, but it was after a 41-minute rain delay with 80 to go that his No. 19 Stanley Tools Toyota came to life.
Running 10th at the red flag, quick pit work by his crew bumped Suarez up to fifth for a restart with 75 laps left. After third-running Joey Logano had to pit for a loose wheel, Suarez found himself second on the outside lane – behind only race leader Clint Bowyer – when the green flag waved.
Using the preferred lane to his advantage, Suarez bolted around Toyota stablemate Martin Truex Jr. to grab the third position and held it all the way to the finish, running consistent laps over the course of the stretch run to the checkered flag and crossing 9.722 seconds adrift of eventual winner Kevin Harvick.
Suarez said he felt that how good his car was in the closing laps was evidenced by his finishing position.
“I feel like right there at the end we were maybe a third-place car. Track position helped us a lot,” said Suarez. “My pit crew did an amazing job right there picking up four or five spots right there. … They did it right when it counted, so I’m very proud of those guys and excited to keep moving forward.
“I feel like we had a very strong car pretty much the entire weekend … I think we were a top-five or top-10 car the entire way. Sometimes a little bit less or a little bit more, but we were there,” Suarez noted. “We definitely have fast cars everywhere we go now. When you race like that, it’s always a lot of fun.”
Sunday matched Suarez’s career-best finish in Cup Series competition. He finished third last August on the Watkins Glen Int’l road course, while his previous-best oval track results were a trio of sixth-place finishes, including one at Dover in June of 2017.
Suarez also had a strong run earlier in the season at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, which has a similar concrete surface to Dover, and said he couldn’t put his finger on why the two tracks have been good to him.
“I don’t know what is the deal about concrete. … I just love Dover,” said Suarez. “I love Bristol too. It’s a lot of fun to drive both of them.
“I feel like this race track is just very demanding physically and mentally … and I like that, you know? I like to push myself to the limit and I feel like this is one of those places where you have to be in the top, at the limit most of the time, so it’s just fun for me.”
Suarez said that, at least in his eyes, Sunday’s finish wasn’t a fluke performance. Rather, it’s about the gains that he and his Joe Gibbs Racing team have made over the early portion of the season.
“I think this is about my team coming on strong,” he noted. “I feel like my team has been working very hard. We had a rough start of the season and our speed was very inconsistent, but the last month or month and a half … we have found good speed and consistency.
“Every weekend I feel like I’m getting better, learning from these guys and learning from my team – Kyle (Busch), Denny (Hamlin), Erik (Jones) … everyone,” Suarez continued. “As a team, as a family, we help each other a lot, so I feel like every weekend there is something new that I’m getting better at.
“There’s so much excitement for all of us right now. We are definitely moving in the right direction.”
