2 weeks Ago
Daniel Suarez is 36 points to the good on the NASCAR Cup Series playoff grid ahead of Saturday night’s first elimination race, just as many would have predicted, right? Suarez and his No. 99 team have done nearly everything right – aside from winning — in the first two races of the Round of 16 to put themselves in position to advance. Not only has Suarez earned 73 points between Atlanta Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen, he’s also earned a combined 14 stage points (which is sixth-best among all playoff drivers).
A second-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway kicked things off, then he finished 13th last weekend at Watkins Glen. “I don’t know if a lot of people [saw it going] that way,” Suarez said. Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway will eliminate the first four drivers from championship contention.
Suarez sits ahead of regular-season champion Tyler Reddick, reigning series champion Ryan Blaney, three Hendrick Motorsports drivers, and three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers. “[We] started the year very strong with the Atlanta win, but after that, we were bad,” Suarez said. “We were very bad.
Since then, there was a month or two that we were very, very bad and we went to work and changed a lot of things internally — the way we were approaching things, the processes...
I would say the last two or three months, we’ve been slowly creeping in.” While some might be surprised that Suarez could be headed to the second round of the postseason, he’s not. He’s also not surprised the No.
99 has been running inside the top 10 and top 15 more often. “Obviously, Atlanta was a good race for us,” he said. “Watkins Glen, unfortunately, we had to pick and choose points, but before that we were running in the top seven, I think.
I feel like we’re [in a good spot]. We are not exactly where we want to be just yet. We have to continue to push and find a little more speed and hopefully we can be good at the end of tomorrow night and into the next round.
” More NASCAR! Gibbs sets the pace in NASCAR Cup Series practice at Bristol RWR and Spire to swap Haley and LaJoie after Bristol Norris joins Kaulig Racing The fruits of a lot of labor are showing for Suarez and his team. He sat as low as 19th in the championship standings during the summer — when the Cup Series returned from the Olympic break — and he was very candid in the work that still needed to be done as his contract was extended for at least another year. It’s been a challenging season for Trackhouse Racing, but Suarez was already offering confidence in their direction.
“I feel like, [in] the last month and a half, we’re starting to see the results of all the work that we’ve been doing the last six months,” Suarez said. “You know how it is — you work your [tail] off for six months and then nothing, nothing, nothing, and then eventually you start seeing a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. “Fortunately .
.. I can see it.
OK, now we have speed and now I have something to drive. Squid (crew chief Matt Swiderski) has done an amazing job, [as have] my engineers and everyone at Trackhouse. We’ve had more speed lately, and it’s showing.
” Suarez will need speed at Bristol to finish the job in the first round of the postseason. The concrete half-mile hasn’t treated the Trackhouse Racing drivers well over the last few years, with Suarez’s most recent top-10 finish being in the summer of 2019. “I love Bristol; it’s one of my favorite racetracks, but it’s been difficult for me here in the past,” Suarez said.
“I think we’re in a good spot. We just have to continue to be on offense and continue to attack. I don’t think we’re in a position to take major risks, but we cannot be too conservative either.
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