In Austin, Texas, on the previous Sunday, the driver for Trackhouse Racing, Daniel Suarez, did not have the most stunning race. During the course of the 231-mile race that took place at The Circuit of the Americas, the driver of the #99 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, who was spotted competing in the top 5 at various stages, was eventually only able to finish in the 27th position.
On race day at COTA, Suarez was not among the best-performing cars that were there. In spite of this, it appeared as though the native of Monterrey was going to be in the running for victory right up to the very end of the race. This did not take place as the final laps of the race descended into the typical pandemonium that is characteristic of NASCAR, with extended yellow flag periods and a triple overtime restart. After the first restart in overtime, Daniel Suarez, who was 31 years old at the time, was pushed into turn 1 of the racetrack from behind, which ended his chances of winning the race. A push came from the direction of the #48 Chevy driven by Alex Bowman, who like everyone else was trying to win the race. After taking a closer look at the incident, it became clear that the only reason Bowman collided with Suarez’s car was due to a hard hit delivered by Ross Chastain, who was the teammate of the driver of the #99 Chevrolet. During the subsequent cooldown lap, a perturbed Daniel Suarez was spotted tearing through the competition in an effort to convey his displeasure to both Chastain and Bowman. He accomplished this by accidentally colliding with Chastain into the pit entry while he was attempting to take Bowman’s back bumper in the pits themselves. According to the NASCAR rulebook, causing deliberate damage to another vehicle on the pit road may result in a penalty ranging from a point loss of 25 to 50 points and/or a fine ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.
Alex Bowman explained during the restart why he got into Daniel Suarez.
After getting out of his vehicle following the conclusion of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA, the driver for Hendrick Motorsports, Alex Bowman, shared his side of the tale. He went into further detail about the domino effect that began with Suarez’s teammate Ross Chastain during the first of several wild overtime restarts that finally decided who would win the race that was held on Sunday.
The driver of the #48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 revealed:
“He just thought I drove in and tried to drive through him. I had the corner made. The only reason I was inside of him was to protect from Chastain. Then Chastain just hammered me in the corner, dumped me, then I ran into Suarez, kind of cleaned him out.”
