SONOMA, California – Daniel Suarez became the first Mexican driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, preventing Chris Buescher from a historic victory at the Sonoma Raceway.
Monárez, a 30-year-old Monterrey player, finally won the 195th start of a Cup Series race that began in 2017. He also drove his Chevrolet Trackhouse Racing to his third Cup Series victory. season for 2 years on the rise. -former team co-owned by former pilot Justin Marks and music star Pitbull.
Suárez overtook Buescher and took charge at the beginning of the final stage of this mountainous route in the wine country of Northern California, and persevered in a pit stop and a precaution to get ahead with 23 laps to go. . Buescher pushed him aggressively, but Suárez made no significant mistakes while winning.
“It’s crazy,” Suarez said. “I have a lot of thoughts in my head right now. It’s been a tough trip to the Cup, and these guys believed in me. I have a lot of people to thank in Mexico. My family never gave up. A lot of people did. “But I’m not happy about it.”
Daniel Suárez celebrates with a Mexican flag after winning the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday at the Sonoma Raceway. Photo by Chris Graythen / Getty Images
Suárez’s team had a wild party when it was over, they even pulled out a tac-shaped celebration pinata. The piñata was requested by Suárez forever as long as he got his first victory and got a place in the playoffs, and he celebrated by making a hole with his fist.
“They believed in me from day one,” Suarez said of his team.[We’ve got] all the people, all the resources to make it a reality ”.
Suárez then addressed his followers in Spanish briefly, saying, “This is the first of many.”
Buescher’s second place was also the best of the season with his RFK Racing Ford. He stayed just before his second win of his career.
“It hurts to be so close, but congratulations to Suarez,” Buescher said. “We were trying, trying to get it. It ran out of steam.”
1 Related
Suárez, who won the Xfinity Series Championship in 2016, is the fifth foreign-born driver to win a Cup Series race. He joins the Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, the Australian Marcos Ambrose, the Canadian Earl Ross and the American of Italian origin Mario Andretti.
The success of Suárez and Trackhouse Racing could be a welcome boost to a sport eager to expand its cultural footprint. After moving to the United States 11 years ago with the desire to compete in larger stages, Suárez is an important success story for NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, which aims to bring new perspectives and background to an organization that has largely monocultural state for much of its history.
Michael McDowell finished third best of the season ahead of Kevin Harvick in cloudy conditions in the first full-time Sonoma Raceway Cup race since before the coronavirus pandemic. The crowd included about 350 fans of Suarez’s Daniel’s Friends program, which allows children from various NASCAR cities to attend the races.
Austin Cindric was fifth in the last race before the break of a half-season week of the Cup Series.
WORKS OF TIBERA
Sonoma Raceway restored the 1.99-mile Chute Track track for this race after using the longest Carousel setup in the previous two editions in 2019 and 2021. The shorter track did not appear to result in more contact in the race, and not much happened in the race. the first two stages, which were won by Kyle Larson and Joey Logano.
DO NOT REPEAT
Defending champion and pole-sitter Larson led the first stage, but fell behind and eventually lost the right front tire with 27 laps to go. Larson started in pole vault for the fifth time in a row in the race closest to his childhood home in the Sacramento suburbs, but his decision not to pit in the first stage left him buried in the field from there. He finished 15th.
UNTIL NEXT
After the break, the season resumes with a trip to Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 26th.