Races April 12, 2021 After Suárez Battled Back from Two Laps Down. Date: April 11th, 2021 Event: Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 (Round 8 of 36) Series: NASCAR Cup Series Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (.526-mile oval) Format: 500 laps, broken into three stages (130 laps/130 laps/240 laps) Start/Finish: 11th / 32nd (accident, completed 386 of 500 laps) Point Standing: 23rd with 139 points Notes: Daniel Suárez finished 32nd in Sunday’s rain-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The finish moved Suárez to 23rd in the season standings after eight races. Suarez started at the back of the field and drove to 25th by lap 43 Saturday night before rain forced NASCAR to postpone the remainder of the 500-lap race until Sunday afternoon. On Sunday, Suárez pitted from 19th on lap 82 because of a wheel vibration. He fell to 34th and two laps behind the leader. He passed the leader in the final laps of the stage to end Stage 1 in 32nd, but only one lap down. Suárez returned to the lead lap in the final laps of Stage 2 when he held off the leader and a caution fell with 20 laps to go. He finished Stage 2 in 21st. Suárez climbed into the top-10 with 120 laps remaining, but a 15-car accident on the backstretch severely damaged several cars including the No. 99. The No. 99 suffered severe front and rear end damage and Suárez tried to continue, but flames erupted from under the hood. Suárez climbed from the burning car uninjured, but his race was over. NASCAR suspended crew chief Travis Mack before Saturday’s start. The No. 99 was found with added ballast outside of the approved container. Suarez was set to start 11th in the race, but dropped to the rear during pace laps. Jose Blasco-Figueroa took over the crew-chief duties for the race, Suárez and the NASCAR Cup Series return to action Sunday April 18 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Daniel Suárez, driver of the No. 99 Camping World Chevrolet Camaro for Trackhouse Racing: “First of all, I saw a couple of cars on fire, so luckily nobody got hurt. I was a bit surprised that the safety people took a long time to get to my car. I tried to make sure everything was good to stop the fire, but for some reason, he just wasn’t stopping the fire. In that wreck, there wasn’t really anything I could do. I was trying to slam on the brakes to try to slow down, but it was a parking lot in there. I couldn’t do anything about it. The No. 24 car (William Byron) put us in that position; he pushed me out of the way. I had a few laps older tires than everyone else. But overall, we have to keep working. This weekend, overall, wasn’t great. We came from the back several times. We had a fast car, but we made bad adjustments. It just wasn’t a clean weekend.”
