Races September 4, 2023 No. 99 Team Needed a Win To Make The Playoffs. Date: Aug. 26th, 2023 Event: Coke Zero Sugar 400 (Round 26 of 36) Series: NASCAR Cup Series Location: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (2.5-mile oval) Format: 160 laps, broken into three stages (35 laps/60 laps/65 laps) Start/Finish: 22nd / 20th (Running, completed 165 of 165 laps) Point Standing: 17th with 573 points Notes: Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suárez finished 20th in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Saturday marked the 26th and final regular season race before the 10-race, 16-driver playoffs start Sunday, Sept. 3 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Suárez finished the regular season in 17th, one spot short of making it into the playoffs, but will still compete in the final 10 races for victories and positions in the standings The No. 99 team started 22nd in Saturday night’s race knowing it likely had to win in order to make the playoffs. That became a fact after the first stage despite Suárez finishing 10th. Suárez ‘s Chevrolet came alive in the second stage and used a fuel only pit stop to lead a lap and finish third, narrowly avoiding the lap 95 accident that brought out the red flag. Suárez raced at the front of the field at the start of the final stage before fading back to save fuel in case of potential overtimes at the end of the race. The final stage only had one caution – a spectacular accident by Ryan Preece that saw his car flip 10 times. He walked from the car and was transported to the infield care center. Suárez could not climb back into contention during the final laps or overtime. Daniel Suárez, driver of the No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro for Trackhouse Racing: “I feel like the car had good speed and we showed that in coming from the back. We came from the mid-20s in stage one and I think finished fifth in stage two. We just didn’t execute well in stage three and stage three is the most important one. We had a lot of conversations about setting ourselves up for that final stage and things played out in a way that we didn’t react properly. Unfortunately, we were not able to make up the difference. It is what it is, and I felt like we did an okay job in the first three quarters of the race, but in the last quarter and most important, we didn’t. I can’t thank everyone enough. Trackhouse Racing, all the sponsors, Chevrolet, Freeway.com, Worldwide Express, Coca-Cola, Quaker State, CommScope and so many people that help us out to be in this position. It’s been a lot of fun and we have ten more races to go out there and continue to fight.”
