Daniel Suárez started the Big Machine Vodka 400 in 20th and finished 19th in that same stage. Suárez made his first pit stop under caution on lap 11 to work on right-side damage and change right-side tires. He visited pit road for a second time to repair damage and restarted 35th. When the second caution was displayed on lap 41, the Haas Automation driver visited pit road for service once again and restarted 19th. The third caution and a red flag was displayed with a couple of laps remaining in Stage 1 to ultimately bring it to a close.

The 27-year-old made a scheduled green-flag pit stop on lap 85 from the eighth position for fuel and two right-side tires. During the lap-88 caution Suárez did not pit and restarted eighth with five laps to go before the caution was once again displayed shortly before the end of Stage 2. Stage 2 ended under caution with the Haas Automation Ford driver in sixth place.

Shortly after the green flag in Stage 3, the caution was once again displayed on lap 106 with Suárez in the sixth position. He made a scheduled green-flag pit stop on lap 127 for fuel and four tires just before the caution was displayed on lap 129. Due to the pit cycle sequence, the Ford driver went one lap down, but he was the beneficiary of the free pass and restarted 23rd on lap 134. The next caution was displayed on lap 136, and Suárez stayed out in favor of track position. He restarted 20th with 20 laps to go. The final caution was on lap 148 and the Haas Automation driver once again stayed out to restart in the 12th spot. He ultimately ended up 11th.

“I made a little mistake there and I wasn’t expecting how aero loose the car got when I got behind the 24. The car actually was pretty good after that, though. The guys were able to fix it. It was mostly cosmetic. The guys were able to fix it, and the car was just as good as before. I feel like after that the day went smooth, other than getting caught in the pit road cycle on the last stop. That made us lose all our track position, and it was very difficult to overcome that. We fought hard. We made it all the way back to 11th, and I feel like if we had 15 more laps I was going to get the 6 (of Ryan Newman), but that is racing. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

Date: Sept. 8, 2019
Event: Brickyard 400 (Round 26 of 36)
Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.5-mile oval)
Format: 160 laps, broken into three stages (50 laps/50 laps/60 laps)
Start/Finish: 20th/11th  (Running, completed 160 of 160 laps)
Point Standing: 17th with 648 points, 340 out of first, four behind top-16 cutoff

Next Up:
The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the South Point 400 on Sunday, Sept. 15 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It starts at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Source: SHR