Daniel Suarez was assessed a $50,000 fine from NASCAR following his post-race actions from this past weekend’s Cup Series’ EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. The penalty stems from the 31-year-old star from Monterrey, Mexico, bumping into the rear bumper of Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports entry on pit road at the conclusion of the event in Austin.
The issue occurred during the second of three overtime attempts, when Bowman, who restarted on the fourth row and inside the top 10, made a move to the left side of Suarez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing entry for position entering the first turn’s braking zone. Through the braking zone, Suarez’s teammate, Ross Chastain, bumped and pushed Bowman into Suarez, which the contact carried forth into Suarez hitting Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. as Truex was sent for a spin while Suarez jammed on the brakes to avoid Truex. In doing so, he was relegated to the tail end of the lead lap field and limped his No. 99 entry back to pit road with a flat left-front tire.
At the conclusion of the event, which was extended to a third overtime restart before being won by 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Suarez, who was poised for a top-five run, finished in 27th place while Bowman and Chastain proceeded to finish third and fourth, respectively. During the cooldown lap, however, Suarez tracked both competitors and bumped into the rear of Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse entry prior to entering pit road, where he then proceeded to hit Bowman’s rear bumper three times before the latter jammed on the brakes with NASCAR officials present near the contact. Suarez would exchange brief words with Bowman before expressing his displeasure towards his teammate Chastain.
Despite being fined for violating Sections 4.4.B&D pertaining to NASCAR Member Conduct from the NASCAR Rule Book, Suarez was not issued any points penalty. He is currently situated in 17th place in the driver’s standings, 13 points below the top-16 Playoff cutline, on the strength of three top-10 results through the first six events on the 2023 Cup Series schedule.
Suarez’s next event on the 2023 Cup Series schedule is set to occur this Sunday, April 2, at Richmond Raceway, with the event’s broadcast time to commence at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
With the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season three days away from commencing at Daytona International Speedway, Trackhouse Racing solidified its full-time driver lineup for the foreseeable future by inking Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez to multi-year contract extensions in a span of two days.
It all started on Wednesday, February 15, prior to the Daytona 500 pole qualifying session when Trackhouse announced that Suarez will be remaining as a driver for the organization in a new multi-year contract extension. Now on Thursday, February 16, and ahead of a pair of Bluegreen Vacations Duels, Chastain scratched his name off the free agency list after inking himself a new multi-year deal to remain with the organization.
The news comes as Trackhouse Racing is coming off its second and finest season to date in NASCAR Cup Series competition, where both Chastain and Suarez achieved their first career victories in NASCAR’s premier series and qualified for the 2022 Cup Playoffs. While Suarez finished in a career-best 10th place in the final driver’s standings, Chastain advanced all the way to the Championship 4 round at Phoenix Raceway in November and contended for a first NASCAR Cup title for himself and the organization, where he went on to notch a career-best second place in the title standings.
For Suarez, the 2023 season is set to mark his seventh full-time campaign in the Cup Series. The 31-year-old Suarez and a former Xfinity Series champion from Monterrey, Mexico, served as Trackhouse’s first competitor during the team’s inception in 2021, where he piloted the No. 99 entry a single top-five result, four top-10 results, led 74 laps and recorded an average-finishing result of 20.1. This past season, he claimed his first career victory at Sonoma Raceway in June following a dominant performance and became the first Mexican-born competitor to win in NASCAR’s premier series. He also accumulated career-high stats of six top-five results, 13 top-10 results, 280 laps led and an average-finishing result of 16.5 throughout the season as he claimed a berth to the Playoffs for the first time in his career.
With a total of 215 career starts in the Cup Series to his resume, Suarez has previously competed for Gaunt Brothers Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing. He has also racked up a total of three Xfinity victories and one Craftsman Truck Series victory.
“Trackhouse is my home and I am very happy with this announcement,” Suarez said. “We are building something special on the No. 99 team and at Trackhouse Racing. We can’t wait to get the season started on Sunday.”
“Obviously, everyone at Trackhouse Racing is pleased with the performance and professionalism of Daniel both on and off the track,” Justin Marks, owner of Trackhouse Racing, added. “Culture has been of prime importance since the idea of Trackhouse existed only on a whiteboard in an office. Daniel has fulfilled every expectation, and we look forward to the future. The best is yet to come.”
For Chastain, this upcoming season is set to mark his third consecutive full-time stint in NASCAR’s premier series having made a total of 151 series career starts. The 30-year-old Chastain who is also an eighth-generation watermelon farmer from Alva, Florida, joined Trackhouse for its second season in 2022 after the team acquired Chip Ganassi Racing’s NASCAR assets, where Chastain had been competing in part of a journeyman career scaling back to 2014. Piloting the No. 1 entry, Chastain notched his first two Cup career victories at Circuit of the Americas in March and at Talladega Superspeedway in April following two dramatic last lap passes. Once in the Playoffs, he recorded enough points to transfer through the first two Playoff rounds. Then at Martinsville Speedway in October, which served as the third round’s finale, he executed a bold daring move while scraping the outside wall to overtake five competitors and race his way into the Championship 4 field. Ultimately, he went on to finish in third place on the track during the finale and in second place in the final championship standings.
In addition to his first two career victories and a runner-up result in the final standings, Chastain capped off the 2022 campaign with career-high stats of 15 top-five results, 21 top-10 results, 692 laps led and an average-finishing result of 13.3 as he bids for another opportunity for his first series title. To go along with his two Cup victories, the Floridian has two Xfinity victories and four Truck wins to his resume.
“It’s taken a lot of years, a lot of hard work and sacrifice, plus a lot of help from a lot of people, but I can safely say I have found a home at Trackhouse Racing,” Chastain said following the announcement of his contract extension. “There is nowhere in the world I would rather be and nothing I would rather do than race the No. 1 Chevrolet in NASCAR for Justin and the people at Trackhouse Racing.”
“Ross Chastain is the type of driver and type of person we want representing Trackhouse Racing, our employees, and our corporate partners,” Marks added. “You saw what Ross did with us in just our first year together and we think the future is even brighter. He brings a determination, dedication, and commitment to his job on and off the track that uplifts everyone in our shop. I’m proud he is part of our organization.”
Trackhouse Racing made its inaugural presence in NASCAR at the start of the 2021 season when former driver and team owner Justin Marks created a team of his own with Armando Christian Perez, going by the stage name Pitbull, assuming an ownership role with the team. Ty Norris, a former executive at Dale Earnhardt Inc., also joined the organization during its inception.
In two seasons, Trackhouse Racing has achieved three victories, 22 top-five results, 38 top-10 results and 280 laps led in a combined 109 career starts in the Cup circuit. Along with the Nos. 1 and 99 entries, the team debuted Project 91, a part-time entry that would be fielded for international competitors to compete in a Cup event, at Watkins Glen International in August with former Formula One champion Kimi Räikkönen serving as the project’s first competitor. Project 91 will be returning for select Cup events that have yet to be determined along with the team’s choice of drivers.
With its future set, Trackhouse Racing shifts its focus on a pair of Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona International Speedway that will occur on Thursday, February 16, beginning at 4 p.m. on FS1 before launching its 2023 NASCAR Cup Series campaign on Sunday, February 19, for the 65th annual running of the Daytona 500 that will commence at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Three weeks after executing on a “must-win” situation to transfer to the Playoff’s Round of 8 by winning at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, Christopher Bell rose to the occasion once again by claiming a late dominant victory in the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, October 30. Only on this occasion, the victory awarded Bell a spot to the Championship 4 round and with an opportunity to contend for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
The 27-year-old Bell from Norman, Oklahoma, led three times for 150 of 500-scheduled laps and benefitted during a 24-lap dash to the finish on fresh tires to overtake Chase Briscoe with five laps remaining and pull away en route to his third Cup victory of the 2022 season and with a championship finale spot all to his for next weekend’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway. As a result, Bell will square off for the 2022 title against Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain, who executed a bold “video game” move by riding his car against the outside wall on the final lap to finish in the top five and claim the final transfer spot to the finale while knocking veteran Denny Hamlin out of title contention at the last second.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Kyle Larson secured his fourth pole position of the 2022 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 96.078 mph in 19.709 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate and Playoff competitor Chase Elliott, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 96.019 mph in 19.721 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Larson took off with the advantage on the outside lane and had both lanes to his control through the first two turns while teammate Elliott and Ryan Blaney battled for second in front of Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski. As Larson went on to lead the first lap, Elliott and Blaney continued to duel for second as Briscoe joined the battle.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Larson was leading by nearly eight-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott followed by Blaney, Briscoe and Keselowski while Cole Custer, Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick were in the top 10. Behind, Joey Logano was in 11th ahead of Corey LaJoie, rookie Harrison Burton, Michael McDowell and Austin Dillon wile Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Noah Gragson and Chis Buescher. Meanwhile, William Byron was in 24th in between Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones while Martin Truex Jr. was in 26th in front of rookie Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs.
Fifteen laps later, Larson, who started to approach lapped traffic, retained the lead nearly a second over teammate Elliott while Blaney, Briscoe and Keselowski remained in the top five. By then, five of eight Playoff competitors were running in the top 10 on the track while remaining Playoff competitors that included Logano, Bell and Byron were mired back in 11th, 18th and 24th, respectively.
Another 25 laps later on the Lap 50 mark, Larson continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott followed by Briscoe, who battled hard against Blaney and bumped him for third place earlier. Meanwhile, Cole Custer battled Keselowski for fifth place while Chastain, Suarez, Hamlin and Harvick were scored in the top 10.
On Lap 71, Elliott muscled his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead over teammate Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as Briscoe and Blaney started to close in on Larson for the runner-up spot. By then, Kyle Busch, who was making his penultimate Cup start for Joe Gibbs Racing, was lapped by the leaders.
Nineteen laps later, Elliott was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson followed by a two-car battle between Custer and Hamlin for third place while Briscoe was in fifth ahead of Keselowski, Blaney, Chastain, Suarez and Harvick.
At the Lap 100 mark, Elliott continued to lead by less than a second over a hard-charging Hamlin, who overtook Larson and Custer a few laps earlier, while Briscoe remained in fifth. Meanwhile, Blaney was back in seventh behind Keselowski as he was losing ground of the leaders with his tires wearing out. By then, big names that included Cindric, Reddick, Allmendinger and Truex were lapped by Elliott.
Ten laps later, a heated battle for the lead ignited between Elliott and Hamlin as Hamlin drew his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry alongside Elliott’s Chevrolet and tried to clear him for the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. Despite Elliott’s attempt to stall his momentum, Hamlin prevailed during the following lap through Turns 3 and 4 as he became the third different leader of the event with the clean air to his advantage.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 130, Hamlin, who came into Martinsville five points below the top-four cutline to advance to the Championship 4 round, claimed his fourth stage victory of the 2022 season as he received critical stage points to keep his title hopes alive. Elliott settled in second while Custer, Larson, Briscoe, Keselowski, Bell, Blaney, Chastain and Suarez were scored in the top 10. By then, six of eight Playoff competitors were scored in the top 10 and received the first wave of stage points while the remaining Playoff competitors that included Logano and Byron were in 13th and 18th, respectively. By then, Byron had been lapped by Hamlin as only 17 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the stage break, the field led by Hamlin pitted for the first time of the event. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Elliott, Larson, Custer, Keselowski and Bell. In addition, Briscoe, who came into the event 44 points below the cutline and in a “must-win” situation, was penalized for his gas can out of his pit box while Playoff competitors Blaney and Bell made slight contact on pit road.
The second stage started on Lap 139 as Hamlin and Elliott occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin retained the lead over Elliott and Larson as the field behind jostled for positions. In the process, Bell, who came into the event 33 points below the cutline and in a “must-win” situation, moved his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry into the top five in fifth behind Custer and in front of Keselowski.
Twenty-one laps later, Hamlin was out in front by more than a second over Elliott followed by Larson, Custer and Bell while Keselowski, Blaney, Suarez, Logano and Chastain were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Harvick was in 11th ahead of teammate Almirola, Burton, Wallace and rookie Todd Gilliland while McDowell, Byron and Briscoe rounded out the competitors running on the lead lap. By then, LaJoie and Austin Dillon, both of whom were the first two competitors a lap behind the leaders, rounded out the top 20.
Another 10 laps later and by Lap 175, Hamlin continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Elliott while Larson, Custer and Bell remained in the top five. By then, all eight Playoff competitors continued to run no lower than 18th place and on the lead lap, with six scored in the top 10 on the track.
Just past the Lap 190 mark, Tyler Reddick took his No. 8 3Chi Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the garage due to feeling under weather as he was transported to the infield care center.
At the Lap 200 mark, Hamlin retained the lead by more than two seconds over Elliott while Larson, Custer and Bell continued to run in the top five. By then, Playoff competitors Hamlin, Elliott, Bell, Blaney, Logano and Chastain were scored in the top 10 while Byron and Briscoe were mired back in 17th and 18th.
By Lap 225, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to more than three seconds over runner-up Elliott and more than five seconds over Larson. By then, Byron and Briscoe, both of whom remained in 17th and 18th, were lapped by the leaders.
At the halfway mark on Lap 250, Hamlin continued to lead by more than four seconds over followed by Larson, Custer and Bell while Blaney, Keselowski, Logano, Suarez and Chastain were in the top 10. Behind, Wallace was in 11th ahead of Almirola, Harvick, Burton and Gilliland wile McDowel, Byron, Briscoe, Austin Dillon and LaJoie rounded out the top 20. Meanwhile, Erik Jones, Truex, Stenhouse, Gibbs and Buescher occupied the top 25 in front of Gragson, Cindric was mired in 29th and Kyle Busch was back in 34th and six laps down while dealing with an ill-handling No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 260, Hamlin captured his fifth stage victory of the 2022 season as he swept both stages and earned another round of critical stage points to his championship hopes. Elliott settled in second while Larson, Custer, Bell, Blaney, Keselowski, Logano, Suarez and Chastain were scored in the top 10. By then, 13 competitors were scored on the lead lap. In addition, six of eight Playoff competitors earned a second wave of Playoff points while Byron and Briscoe were not on the lead lap and mired back in the top 20.
Under the stage break, the field led by Hamlin pitted for the second time of the event. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first with a large advantage followed by Larson, Elliott, Blaney, Custer and Logano.
With 229 laps remaining, the final stage started as Hamlin and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin rocketed with the lead and Elliott challenged teammate Larson for the runner-up spot after Larson struggled to come up to speed at the start. Behind, Custer and Blaney battled for fourth in front of Bell while Logano battled Keselowski and Chastain for seventh.
Two laps later, the first caution not related to a stage break flew when Chastain got into Keselowski as Keselowski, who was vying for eighth place, spun and made light contact with the outside wall. During the caution period, names that included Logano, Byron, Chastain and Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track. Logano would return to pit road for a second time to address a fire to the left front of his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang.
When the race restarted under green with 220 laps remaining, Hamlin retained the lead over Elliott and the field.
With 200 laps remaining, Hamlin was out in front by seven-tenths of a second over Elliott followed by Bell, Custer and Blaney while Larson, Suarez, Wallace, Almirola and Burton were scored in the top 10. Behind, Harvick, Keselowski, Chastain, Logano and Byron rounded out the top 15 and as the last round of competitors scored on the lead lap while Playoff competitor Briscoe was mired a lap down in 16th in front of Gilliland, McDowell, Austin Dillon, Gibbs, Erik Jones, Truex, LaJoie, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Justin Haley.
Nineteen laps later, the caution flew when Austin Dillon got loose and pounded the outside wall entering Turn 4 hard due to a front rotor issue, though he emerged uninjured. During the caution period, the leaders led by Hamlin pitted. Following the pit stops, Bell emerged as the new leader after exiting first just ahead of Blaney and Elliott while Hamlin exited in fourth place ahead of Larson and Custer.
During the following restart with 171 laps remaining, Bell took off with the lead followed by a side-by-side battle against Blaney and Elliott for the runner-up spot while Larson and Hamlin dueled for fourth place. Not long after, Elliott cleared Blaney for second while Larson moved into fourth over Hamlin as Custer joined the battle.
With 150 laps remaining, Bell was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Elliott followed by Blaney, Hamlin and Larson while Suarez, Custer, Wallace, Almirola and Logano occupied the top 10. By then, all eight Playoff competitors were scored on the lead lap and no lower than 16th place, which was occupied by Briscoe, while Chastain and Byron were in 13th and 14th.
Twenty-five laps later, Bell, who remained in a “must-win” situation to maintain his title hopes, continued to lead by two-and-a-half seconds over Elliott while Blaney, Hamlin and Larson remained in the top five.
Then with 107 laps remaining, the caution flew when JJ Yeley spun in Turn 3. Under caution, the leaders led by Bell returned to pit road. Following the pit stops, Bell retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Blaney, Elliott, Larson, Wallace and Hamlin.
Down to the final 97 laps of the event, the race proceeded under green as Bell and Blaney, both of whom were placed in a “must-win” situation to transfer to the championship finale round, occupied the front row. At the start, Bell and Blaney dueled for the lead in front of Elliott, Larson and Hamlin while Logano and Keselowski marched to the front on the outside lane as they challenged Wallace for sixth. As the field jostled for late spots, Bell managed to clear Blaney and retain the lead.
With 75 laps remaining, Bell retained the lead by a second over Blaney followed by Elliott, Larson and Hamlin while Wallace, Keselowski, Logano, Custer and Briscoe were scored in the top 10. By then, all eight Playoff competitors were running no lower than 13th, which was occupied by Chastain as Byron was in 11th.
Twenty-five laps later and with 50 laps remaining, Bell continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Blaney while Elliott, Larson and Hamlin remained in the top five. The remaining Playoff competitors that included Logano, Briscoe, Byron and Chastain were running eighth, 10th, 11th and 12th, respectively, as a total of 17 of 36 starters were currently scored on the lead lap.
Then with 34 laps remaining, the caution flew when Landon Cassill pounded the outside wall hard in Turn 3 as his damaged No. 77 Nations Guard Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came to a halt with the driver emerging uninjured. During the caution period, the majority of the field led by Bell returned to pit road and Larson exited first following a two-tire pit stop followed by Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Blaney and Elliott. Bacon the track, however, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Briscoe and Custer remained on the track as they emerged as the new leaders. During the pit stops, Hamlin endured a slow pit stop as he was mired back in 12th behind Chastain.
Down to the final 24 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Briscoe retained the lead while teammate Custer was able to fend off Larson and Keselowski to hold the runner-up spot ahead of a hungry pack of competitors running through two tight lanes.
A few laps later, a heated side-by-side battle for a spot for the Championship 4 round ensued between Hamlin and Chastain as both made contact and refused to give an inch to one another. With Hamlin eventually prevailing for 11th and needing to finish within four spots ahead of Chastain to transfer to the finale, Briscoe continued to lead by half a second over teammate Custer. Soon after, Keselowski, Bell, Larson and Blaney began to challenge one another for third place as both Blaney and Bell were placed in deficits of not transferring to the finale along with Byron and Hamlin.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Briscoe was leading by half a second over Keselowski and eight-tenths of a second over third-place Bell. Behind, Hamlin overtook Logano for eighth place, which made him above the cutline by a single point over Chastain, who was in 12th.
Two laps later, Bell rocketed past Keselowski for the runner-up spot as he had his sights on Briscoe for the lead and a spot to the championship finale. Another three laps later, Bell shoved his No. 20 Toyota beneath Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford with contact ensuing as he reassumed the lead and moved back into the cutline, thus kicking Briscoe back below the cutline. Meanwhile, Chastain challenged Elliott for 11th, which he prevailed as he moved back into the cutline in a tie-breaker over Hamlin. Hamlin, however, responded back by overtaking Logano, Briscoe and Byron to move into fifth place, which put him back into the cutline by two points.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Bell remained as the leader by eight-tenths of a second over Larson. Having four fresh tires to his advantage and executing when it mattered most, Bell was able to cycle his way back to the frontstretch and claim his spot for the championship finale with his third checkered flag of the 2022 season.
Just then, Chastain, who was running in 10th place and on the verge of being eliminated from title contention by two points, floored his No. 1 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 against the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4, which he rode and scraped his car against the wall at full speed as he gained five spots in the process. In addition, Chastain also overtook Hamlin as he finished in fifth place, which was more than enough for the Floridian to grab the fourth and final transfer spot to the Championship 4 round by four points over Hamlin.
With his bold move and the spots gained on the final lap and final corner, Chastain will make his first career appearance in the Championship 4 round as he will contend for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship along with Trackhouse Racing, which is in its second year of NASCAR competition. Hamlin, meanwhile, ended up being the first competitor to be eliminated from title contention as he still pursues his first elusive Cup title.
“[I] Played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the game cube with [brother] Chad growing up and you could get away with it,” Chastain said on NBC. “I never knew if [the move] would actually work. I did that [move] when I was eight years old. I grabbed fifth gear. I asked off of [Turn] 2 on the last lap if we needed it and we did. I couldn’t tell who was leading. I made my choice, I grabbed fifth gear down the [backstretch] and full committed. Once I got up against the wall, I basically let go of the [steering] wheel and just hoped that it didn’t catch the Turn 4 access gate or something crazy, but I was willing to do it for this Trackhouse group. Today for our Moose Chevy, we didn’t have what we needed. Just glad we could do whatever we could do. All we asked for is a chance…To be here fighting for a championship now, it’s just so surreal. I just cannot believe that we have a chance to fight for a championship. We kept our world small today and this year so far. We’ll do the same thing going into Phoenix.”
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“You gotta execute all day,” Hamlin, who finished sixth, said. “We just didn’t control the race when we had control of it. Each caution, we just kept losing some spots. It’s the way it is, but thank [crew chief] Chris Gabehart and [the] whole FedEx Camry team for giving me a really fast car today. It was just unbelievable when it was out front. [I] Couldn’t quite hang on to it there on pit road. Hopefully, [Bell] can carry the [championship] banner for us…It’s what racing is here at Martinsville. [I’m] Actually pretty happy with how somewhat clean it was there towards the end as crazy as it was with guys on different tires. [I] Can’t say enough for my team to give us a shot. We were in the 20s for most of this season in points just because of our up-and-down execution, but we’re gonna end up fifth in points. It is what it is. Great move [for Chastain]. When you have no other choice, it certainly is easy to do that, but well-executed.”
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
While Chastain celebrated on pit road, Bell celebrated his race victory on the track as he claimed his fourth Cup Series career victory and first at Martinsville. In the process, Bell recorded the 200th NASCAR Cup career win for Joe Gibbs Racing as he also will make his first appearance in the Championship 4 round as a title contender.
“Mom and dad, we did it!” Bell, who fought back tears of joy, exclaimed. “I can’t believe it, man. To come here to Martinsville. This place has always been so tough on me. [During] pre-race, I was looking up and seeing all the fans. This place is packed. I don’t even know what to say. Thank you so much to DeWalt, Rheem, Toyota, everyone on this Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 team. They believe in me since day one. Very appreciative to be here. I don’t even know what to say…This entire No. 20 group. They never give up. [When] Our backs [are] against the wall and it looks like it’s over, they show up and give me the fastest car out here. Words can’t describe this feeling.”
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
Also transferring to the Championship 4 round was Chase Elliott, who finished 11th as he will square off against Joey Logano, Bell and Chastain for his second Cup title.
“We just got back a little further than we had been throughout the day,” Elliott, who transferred by four points, said. “Track position was everything unless you were just a couple of guys. I thought it was really a solid day. We did what we needed to do, I guess, on the driver’s side. Nice to have a shot at the driver’s championship next weekend. Nonetheless, [I’m] Excited to get out there [to Phoenix] and give it our best shot to try to get another big trophy. We’ll be ready to go come next weekend. I don’t have any doubt about that.”
Hamlin joins William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe as the remaining four competitors to be eliminated from title contention and not moving past the Round of 8 in the Playoffs.
“We didn’t start off very good,” Blaney, who rallied to finish third but missed the cutline by 26 points, said. “I think we kind of faded at the end of the first stage. We got better and better all night, which is good. We had a shot to grab the lead there before the last caution. I just couldn’t get around [Bell] and kind of burned my stuff off trying to pass [Bell]. Then, just a wild restart and just didn’t get through the traffic as quickly as Bell did and he ended up winning the race. Proud of the Discount Tire guys. I put us in a bad spot the first two races of this round and we almost had a really good night to where we could move on. Appreciate their support. It stinks not making it to the Final Four, but we’ll learn and hopefully apply the good things next year.”
“I needed probably eight less laps,” Briscoe, who fell back to 10th and missed the cutline by 61 points, added. “That would’ve been nice. If I would have known that move that Ross did worked, I would have just done that for eight more laps. I just fell off a cliff pretty hard. Just couldn’t hold them guys off with new tires. I just didn’t have the forward-drive or getting the side bite to hold them off. Proud of our team. We were in position there at the end to potentially capitalize on it. Win as a team, lose as a team. [We’ll] Go to Phoenix next week and see if we can win.”
“We just didn’t have it, unfortunately,” Byron, who ended up 11th and missed the cutline by 21 points, said. “[We] Put a lot of effort in and it just wasn’t anything like we had here in the spring. Just struggled. The first couple stages, I knew it was gonna be a grind. The best thing we could do was try to put ourselves in a position in the top five late where, hopefully, the leaders get together. Just unfortunately not enough all day. That’s just the way it goes sometimes…Just got to learn from it. It’s been a good run for us. Unfortunately, it wasn’t our best.”
Larson, who will contend for an owners’ title next weekend at Phoenix, came home in second place on the track behind Bell while Blaney, Keselowski and Chastain finished in the top five. Hamlin, Logano, Byron, Wallace and Briscoe completed the top 10 while Elliott settled in 11th. Following the race and the post-race inspection process, Keselowski was disqualified due to his car failing to meet minimum weight as he was demoted to 36th place, dead last.
There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 53 laps.
Results.
1. Christopher Bell, 150 laps led
2. Kyle Larson, 68 laps led
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Ross Chastain
5. Denny Hamlin, 203 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
6. Joey Logano
7. William Byron
8. Bubba Wallace
9. Chase Briscoe, 25 laps led
10. Chase Elliott, 54 laps led
11. Harrison Burton
12. Daniel Suarez
13. Todd Gilliland
14. Cole Custer
15. Aric Almirola
16. Kevin Harvick
17. Michael McDowell
18. Erik Jones, two laps down
19. Ty Gibbs, two laps down
20. Martin Truex Jr., two laps down
21. Corey LaJoie, two laps down
22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., two laps down
23. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down
24. Chris Buescher, three laps down
25. Noah Gragson, three laps down
26. Austin Cindric, three laps down
27. Justin Haley, three laps down
28. Cody Ware, five laps down
29. Kyle Busch, six laps down
30. JJ Yeley, 12 laps down
31. Ty Dillon – OUT, Brakes
32. Landon Cassill – OUT, Accident
33. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident
34. BJ McLeod – OUT, Fire
35. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident
36. Brad Keselowski – Disqualified
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. Joey Logano – Advanced
2. Christopher Bell – Advanced
3. Chase Elliott – Advanced
4. Ross Chastain – Advanced
5. Denny Hamlin – Eliminated
6. William Byron – Eliminated
7. Ryan Blaney – Eliminated
8. Chase Briscoe – Eliminated
With the Championship 4 field set, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season is set to conclude at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, November 6, where a champion will be crowned. The event is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
Competing in his sixth full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Daniel Suarez is scheduled to achieve a milestone start. By taking the green flag in this weekend’s event at Pocono Raceway, the driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will achieve 200 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
A native of Monterrey, Mexico, Suarez made his Cup Series debut in the 59th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in February 2017. By then, he was the reigning Xfinity Series champion, where he became the first Latin American champion in NASCAR’s top three national touring series, and was promoted to the Cup circuit to pilot the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry for the new season when veteran Carl Edwards announced his sudden departure from the sport.
Suarez’s rookie Cup season kicked off with a 29th-place result in the Daytona 500 after he was involved in a multi-car wreck midway into the event. He rebounded three races later by finishing seventh at Phoenix Raceway in March, which marked his first top-10 result in the Cup circuit. He then posted another seventh-place finish at Auto Club Speedway.
Throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, Suarez notched a strong third-place result at Watkins Glen International in August along with a total of nine top-10 results. He, however, did not make the 2017 Cup Playoffs, but he went on to post three top-10 results throughout the 10-race Playoff stretch. When the 2017 season concluded, Suarez capped off his rookie Cup season in 20th place in the final standings and behind Erik Jones for the Rookie-of-the-Year title.
Like his rookie season, Suarez’s sophomore Cup season started off with a wreck in the Daytona 500. Recording his first top-10 result of the season at Phoenix in March, Suarez earned a total of three top-five results and six top-10 results throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch. Among his highlights included a third-place result at Dover International Speedway in May, a runner-up result in the non-point All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway behind Kevin Harvick and a runner-up result at Pocono Raceway in August behind teammate Kyle Busch. By then, Suarez also achieved his first career pole at Pocono. While he did not make the Playoffs for a second consecutive season, he posted three top-10 results throughout the 10-race Playoff stretch before finishing 21st in the final standings.
Following two seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing, Suarez was replaced by Martin Truex Jr. for the 2019 Cup season. Suarez, though, announced a month prior to the new season that he will be joining forces with Stewart-Haas Racing to pilot the No. 41 Ford Mustang on a full-time basis. Despite finishing 33rd in the season-opening Daytona 500 in February due to a late multi-car wreck, Suarez achieved his first top-10 result with the team during the following weekend’s event at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Five races later, Suarez achieved a strong third-place result at Texas Motor Speedway in April followed by an eighth-place run at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, Suarez notched a pole, three top-five results and nine top-10 results, which kept him in contention to make the 2019 Cup Playoffs. He, however, failed to make the Playoffs by four points over veteran Ryan Newman when the regular-season stretch capped off at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in September. Suarez went on to earn a ninth-place result at Richmond Raceway in September and a strong third-place run at Texas Motor Speedway in November before settling in 17th place in the final standings. By then, he surpassed 100 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
Despite a decent performance with SHR, Suarez was replaced by rookie Cole Custer for the 2020 season. Suarez, though, was able to secure a full-time ride with Gaunt Brothers Racing for the upcoming Cup season. His season, however, did not start off on a bright note after he wrecked in the first of two Daytona Duel events and failed to qualify for the 2020 Daytona 500. Suarez managed to qualify for the following Cup event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February, but finished 30th following mechanical issues at the start of the race. Overall, Suarez earned three top-20 results before concluding the season in 31st place in the final standings.
Prior to the 2021 Cup season, Suarez joined forces with the newly formed Trackhouse Racing Team owned by former racer Justin Marks and rapper Pitbull as the team received technical support from Richard Childress Racing and a guaranteed charter to compete in all scheduled races. Driving the No. 99 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for the new team, Suarez was involved in an early multi-car wreck in the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished 36th.
After finishing no higher than 15th during the following five races, Suarez rebounded at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course by leading 58 of 253 laps and finishing in fourth place, thus achieving his first top-five result since 2019 and the first for Trackhouse Racing. Suarez, however, finished in the top 10 twice during the remaining 19 regular season events and was involved in a multi-car wreck on the final lap at Daytona while contending for the victory. The inconsistent stretch for Suarez prevented him from making the 2021 Cup Playoffs. For the remaining 10 scheduled events, he managed to finish as high as 10th at Texas in October before finishing in 25th place in the final standings.
Suarez remained at Trackhouse Racing that expanded to field two cars in this year’s Cup season with Ross Chastain joining the organization. After earning four top-10 results and finishing no higher than fourth twice during the first 15 scheduled events, Suarez achieved his first victory in NASCAR’s premier series after claiming a dominant victory at Sonoma Raceway in June. In doing so, he became the fifth foreign-born competitor and the first from Mexico to win in the Cup Series.
Through 199 previous Cup starts, Suarez has achieved one victory, two poles, 13 top-five results, 44 top-10 results, 538 laps led and an average-finishing result of 19.2. He currently sits in 15th place in the regular season standings and is one of 14 current competitors to possess a spot in the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning once throughout the regular season stretch.
Suarez is primed to make his 200th Cup Series career start at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, July 24, with coverage to start at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.
In his sixth full-time season as a competitor in NASCAR’s premier series, Daniel Suarez achieved his first career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series following a dominant run in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, June 12.
The 30-year-old Suarez from Monterrey, Mexico, led twice for a race-high 47 of 110 laps and fended off Chris Buescher during a 23-lap run to the finish to capture his first victory in his 195th start in the Cup circuit. The victory made Suarez the first Mexican-born competitor to win in the Cup Series as Suarez added his name to the 2022 Cup Series Playoff picture with a guaranteed spot based on his victory in Sonoma, California.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Kyle Larson notched his fifth consecutive pole position at Sonoma after posting a pole-winning lap at 92.111 mph in 77.776 seconds. Joining him on the front row will be teammate Chase Elliott, who clocked in a qualifying lap at 92.083 mph in 77.799 seconds.
Prior to the event, AJ Allmendiner, Christopher Bell and Erik Jones dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars.
At the start of the event, Cody Ware was assessed a pass-through penalty through pit road at the start of the event due to his No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang failing pre-qualifying technical inspection four times. The issue prevent Ware from qualifying on Saturday as his car chief Steve Gray was suspended for the remainder of the weekend.
When the green flag waved and the race started, teammates Larson and Elliott dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Larson managed to pull ahead approaching Turn 3 as the field behind jostled for positions. As the field made their way through the 11-turn circuit, Larson went on to lead the first lap ahead of Elliott while Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher and Cole Custer were scored in the top five. By then, Ware served his drive-through penalty through pit road.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Larson remained as the leader by more than a second over teammate Elliott followed by McDowell, Buescher and Daniel Suarez while Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch were in the top 10. Joey Logano was in 11th followed by Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Kurt Busch, Justin Haley, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Joey Hand and Alex Bowman while Kevin Harvick, rookie Todd Gilliland, Aric Almirola, rookie Harrison Burton, rookie Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, Corey LaJoie, Bubba Wallace, Martin Truex Jr. and AJ Allmendinger occupied the top 30. The first competitor scored outside of the top 30 was Erik Jones followed by teammate Ty Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Four laps later, the first caution of the event flew due to possible fluid on the circuit when smoke billowed out of the No. 23 DoorDash Toyota TRD Camry piloted by Bubba Wallace, who parked his car in Turn 4 and retired due to an engine failure.
Under caution, some led by Tyler Reddick pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track. During the pit stops, Allmendinger’s pit crew went under the hood to work on the power steering pump.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 12, Larson managed to quickly clear teammate Elliott to retain the lead through the first two turns and approaching the uphill climb to Turns 3 and 3A. As the field fanned out and scrambled for positions through the Chute corner from Turns 4 to 7, Reddick muscled his way into the top five ahead of Suarez while keeping McDowell within his sights.
On Lap 15, Erik Jones, who was in 20th, got loose and spun his No. 43 FocusFactor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 2, but the race remained under green flag conditions as Larson stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Elliott. Behind, Buescher was in third followed by McDowell and Reddick while Suarez, Chastain, Custer, Logano and Hamlin were scored in the top 10.
By the Lap 20 mark, Larson continued to lead by two seconds over teammate Elliott, who had Buescher starting to reel him in for the spot as McDowell and Reddick remained in the top five. Meanwhile, Chastain overtook teammate Suarez for sixth place while Logano, Custer and Hamlin were in the top 10.
Nearly two laps later, the first round of pit stops under green commenced as Suarez led a bevy of competitors to pit road, a group that included Blaney, Custer, Hamlin, Keselowski, Briscoe, Harvick, Bowman, Austin Dillon, Cindric, Ty Dillon, Gilliland, Truex, Joey Hand and Allmendinger. Not long after, Buescher, who was in the runner-up spot, led another wave of competitors to pit road that included Elliott, McDowell, Reddick and Chastain. During both processes, Larson remained on the track as the leader.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 25, Larson captured his second stage victory of the 2022 Cup Series season. Logano settled in second followed by Kyle Busch, Justin Haley, Aric Almirola, Harrison Burton, Josh Bilicki, Kurt Busch, Stenhouse and Cody Ware. By then, Christopher Bell, who was a lap down and would have received the free pass to return on the lead lap during the stage break, was penalized for pitting outside of his pit box.
Under the stage break, some led by Larson pitted while the rest led by Elliot remained on the track.
The second stage started on Lap 29 as Elliott and Buescher occupied the front row. At the start, Elliott took off with the lead entering the first turn while Chastain challenged Buescher for the runner-up spot, with the former managing to hold the spot entering Turns 3 and 3A. As the field made their way through the series of left and right-hand turns from Turn 7 to 10 before the sharp right-hand turn in Turn 11, Elliott retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Buescher with Chastain trailing by less than a second.
By Lap 35, Elliott stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Buescher, who continued to stalk Elliott through every turn and every corner. Chastain remained in third place while one-and-a-half seconds behind while Suarez, Reddick, Harvick, McDowell, Custer, Bowman and Blaney were in the top 10 ahead of Austin Dillon, Cindric, Hamlin, Keselowski and Truex.
Through the first 40 laps, Elliott continued to lead by more than seven-tenths of a second over Buescher followed by Chastain, Suarez and Reddick while Harvick, McDowell, Bowman, Blaney and Custer were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Larson, who was rubbing fenders with Joey Hand, was mired in 15th behind Custer, Cindric, Keselowski and Hamlin. Notably, Truex was in 16th, Byron was in 19th, Logano was back in 23rd in front of Justin Haley and Kyle Busch, Almirola was in 26th and Kurt Busch was in 30th behind Harrison Burton and Erik Jones.
Five laps later, Elliott remained as the leader by more than a second over Buescher while Suarez was up in third place ahead of teammate Chastain and Reddick, who had Harvick and McDowell stalking him for the spot.
Another two laps later, Erik Jones spun for a second time of the day, this time entering Turn 7, after he locked up his front tires while trying to overtake Kurt Busch in the top 30. Then during the following lap, Chastain met the same fate as he got loose and spun on his own while trying to overtake teammate Suarez in Turn 7. While the event remained under green, Chastain managed to fall back to seventh in front of Blaney and Elliott remained as the leader.
With 50 laps complete, Elliott stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over Buescher followed by Suarez and Reddick while Harvick moved into fifth place. Not long after, Truex pitted under green. During the following lap, Reddick led a bevy of competitors that included Bowman, Cindric, Blaney, Keselowski, Chastain, Austin Dillon and Custer to pit road for service under green. Another lap later, names led by Elliott and including teammate Larson, Briscoe, Cindric, McDowell, Harvick, Suarez and Buescher pitted. During the pit stops, Elliott, who was about to leave his pit stall following his service, came to a stop and reversed his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to his pit stall to have a loose wheel tightened. During the process, however, Elliott’s front nose was still sticking out of his pit box, which drew himself a penalty.
During the cycle of green flag pit stops, Logano emerged out in front followed by Buescher, Suarez, Almirola and Harvick. Along with Elliott, Reddick was penalized for speeding on pit road while Buescher was penalized for having an equipment thrown over his pit box.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 55, which marked the halfway point of the event, Logano claimed his second stage victory of the season. Almirola settled in second followed by Buescher, Suarez, Harvick, Todd Gilliland, Burton, Elliott, McDowell and Stenhouse. With Elliott penalized following his pit road miscue, however, Suarez, who was in 11th following the second stage’s conclusion, was awarded the final stage point.
Under the stage break, some led by Logano pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track. By then, NASCAR rescinded the penalty to Buescher with Buescher, who was also allowed to retain his stage points following the second stage’s conclusion, out in front followed by Suarez.
With 50 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green. At the start, Buescher and Suarez dueled for the lead through the first four turns until Suarez managed to pull ahead with the lead followed by McDowell while Buescher locked up the front tires entering Turn 7. Through the series of turns from Turns 7 to 10 and through Turn 11, Suarez retained the lead followed by McDowell, Harvick, Buescher and Keselowski while Blaney, Cindric, Chastain, Austin Dillon and Larson were in the top 10.
During the following lap, Suarez’s No. 99 Onx Homes/Renu Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was ahead of McDowell’s No. 34 Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang by half a second and the top-seven competitors broke away from the field that was fanned out to multiple lanes while Chastain and Larson duked for eighth place.
Nearing the final 45 laps of the event, Reddick pitted after spinning in Turn 10. In the midst of his spin, Josh Bilicki also spun while the race remained under green. Shortly after, Harvick moved his No. 4 Gearwrench Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot through the first two turns while Buescher challenged McDowell for third place.
With 40 laps remaining, Suarez continued to lead while Buescher made a bold move beneath Harvick in Turn 11 to take over the runner-up spot in his No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang. McDowell and Keselowski remained in the top five followed by Blaney, Chastain, Cindric, Larson and Bowman while Briscoe, Austin Dillon, Custer, Byron, Truex, Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Joey Hand and Logano were in the top 20. Meanwhile, Elliott was mired back in 23rd place. By then, Reddick, who pitted multiple times following his spin, took his car to the garage. In addition, Corey LaJoie pitted under green.
Five laps later, Suarez stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Buescher followed by Harvick, McDowell and Keselowski. By then, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Harrison Burton pitted under green as the sun was starting to emerge from the cloudy conditions. Not long after, Truex pitted along with teammate Bell, Justin Haley, Briscoe and Elliott, who endured a slow pit stop.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Suarez remained as the leader by more than two seconds over Buescher followed by Harvick while McDowell and Keselowski were in the top five. By then, Blaney pitted under green along with teammate Cindric.
During the following lap, Buescher pitted along with Harivck, Bowman, Custer, Byron and Chastain, who backed his car back to his pit stall following his pit stop to have the lug nut on his left-rear tire tightened. In addition, Suarez surrendered the lead to pit followed by McDowell, Larson, Allmendinger, Kurt Busch, Todd Gilliland and Scott Heckert while Keselowski moved into the lead.
Then with 28 laps remaining, the caution flew when the right-front tire from Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came off in Turn 2 just as Larson had exited pit road. During the caution period, some led by Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Suarez and Buescher remained on the track.
With 23 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Suarez pulled away entering the first two turns while Buescher and McDowell battled for the runner-up spot ahead of Blaney and Cindric while Harvick was back in sixth. Then in Turn 7, Kyle Busch, who was in sixth, spun his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry after locking up his tires and slipping sideways while Bowman went wide to avoid hitting Busch, but the race remained under green as Suarez remained as the leader.
Three laps later, Suarez retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Buescher, who was stalking the leader and trying to close in, while McDowell, Blaney, Cindric, Harvick, Briscoe, Elliott, Byron and Truex were in the top 10. Allmendinger was in 11th followed by Bell, Chastain, Hamlin, Ty Dillon, Keselowski, Burton, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon and Aric Almirola. By then, Larson was in 23rd, Logano was mired back in 25th ahead of Bowman and Kyle Busch was all the way back in 32nd.
With 15 laps remaining, Suarez stabilized his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Buescher while McDowell, Blaney and Harvick were scored in the top five.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Suarez continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Buescher followed by McDowell, Harvick and Blaney while Cindric, Elliott, Byron, Chastain and Allmendinger were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Truex was in 13th ahead of Kurt Busch, Larson was mired in 17th, Logano was back in 21st and Kyle Busch was in 31st. Soon after, teammates Bell and Hamlin pitted their respective Toyotas.
With five laps remaining, Suarez, who was trying to track Hamlin and put him a lap behind, was leading by more than two seconds over Buescher while third-place McDowell trailed by more than six seconds. Fourth-place Harvick trailed by eight seconds while fifth-place Cindric trailed by more than 12 seconds. By then, Truex pitted.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Suarez remained as the leader by nearly four seconds over Buescher. Earlier, Allmendinger, who was in position for a top-10 run despite his power steering issues, spun in Turn 3, but the race remained under green. With Buescher unable to narrow the deficit between himself and Suarez, Suarez was able to smoothly navigate his way through the 11-turn circuit and back to the finish line for his first checkered flag in the series.
With the victory, Suarez, a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program and the 2016 Xfinity Series champion, became the fourth first-time winner of the 2022 Cup Series season, the first competitor to achieve a first Cup win at Sonoma since Juan Pablo Montoya made the last accomplishment in 2007 and the 202nd overall to win in NASCAR’s premier series. In addition to becoming the first Mexican-born competitor to win in the Cup Series, he also became the fifth foreign-born competitor overall to win in the Cup circuit, joining Italy’s Mario Andretti, Columbia’s Juan Pablo Montoya, Canada’s Earl Ross and Australia’s Marcos Ambrose. As a bonus, Suarez became the 40th different competitor to achieve a victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Camping World Truck, Xfinity and Cup).
The victory was also the third overall for Trackhouse Racing in the team’s second season in NASCAR competition, but first as a two-car organization as both competitors have achieved victories and guaranteed spots to the 2022 Cup Playoffs. Along with Suarez, crew chief Travis Mack achieved his first victory as a Cup crew chief.
Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“It’s crazy,” Suarez, who received a chorus of cheers from the crowd and the Mexican fans, said on FS1. “I have so many thoughts in my head right now. It’s been a rough road. It’s been a rough journey in the Cup Series. These guys believing in me, Trackhouse Racing, [owner] Justin Marks, [team president] Ty Norris, everyone that helped me to get to this point. A lot of people in Mexico: Jay Morales, Carlos Slim. My family, they never gave up on me. A lot of people did, but they didn’t. Just very happy that we’re able to make it work. It’s the energy. [the team] believe in me since day one. They believe in me and they put all the people, resources, everything to make it happen…This is the first [win] of many.”
“[The win] feels good,” Suarez added in the media room. “My team’s been working. They’ve been working very hard. To be able to finally get the first [win], I feel like that is gonna make us feel more relaxed. Now, we’re gonna do things more calm. I told my team, ‘Hey, just stay calm, let’s do our thing’. We’re capable of winning races. But one thing is to say it and another thing is to do it. Today, we did it, so now, we’re gonna be able to do things more relaxed that way victories and success is gonna be able to find us much easier.”
“This one’s difficult to put into words,” Justin Marks added on FS1. “Daniel Suarez, Travis Mack helped build Trackhouse [Racing]. They’ve been working so hard together. They’ve been so focused, so dedicated trying to get to Victory Lane. The No. 1 car winning two races with this year was tough on them, but they never gave up. They knew that they were gonna be in Victory Lane. I’m so proud and happy for them.”
“Coming up through the ranks at Hendrick [Motorsports] to being a car chief, just working hard for this first win,” Travis Mack, crew chief for Suarez, added in the media center. “This is actually [the place of] my first win with Jeff Gordon I believe in [2004]. Sonoma was my first win on a Cup team, so it’s really exciting to get my very first win as a crew chief at Sonoma.”
Buescher rallied from being absent last weekend at Gateway due to a positive COVID-19 test to finish in second place for his first top-five result since finishing third at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in October 2021 while McDowell earned his first top-five result of the season with a stellar third-place result.
“I’m just disappointed in myself,” Buescher said. “[I] Didn’t get the job done there. I apologize to these guys because they put an awesome Fifth Third Bank Mustang underneath me this weekend. It’s a heck of a return. We had a lot of speed. Just struggled for a little bit on the long-run speed. Just wearing rears [tires] out. Ultimately, just didn’t get it done when it counted, so it’s an awesome run. Had great speed. That’s an awesome recovery from [Circuit of the Americas] and what we had there. Everybody back at [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing]’s doing a great job. Hurts to be that close, but congratulations to Suarez. We’re trying. Just trying to get him and just ran out of steam there.”
“Yeah, I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row [Motorsports],” McDowell said. “Obviously, we want to win the race. Finishing third doesn’t get you in the Playoffs, but really thankful to everybody. [Team owner] Bob Jenkins, everybody at Front Row Motorsports. This Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang was fast all weekend. I keep telling my guys [that] we gotta run second, third, fourth, fifth week in and week out, and we’ll eventually get a win. [I] Felt like we were close today. Just needed a little bit more fire-off speed off the front end, but really proud of my team…We’re getting closer, so we’ll keep pushing hard. We wanna get this car in the Playoffs, so we’ll keep fighting.”
Harvick, who was trying to return to Victory Lane since winning at Bristol Motor Speedway in September 2020, came home in fourth place while rookie Austin Cindric completed the top five in fifth place. Blaney, Chastain, Elliott, Byron and Keselowski finished in the top 10.
Notably, Larson finished 15th, Logano settled in 17th in front of Kurt Busch, Allmendinger fell back to 19th following his late spin, Truex ended up 26th in front of teammate Bell and Kyle Busch concluded his long run in 30th in front of teammate Hamlin.
There were six lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 14 laps. A total of 31 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
With 10 regular season races remaining to this season, Chase Elliott leads the regular season standings by 16 points over Ross Chastain, 23 over Kyle Busch, 25 over Ryan Blaney and 30 over Joey Logano.
Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, rookie Austin Cindric and Kurt Busch are currently guaranteed spots for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning once throughout the regular-season stretch while Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell and Aric Almirola are above the top-16 cutline based on points. Kevin Harvick trails the top-16 cutline by seven points, Tyler Reddick trails by 42, Austin Dillon trails by 47, Erik Jones trails by 55, Michael McDowell trails by 93, Chris Buescher trails by 105, Justin Haley trails by 113, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trails by 135, Bubba Wallace trails by 139 and Ty Dillon trails by 153.
Results.
1. Daniel Suarez, 47 laps led
2. Chris Buescher, four laps led
3. Michael McDowell
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Austin Cindric
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Ross Chastain
8. Chase Elliott, 26 laps led
9. William Byron
10. Brad Keselowski, three laps led
11. Austin Dillon
12. Justin Haley
13. Chase Briscoe
14. Aric Almirola
15. Kyle Larson, 26 laps led, Stage 1 winner
16. Alex Bowman
17. Joey Logano, four laps led, Stage 2 winner
18. Kurt Busch
19. AJ Allmendinger
20. Joey Hand
21. Cole Custer
22. Erik Jones
23. Ty Dillon
24. Todd Gilliland
25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
26. Martin Truex Jr.
27. Christopher Bell
28. Harrison Burton
29. Josh Bilicki
30. Kyle Busch
31. Denny Hamlin
32. Cody Ware, one lap down
33. Scott Heckert, one lap down
34. Corey LaJoie, nine laps down
35. Tyler Reddick, 13 laps down
36. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Engine
The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season will enter a one-week break period before returning to action at Nashville Superspeedway in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday, June 26. The event is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. ET on NBC with FOX’s 2022 NASCAR coverage concluded.
From losing a lap to the leaders to rallying his way back to the front and having the seas parting way for him with the finish in sight, Ross Chastain overtook Erik Jones at the tri-oval on the final lap to win the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 24.
The 29-year-old Chastain from Alva, Florida, was penalized for speeding on pit road during an exchange of green-flag pit stops nearing the Lap 40 mark, but he was able to cycle his way back on the lead lap following the first stage’s conclusion. From there, he muscled his way to the front and remained within sight of the lead pack. Then on the final lap and entering the tri-oval, Chastain was lined up in third place while awaiting his moment to strike. With the field fanning out and initial leader Erik Jones trying to prevent a run from Kyle Larson in the outside lane, Chastain had the inside lane to himself. He seized the opportunity to snatch the lead and emerged victorious for the second time in his NASCAR Cup Series career.
With on-track qualifying occurring on Saturday, Christopher Bell notched his second Cup Series pole position of the season and of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 180.928 mph in 52.927 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Martin Truex Jr., who posted a fast lap at 180.652 mph in 53.008 seconds.
Prior to the event, Landon Cassill was forced to serve a pass-through penalty through pit road at the start due to his No. 77 Spire Motorsports entry failing pre-qualifying technical inspection three times. Noah Gragson, the winner of Saturday’s Xfinity event at Talladega, also dropped to the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment to his No. 62 Beard Motorsports entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Bell moved his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry in front of teammate Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry as he maintained the lead through the first two turns while Daniel Suarez charged as the lead competitor on the outside lane.
When the field returned to the start/finish line, Bell led the first lap. Suarez, however, fought back on the outside lane in his No. 99 Tootsies Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with drafting help from Kurt Busch, but Bell maintained his line on the inside lane. Suarez, though, was able to lead the second lap as he and Bell were locked dead even for the lead. By then, the entire field was stacked up through two long double lines.
Through the first 10 laps of the event and with the field fanning out to multiple lanes, Suarez received a draft from William Byron to overtake Bell for the lead followed by Truex, Kurt Busch, Daniel Hemric, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano. By then, Bell had led seven of the first 10 laps while Suarez led the remaining three. In addition, Cassill, who served his pass-through penalty at the start, was lapped by the field.
By Lap 20, eight competitors broke away from the pack fanning out to two packed lanes as Suarez continued to lead ahead of Byron, Bell, Truex, Hemric, Larson, Haley and Kurt Busch while Ty Dillon and Erik Jones were in the top 10.
Five laps later, the top-10 competitors led by Suarez had broken away from the rest of the pack stacked through two lanes while 11th-place Kevin Harvick initiated a charge as the lead competitor on the outside lane. By then, all but one of the 39 starters were separated by less than three seconds.
By Lap 30, Suarez continued to lead on the inside lane ahead of Byron, Bell and Truex while Chase Elliott, who was in fifth ahead of Hemric, mounted a charge on the outside lane with drafting help from Kevin Harvick and the field.
On Lap 32, Reddick pitted as the crew lifted the hood up on the No. 8 Bet MGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 due to a mechanical issue.
By Lap 34, the Ford competitors peeled off the track to pit under green. During the Ford pit stops, Keselowski was penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Cody Ware spun his No. 51 Nurtec ODT Ford Mustang while entering pit road, but he was able to proceed without drawing a caution. Soon after, the Toyota competitors along with Chevrolet competitor Alex Bowman pitted. During the Toyota pit stops, Hamlin slid his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry through his pit box. By the end of Lap 36, the Chevrolet competitors pitted. During the Chevrolet pit stops, Ross Chastain was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road.
At the Lap 40 mark and with the pit stops complete, Larson cycled his way to the lead followed by teammates Byron and Elliott while Erik Jones and Hemric were in the top five. Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Logano, Ty Dillon, rookie Harrison Burton, Bubba Wallace, Bell, Truex, Chris Buescher, Kurt Busch, Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola. By then, Suarez had fallen back to 23rd while Reddick retired in the garage.
Through the first 50 scheduled laps, Larson continued to lead ahead of teammates Byron and Elliott while Wallace mounted a charge on the outside lane in fourth place. By then, Keselowski was lapped by the field.
Soon after, Wallace drew himself into a side-by-side against Larson for the lead through the backstretch. Despite the field having to fan out while lapping Chastain and Michael McDowell, they gathered themselves through the tri-oval as Wallace received a push from Bell to briefly lead until Larson fought back on the inside lane. By Lap 53, Wallace led a lap for himself and had both lanes in control through the backstretch until Larson mounted another challenge on the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Byron.
With four laps remaining in the first stage and while the field fanned out, the first caution flew when Hemric fell off the pace and was bumped sideways by Austin Dillon through Turns 3 and 4 as he radioed engine issues to his No. 16 Majestic Steel Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. While trying to straighten his car below the apron, Hemric then shot back across the track and made heavy contact against Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe, whose No. 14 Mahindra Ford Mustang burst into flames. At the moment of caution, Chastain received the free pass to return on the lead lap due to being the first competitor that was scored a lap behind which left Keselowski still trapped a lap behind.
The three-car wreck between Turns 3 and 4 was enough for the first stage scheduled on Lap 60 to conclude under caution as Bubba Wallace claimed his first stage victory of the season and third at Talladega. Larson settled in second followed by Bell, Byron, Truex, Elliott, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Bowman and Stenhouse.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson reassumed the lead following his pit service followed by Byron, Elliott, Erik Jones, Truex and Wallace. During the pit stops, Kyle Busch was penalized for dragging his gas can out of his pit box.
The second stage started on Lap 64 as teammates Larson and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Larson moved in front of teammates Byron and Elliott to maintain the lead on the inside lane while Erik Jones was the lead competitor on the outside lane as he received a push from Wallace to battle and overtake Larson for the lead when the field returned to the start/finish line.
By Lap 67, Erik Jones was out in front while Wallace and Larson battled for second place. Soon after, Larson challenged for the lead on the inside lane while Jones maintained his ground on the outside lane.
At the Lap 75 mark, Erik Jones’ No. 43 Air Force Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was still leading by 0.013 seconds over Wallace’s No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry while Larson, Kurt Busch, Byron, Harvick, Elliott, Truex, Bowman and Logano were scored in the top 10.
Six laps later, the caution returned when Greg Biffle fell off the pace with no power and was unable to limp his No. 44 Morehouse College Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to pit road as he stalled in Turn 4. At the moment of caution, Keselowski received the free pass to return to the lead lap due to being the first competitor scored a lap behind.
Under caution, the field returned to pit road for service, mainly for fuel, and Byron emerged with the lead followed by Truex, Elliott, Larson, Blaney and Erik Jones.
On Lap 85, the race proceeded under green as Byron maintained the lead ahead of the packed field. Shortly after, however, the caution returned when BJ McLeod spun in Turn 2 as the right-rear wheel of McLeod’s car came out.
Another four laps later, the race restarted under green. The caution, however, followed suit for a multi-car wreck that sparked due to a stack-up at the front and resulted in Logano receiving a bump from Wallace that turned Logano into the outside wall in Turn 1. With Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang then slowly creeping towards the straightaway amid the ongoing field, he was hit by Ty Dillon as rookies Austin Cindric, Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland along with Suarez, Kyle Busch, Cole Custer and Stenhouse were sent spinning and wrecking through Turn 1.
By Lap 97, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Byron and Truex dueled with Truex receiving a draft from former teammate Erik Jones while Byron had teammates Elliott and Larson lined up behind him along with Kurt Busch.
At the Lap 100 mark, Byron and Truex dueled for the top spot with Elliott, Erik Jones and Larson scored in the top five while Blaney, Kurt Busch, Wallace, Bowman and Harvick were in the top 10. By then, 24 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Six laps later, the caution flew when Cody Ware got turned by David Ragan past the start/finish line. Under caution, some like Erik Jones, Wallace, Blaney, Harvick, Cindric, Bell, Keselowski, Corey LaJoie and Gragson pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Wallace made an extra pit stop to address a potential loose wheel on his car.
With 10 laps remaining in the second stage, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Byron maintained the lead as all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors were lined up from first through fourth on the inside lane while Truex was in fifth.
As the field settled in a long single-file line with five laps remaining in the second stage, Byron continued to lead ahead of his Hendrick teammates while Truex, Chastain, Almirola, Erik Jones, Cindric and Harvick were in the top 10. By then, the Busch brothers along with Keselowski, Wallace, LaJoie, Blaney, Bell, Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Justin Haley were in the top 20.
At the start of the final lap of the second stage, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Kyle Busch mounted a charge on the outside lane. Byron, however, was able to maintain the lead ahead of the fanned field to claim his third stage victory of the season on Lap 120. Teammates Elliott and Larson followed pursuit along with Truex, Bowman, Kyle Busch, Almirola, Erik Jones, Chastain and Kurt Busch.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Erik Jones emerged with the lead following a two-tire stop followed by Kyle Busch, Harvick, Blaney, Keselowski and Wallace.
With 63 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Kyle Busch gained a brief advantage through the first two turns on the outside lane before Harvick gave Erik Jones a huge push for Jones to assume the lead through Turns 3 and 4.
During the following lap, Ryan Blaney gave Kyle Busch a big draft that enabled Busch to challenge Jones for the top spot before Busch prevailed when he returned to the start/finish line. Then through the backstretch, Busch moved in front of Jones to maintain the lead ahead of Jones on the inside lane until Blaney received drafting support from Wallace to mount his challenge for the lead.
With 58 laps remaining, Blaney and Wallace managed to pull themselves in front of Kyle Busch on the inside lane as Blaney maintained the lead, By then, a long single-file line was being formulated on the inside lane while Cindric lost the draft and was losing spots on the track.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event and with the field remaining in a long single-file line, Blaney was leading ahead of Wallace, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Harvick, Keselowski, Bell, Larson, Elliott and Byron while Chastain, McDowell, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Truex, David Ragan, LaJoie, Kurt Busch, Haley and Landon Cassill were in the top 20. By then, 25 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Ten laps later, Blaney maintained the lead ahead of Wallace, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Harvick and the long line of competitors on the inside line.
Shortly after, a group of competitors led by Chastain moved to the outside lane and started to gain a run to the front with Chastain scored in ninth place. During the following lap, he moved up to seventh while Blaney continued to lead on the inside lane.
Then with 37 laps remaining, Wallace made a move to the outside of Blaney and he muscled his way into the lead followed by Kyle Busch and Erik Jones. Jones, however, made his move during the following lap beneath Wallace to take the lead while Kyle Busch, who had a momentum going on the outside lane, got shuffled out of line. In addition, Blaney moved into second followed by Harvick, Wallace, Keselowski and Chastain.
With 33 laps remaining, Wallace received a draft from Chastain to reassume the lead over Erik Jones as he was placed on defense mode through both lanes.
Three laps later, Wallace and Erik Jones were locked in a tight side-by-side battle for the lead as Wallace moved up the outside lane in front of Chastain and Hamlin while Jones had drafting support from Blaney and Harvick.
Another lap later, a handful of competitors led by Blaney peeled off the track to pit under green. During the next lap, another wave of competitors led by Wallace pitted while another wave led by LaJoie pitted during the next lap. During the pit stops, Keselowski was busted with his second pit road speeding penalty. In addition, contact between Gragson and Kyle Busch sent Bell spinning towards the inside wall on the frontstretch. The race, however, proceeded under green as Bell was able to continue without sustaining any significant damage.
Back on the track with less than 25 laps remaining, Hamlin cycled his way into the lead followed by Larson, Erik Jones, Byron and Chastain.
With 20 laps remaining and the field settled in a long single-file line on the inside lane, Hamlin was leading ahead of Larson, Erik Jones, Byron and Chastain while Haley, Kurt Busch, Truex, LaJoie and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. Wallace was back in 11th ahead of Elliott, Blaney, Harvick, Almirola, Bowman, McDowell, Cindric, Kyle Busch and Cassill.
Three laps later, Larson moved into the lead while Hamlin, who briefly lost the draft, fell back to sixth place in an effort to save fuel. By then, Keselowski was lapped by the field.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event and with the field fanning out and stacked up to multiple lanes, Larson was leading by a hair over Chastain followed by Haley, Erik Jones, Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Byron, Truex, Elliott and Blaney. By then, Bell was lapped by the field.
With seven laps remaining, Erik Jones gained a huge draft from Byron and Elliott on the outside lane to move into third place behind Larson and Chastain as he made his bid for the lead. As the field remained in a tight, deadlock through double lanes, Jones peaked ahead with drafting help from Byron while Larson had drafting support from Chastain on the inside lane.
With five laps remaining, Jones maintained the lead before Larson fought back on the inside lane as the intensity towards the pack intensified.
Down to the final two laps, Jones remained as the leader ahead of Larson, Chastain, Kurt Busch and Byron, all of whom were briefly ahead of the pack in a single-file line. By then, Hamlin pitted under green after running out of fuel.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Jones continued to lead a long parade of competitors with some moving up to the outside lane through the backstretch. Then in Turns 3 and 4, Kurt Busch, who was in fourth place, bolted to the outside lane while waiting to gain a draft from Truex and Wallace.
Then through the tri-oval, Larson tried to make a move to the outside of Jones, but he made contact with Kurt Busch that sent Busch’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry hard against the tri-oval outside wall as he collected teammate, Wallace. In the process, Jones, who moved up the outside lane to block Larson, opened the inside lane for Ross Chastain to make his move along with Austin Dillon. Having open race track to himself at the right timing on the final straightaway, Chastain maintained the lead through all lanes to grab the win by 0.105 seconds over Dillon while LaJoie spun across the finish line.
With the victory, Chastain, who only led the final lap out of the event’s 188-scheduled laps, notched his second NASCAR Cup Series career win in his 125th series start and his first at Talladega Superspeedway. In addition, he achieved the second NASCAR victory for Trackhouse Racing nearly a month after the team and Chastain achieved their first win at Circuit of the Americas.
“Holy cow,” Chastain, who celebrated with his trademark by smashing a watermelon on the frontstretch, said on FOX. “I’m always the one going to the top [lane] too early and making the mistake. There at the end, it was like eight [laps] to go, I was like I’m not going up there again. I did that a couple of times today. I was like, ‘I’ll just ride the bottom.’ I’m not gonna lose the race for us. I’ll just let them. To win with the Moose [Fraternity] on board, they’ve been with me for a few years now and supported me everywhere I went. I have no idea. [The leaders] just kept going up and they just kept moving out of the way.”
“I’ve wrecked myself so many times, gotten into it with guys,” Chastain added. “[Team owner] Justin Marks and what he laid out for us was ambitious and I had no idea what to expect other than I knew I had my group from last year, I had AdventHealth, the Moose, now with Worldwide Express, Jockey coming on board. We’ve got partners. They’re believing in us. We started the year with a lot of races open. We’re almost full now [with sponsors]. It’s because of the vision of Justin Marks and Pitbull. Armando [Pitbull], we won, dude!”
Austin Dillon came home in second place for his second runner-up result of the season while Kyle Busch, Larson and Truex finished in the top five.
Erik Jones, who led 25 laps and was within a straightaway of snapping a two-year winless drought, settled in sixth place for his third top-10 result of the season.
“Last lap, it’s typical here,” Jones said. “I’ve been close here so many times in this race and the fall race. The U.S. Air Force Chevy had good speed. It just felt good to run up front, but come there that last lap, we were single file. I felt pretty good about it. They kind of doubled up behind us and that top lane was getting some momentum. Looking back, I wished I would’ve stayed on the bottom [lane], let [Chastain] push me. I didn’t realize they were coming with that much speed, but I tried to defend on [Larson]. We were too far ahead already right here. Obviously, defense on [Larson] kind of gives the door to [Chastain]. It is what it is. You’re just trying to win the race. You can only see how much so much is going on from the seat. You’re trying to make the best decision you can on the last 15-100 feet. Happy to run up front, lead laps. Just really would love to get the No. 43 [car] to Victory Lane. I thought today might be the day. All day long, we were fast and had speed and especially being up front there at the end on the last 10 [laps], I knew we had a shot. Just couldn’t quite close it out.”
Elliott, McDowell, Bowman and Harvick rounded out the top 10 on the track. Notably, teammates Kurt Busch and Wallace finished 16th and 17th behind Byron and in front of bossman Denny Hamlin following their final lap wreck.
There were 41 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 28 laps.
With his seventh-place result, Chase Elliott continues to lead the regular-season standings by 21 points over Ryan Blaney, 34 over William Byron, 56 over Kyle Busch, 59 over Alex Bowman and 60 over Joey Logano.
Results.
1. Ross Chastain, one lap led
2. Austin Dillon
3. Kyle Busch, three laps led
4. Kyle Larson, 32 laps led
5. Martin Truex Jr.
6. Erik Jones, 25 laps led
7. Chase Elliott
8. Michael McDowell
9. Alex Bowman
10. Kevin Harvick
11. Ryan Blaney, 23 laps led
12. Justin Haley
13. Aric Almirola
14. Corey LaJoie, one lap led
15. William Byron, 38 laps led, Stage 2 winner
16. Kurt Busch, one lap led
17. Bubba Wallace, 15 laps led, Stage 1 winner
18. Denny Hamlin, nine laps led
19. Landon Cassill
20. Noah Gragson
21. Austin Cindric
22. Christopher Bell, one lap down, seven laps led
23. Brad Keselowski, one lap down
24. David Ragan, two laps down
25. JJ Yeley, three laps down, one lap led
26. BJ McLeod, 16 laps led, two laps led
27. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Accident
28. Cody Ware – OUT, Dvp
29. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident, one lap led
30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident
31. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Dvp, 28 laps led
32. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, one lap led
33. Ty Dillon – OUT, Accident
34. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident
35. Greg Biffle – OUT, Fuel pump
36. Daniel Hemric – OUT, Accident
37. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
38. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident
39. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Engine
Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone annual visit of this season at Dover Motor Speedway in Dover, Delaware, for a 400-mile feature on Sunday, May 1. The event is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.
From losing the lead to earning it back with the finish in sight, Ross Chastain etched his name as a first-time NASCAR Cup Series winner after outdueling AJ Allmendinger and Alex Bowman in an overtime attempt to capture the second annual EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, March 27.
The 29-year-old Chastain from Alva, Florida, led four times for a race-high 31 of 69 over-scheduled laps as he bumped and moved Allmendinger out of the racing groove along with Bowman to reclaim the lead that was briefly taken from him through the final two corners and recorded the long-awaited, first win in NASCAR’s premier series for himself and for Trackhouse Racing in the team’s second season in competition.
With on-track qualifying occurring on Saturday, Ryan Blaney claimed his second NASCAR Cup Series pole of the year and the eighth of his career after posting a pole-winning speed at 92,759 mph. Joining him on the front row was Daniel Suarez, who posted a fast qualifying lap at 92.741 mph.
Prior to the event, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Loris Hezemans, Boris Said, Josh Bilicki and Joey Hand dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective machines. In addition, Andy Lally was assessed a pass-through penalty at the start of the event for failing the pre-qualifying technical inspection process three times.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Blaney and Suarez dueled for the top spot through the first two turns until Blaney just managed to peak ahead entering a series of left and right-hand turns (Turns 3 through Turn 10). With the field fanning out before settling in a single-file line for the turns, Suarez then made his move beneath Blaney and took the lead in Turn 11.
Through the 3.41-mile, 20-turn circuit, and when the field returned to the start/finish line, Suarez led the first lap followed by Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Joey Logano. Denny Hamlin was in sixth ahead of rookie Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe.
During the following lap, Loris Hezemans was penalized for cutting the corners through the esses. Meanwhile, Suarez continued to lead by more than a second over Blaney while Reddick, Custer and Hamlin occupied the top five.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Suarez was leading by more than a second over Blaney followed by Reddick, Logano and Cindric while Custer, Alex Bowman, Hamlin, Haley and Ross Chastain were in the top 10. Christopher Bell was in 11th followed by teammate Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe and Kurt Busch while Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher and William Byron occupied the top 20. AJ Allmendinger, winner of Saturday’s Xfinity event in Austin, was in 21st ahead of Martin Truex Jr., Austin Dillon, rookie Todd Gilliland and Erik Jones while rookie Harrison Burton, Ty Dillon, Aric Almirola, Kaz Grala and Joey Hand were in the top 30. Michael McDowell was back in 31st ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski, Corey LaJoie, Josh Bilicki, Cody Ware, Andy Lally, Loris Hezemans and Boris Said, who was also assessed a penalty for cutting the corner.
Five laps later and by the Lap 10 mark, Suarez remained as the leader by nearly seven-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Reddick trailed by more than four seconds. Cindric was in fourth while Bowman was in fifth ahead of Logano, Custer, Chastain, Larson and Haley. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch fell all the way back to 28th after spinning his No. 18 Skittles Toyota TRD Camry in Turn 12 following contact with Chase Elliott’s No. 9 LLumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Another few laps later, pits stops under green commenced as Harvick, LaJoie, Almirola, Hamlin, Joey Hand, Allmendinger, Buescher, Kyle Busch, Truex, Bell, Wallace, Byron, McDowell, Gilliland, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, Kurt Busch and Grala pitted. Chastain, Cindric and Custer also pitted prior to pit road closing for the conclusion of the first stage. During the pit stops, Austin Dillon was penalized for an unrolled tire violation while Gilliland was also penalized for an equipment interference. Meanwhile, Suarez remained as the leader.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 15, Suarez cruised his No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to his first stage victory of the season. Blaney settled in second followed by Bowman, Logano, Larson, Haley, Elliott, Briscoe, Harrison Burton and Cindric.
Under the stage break, some led by Blaney pitted while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.
The second stage started on Lap 17 as Cindric and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric launched ahead with the top spot through the first turn while Ross Chastain challenged and overtook Reddick for second place. As the field fanned out and scrambled through the first turn, disaster struck for Daniel Suarez as he got hit and spun, thus sustaining a flat left-rear tire as he was left to limp his car back to pit road under a cautious pace. Then as the field navigated through the left and right-hand turns (Turns 3 and 10), Larson spun, but the race proceeded under green as both Larson and Suarez pitted.
Back at the front and through the long straightaway between Turns 11 and 12, Chastain and Cindric dueled dead even for the lead while Reddick lurked behind. As Chastain tried to take the lead through Turn 12, Cindric fought through Turns 13 and 14 as he retained the lead while Reddick challenged Chastain for second. Meanwhile, Hamlin moved his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry into fourth place followed by Custer, Bell, Allmendinger, Byron, Buescher and Truex.
By Lap 20, Cindric was leading by half a second over Chastain while Reddick, Hamlin and Allmendinger were in the top five. Custer was in sixth ahead of Byron, Bell, Truex and Kyle Busch. Meanwhile, McDowell was assessed a drive-through penalty through pit road for cutting a corner while Larson and Suarez were back in 33rd and 39th following their incident.
Five laps later, Cindric stabilized his advantage by six-tenths of a second over Chastain while Allmendinger, Reddick and Hamlin occupied the top five. By then. Cody Ware and Loris Hezemans were penalized for cutting the course.
Nearing the Lap 30 mark and the conclusion of the second stage, another round of pit stops under green commenced as Buescher pitted along with Bell, Truex, Erik Jones, Harvick, Elliott, Bowman, Briscoe, Haley, Joey Hand, Larson, LaJoie, Gilliland and McDowell. Meanwhile, Chastain issued another on-track challenge on Cindric for the lead entering Turn 11. Just as Chastain used the outside lane to overtake Cindric for the lead entering Turn 19, both pitted along with Reddick, Allmendinger, Byron. During the pit stops, LaJoie and Byron were both penalized for speeding on pit road.
Back on track, Hamlin, who came into this weekend in 25th place in the standings, inherited the lead followed by teammate Kyle Busch and Logano
When the second stage concluded on Lap 30, Hamlin notched his first stage victory of the season. Teammate Kyle Busch settled in second ahead of Logano, Blaney, Almirola, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Chastain, Cindric and Bubba Wallace.
Under the stage break, some led by Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Team Penske’s Logano and Blaney remained on the track. During the pit stops, Ty Dillon was penalized for improper fueling.
With 36 laps remaining, the final stage started under green. At the start and with the field fanning out, Logano bobbled and locked up the brakes of his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang entering the first turn as he went off the course, which allowed Chastain to rocket back to the lead followed by Allmendinger, Cindric and Reddick while Blaney fell back to fifth.
A lap later, Cindric, who was in third place, spun his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang off the front nose of Reddick’s No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 10 and was narrowly dodged by the field as the race proceeded under green. In addition, Joey Hand spun in Turn 1 following contact with Almirola. Not long after, however, the caution flew due to debris reported in Turn 11. By then, Chastain was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Allmendinger.
Under caution, names like Logano, Cindric, Stenhouse, Grala, Cody Ware and Joey Hand pitted while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track. During the pit stops, Stenhouse was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 32 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Chastain fended off Allmendinger through the first turn to retain the lead while the field fanned out entering the second turns and the series of left and right-hand turns. As the field continued to scramble for positions entering Turns 10, 11 and 12, Briscoe moved into third place followed by Reddick and Blaney while Elliott started to make his charge to the front in sixth place.
When the field returned to the start/finish line, Chastain continued to lead by half a second over ex-teammate Allmendinger followed by Briscoe, Reddick and Elliott. Meanwhile, Blaney was in sixth ahead of Custer, Truex, Bowman and Larson as the field continued to duke for positions.
Then with 28 laps remaining, the caution returned when Erik Jones stalled his No. 43 Focus Factor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 11 as he needed a wrecker to return to pit road. Earlier, Christopher Bell pitted and had the hood of his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry up as his crew went to work to diagnose steering issues.
Under caution, the entire field pitted and Chastain exited with the top spot followed by Briscoe, Reddick, Bowman, Allmendinger and Kyle Busch.
Down to the final 25 scheduled laps, the race restarted under green At the start, Chastain dueled with Briscoe and briefly went off the course with Briscoe in Turn 1 until Chastain retained the lead entering Turn 2 and through the series of left and right-hand turns (Turns 3 through 10). Then in Turn 11, Briscoe moved his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang out in front of Chastain’s No. 1 ONX Homes/iFly Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 until Chastain fought back from Turns 12 to Turn 19. Meanwhile, Logano spun in Turn 12.
Back at the front in Turn 20, both Chastain and Briscoe remained dead even until Briscoe managed to clear Chastain entering the first turn. Not long after, however, the caution returned when the left-rear wheel off of Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Leidos Toyota TRD Camry came off, resulting with Wallace stopping on track in Turn 17 and needing assistance to return to pit road.
Under caution, some like Logano pitted while the rest led by Briscoe remained on the track.
With 22 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green. At the start and with the field fanning out, Briscoe retained the lead through the first turn ahead of Chastain while Allmendinger was in third ahead of Reddick. Then in Turn 11, Chastain made his move and overtook Briscoe for the lead while Allmendinger quickly challenged Briscoe for the runner-up spot.
Under the final 20 scheduled laps, Chastain was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Briscoe while third-place Allmendinger trailed by more than a second. Meanwhile, Reddick and Kyle Busch battled for fourth place until the latter prevailed while Bowman also moved into the top five. Elliott, Cindric, Hamlin and Truex were in the top 10 followed by Larson, Blaney, Harvick, Byron, Custer, McDowell, Austin Dillon, Haley, Almirola and Stenhouse.
A few laps later, Ty Dillon spun in Turn 11 while Boris Said was penalized for cutting the course. Back at the front of the field, Chastain continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Briscoe, who started to close in on Chastain for the top spot, while third-place Allmendinger trailed by more than a second.
A lap later, Briscoe briefly went off course in Turn 11, which allowed Allmendinger to move into second place while Chastain continued to lead. Bowman remained in fourth place while teammate Elliott was in fifth following an earlier battle with Kyle Busch. In addition, Reddick was back in seventh ahead of Cindric, Blaney and Larson.
Then with 15 laps remaining, the caution flew when Stenhouse’s No. 47 SunnyD Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came to a stop past Turn 11. Prior to the caution, names like Truex, Harvick, Almirola, Custer, LaJoie, Grala, Ty Dillon and Erik Jones pitted.
Under caution, some like Hamlin, Gilliland, Larson, Kurt Busch, Byron, Austin Dillon, Logano, Brad Keselowski and Bilicki pitted while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track.
Down to the final 12 scheduled laps, the race restarted under green. At the start, Briscoe bolted his car beneath Chastain’s in a three-wide bid for the lead while Allmendinger challenged on the outside lane. Chastain, however, fought back as he retained the lead entering the second turn while Reddick rocketed to second place. Then through the series of left and right-hand turns (Turns 3 to 10), Briscoe went off the course and was initially penalized for his maneuver as he blended back in seventh place behind Kyle Busch. After NASCAR deemed that he was forced off the course, however, the penalty was withdrawn.
Back at the front, Chastain remained as the leader over Reddick, Allmendinger and the field that continued to scatter and jostle for positions. Behind, Cindric and Grala spun in Turn 11. While the race remained under green following Cindric’s incident, the caution returned when fluid was reported on the frontstretch.
Under caution, Briscoe pitted from seventh place for four fresh tires along with Harrison Burton and Cindric while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track.
With nine laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start and through the uphill climb to the first turn, Chastain managed to fend off Allmendinger by the end of Turn 2, even running him off the racing groove, to retain the lead while Cole Custer spun. Following the series of left and right-hand turns (Turns 3 through Turn 10), Joey Hand collided into Hamlin in Turn 11, sending Hamlin around. Five turns later, Grala sent Almirola sideways. In spite of all the incidents, the race remained under green.
Back at the front, Chastain was leading by two-tenths of a second over Allmendinger while Reddick was in third place ahead of Elliott and Bowman. Behind, Kyle Busch was in sixth ahead of Blaney, Truex, Bell and McDowell. While Allmendinger kept occupying Chastain’s rear view mirrors to close-quarters racing, Chastain was able to maintain the lead and not let his former teammate overtake him.
Just then, the caution flew with six laps remaining due to Loris Hezemans coming to a stop in Turn 3. At the moment of caution, Chastain had managed to maintain a steady advantage over Allmendinger.
Down to the final three laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Chastain and Allmendinger dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Reddick made a bold three-wide move through the first turn to take the lead. Shortly after, however, the caution returned and the race was sent into overtime due to a wreck that involved Kurt Busch, Larson and Logano in Turn 2.
At the start of the first overtime attempt and with the field fanning out up the hill, Chastain reassumed the lead and Allmendinger moved into second place followed by Bowman while Reddick fell back to fourth. Behind, the field scrambled for positions.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Chastain was leading by nearly a second over Allmendinger while third-place Bowman trailed by more than a second. Through the esses and Turn 11, Chastain maintained the lead despite having Allmendinger and Bowman close in for the lead and the win. Behind, Kyle Busch spun through the esses while the race proceeded under green.
Then in Turn 12, Allmendinger gained a huge run to pull himself behind Chastain’s bumper. After Chastain briefly went wide in Turns 13 and 14, Allmendinger seized an opportunity through Turns 15 and 16 and ran into the rear of Chastain, which sent Chastain wide as Allmendinger took the lead while Bowman challenged Chastain for the runner-up spot.
Through Turns 17 and 18, Chastain bumped Allmendinger as Bowman bolted his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the lead. With Bowman in brief control, Chastain bumped and got Allmendinger loose as he came darting into Bowman and both collided in Turn 19, resulting with Allmendinger spinning and Bowman running off the course. This allowed Chastain to reassume the lead entering Turn 20. With no competition lurking behind, Chastain was able to navigate his way through the final frontstretch and claim the first checkered flag for himself and for Trackhouse Racing owned by Justin Marks and Pitbull in NASCAR’s premier series.
With the victory, Chastain, who came into Austin with three consecutive top-three results, became the 201st different competitor to win a NASCAR Cup Series event along with becoming the third first-time winner and the sixth different winner through the first six scheduled events of the 2022 Cup season. He also became the 39th different competitor to achieve a victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Camping World Truck, Xfinity and Cup) with his last victory occurring at Pocono Raceway in the Truck Series in July 2019. In addition to the driver and organization, the Austin victory produced a first NASCAR win for crew chief Phil Surgen.
Upon returning to the frontstretch for his victorious burnout and salute to the fans, Chastain reignited his trademark victory by smashing a watermelon before being greeted by team owner Justin Marks.
“That’s insane to go up against some of the best with AJ [Allmendinger],” Chastain said on FOX. “I know he’s gonna be upset with me, but we raced hard. Both of us. He owes me one, but when it comes to a Cup win, man, I can’t let that go down without a fight…People don’t know how good this group is. I can’t believe [owner] Justin Marks hired me to drive this car.”
“[The watermelon]’s never tasted sweeter, I gotta tell you,” Chastain added. “I don’t know. I don’t know how we got back by. I was so worried about AJ on the second-to-last restart that I let Tyler [Reddick] drive by both of us. AJ’s so good. I’ve learned so much from him. And then it was like, ‘How do I go beat the guy?’ He taught me so much. I’ve learned so much from so many people…It crossed my mind like we’re not gonna win. We’re on old tires, but I couldn’t think that way. I thought neutral. Chevrolet and everything they do for me, gave me the tools to try to go and execute and we did it.”
In the midst of the chaos, Bowman came home in second place, more than a second behind Chastain, while Allmendinger ended up in 33rd place following his spin.
“We had a really fast Ally Camaro,” Bowman said. “I’ve really been trying to do a better job as a race car driver at these road courses and I felt like from where we started in the weekend, I accomplished that. Proud of [crew chief] Greg [Ives] and all the guys. [I] Hate that we didn’t come away with the win, but happy for Ross getting his first win. It’s been a crap weekend, so I’m ready to get home and see [my] dogs and move on to next weekend. Glad to come away with a second-place finish.”
“At the end of the day, we all gotta look at ourselves in the mirror and if you’re okay with it, you’re okay with it,” Allmendinger said. “Each person’s different. More than anything, proud of Kaulig Racing. The Action Industry Chevy was so fast. I think if we could’ve had just a long run, nobody was gonna touch us. Pit stops were great. Everybody at Kaulig Racing, all the men and women. It’s just lot of sleepless nights for them right now trying to just get these cars to the next race. I was doing everything I could to try to sweep the weekend for them. We were that close. At the end of the day, each person’s gotta make the move that they’re comfortable with and that’s fine. At the end of the day, we know we had a shot to win the race. It’s tough to win a Cup race, so when you put yourself on a position to legitimately run upfront all day and have a shot to win it, it’s a pretty great day. Unfortunately, I needed about two more corners.”
Christopher Bell, who came into Circuit of the Americas in 29th place in the standings and with a best on-track result of 10th place, notched his first top-five result in third place while Elliott and Reddick finished in the top five.
Blaney, Truex, Cindric, Erik Jones and Austin Dillon recorded top-10 results.
There were 13 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 13 laps.
With his fourth-place result, Chase Elliott continues to lead the regular season standings by 13 over Ryan Blaney, 23 over Joey Logano, 25 over Alex Bowman, 28 over Ross Chastain and 33 over William Byron.
Results.
1. Ross Chastain, 31 laps led
2. Alex Bowman
3. Christopher Bell
4. Chase Elliott
5. Tyler Reddick, two laps led
6. Ryan Blaney, one lap led
7. Martin Truex Jr.
8. Austin Cindric, 11 laps led
9. Erik Jones
10. Austin Dillon
11. Kevin Harvick
12. William Byron
13. Michael McDowell
14. Brad Keselowski
15. Justin Haley
16. Todd Gilliland
17. Harrison Burton
18. Denny Hamlin, three laps led, Stage 2 winner
19. Aric Almirola
20. Ty Dillon
21. Chris Buescher
22. Josh Bilicki
23. Cole Custer
24. Daniel Suarez, 15 laps led, Stage 1 winner
25. Kaz Grala
26. Boris Said
27. Cody Ware
28. Kyle Busch
29. Kyle Larson
30. Chase Briscoe, two laps led
31. Joey Logano, two laps led
32. Kurt Busch
33. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down, two laps led
34. Loris Hezemans – OUT, Rear gear
35. Joey Hand – OUT, Suspension
36. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Engine
37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Drivetrain
38. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Suspension
39. Andy Lally – OUT, Suspension
Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Richmond Raceway for a 400-mile feature in Richmond, Virginia. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, April 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Trackhouse Entertainment Group and Trackhouse Racing announced Wednesday afternoon the purchase of Chip Ganassi Racing’s NASCAR operation. The acquisition will be effective at the end of the 2021 season.
Daniel Suárez, who has three top-10 finishes this season, will continue with the team next year in the NASCAR Cup Series and a second driver will be named at a later date.
The announcement was made by Trackhouse team president Ty Norris and Trackhouse Entertainment Group founder, Justin Marks. Co-owner, Pitbull, formally known as Armando Perez, was not present for the announcement.
“This process took several weeks and I want to thank Chip for being so open and candid with me every step of the journey,” Marks said. “Chip has built an iconic motorsports empire and the Ganassi brand is globally recognized as a winner in the auto racing industry. It is truly an honor that we can build from that foundation.”
Although Chip Ganassi said that his team was not for sale, the offer was appealing for a number of reasons.
“I think this is a great day for NASCAR as it seems like there are so many people that are wanting to get into the sport as owners – Michael Jordan, Pitbull, Denny and plenty of others. They are bringing new perspective, vision and insight which is great for the sport.
“Justin simply came to me with a great offer and an even better vision. As everyone knows, I care deeply for my employees so selling to someone like Justin, who is part of the CGR family, made the reality of selling much easier. He knows our organization and the people. That gives me comfort.”
Ganassi will continue to be involved in racing, stating, “Everyone needs to know that I am still completely dedicated to the motorsports industry and will continue to run my other teams in INDYCAR, IMSA and Extreme E with the same enthusiasm that I always have.”
Marks confirmed that the new team will operate out of Ganassi’s current race shop in 2022.
