Daniel Suarez Needs Solid Effort In Bank Of America ROVAL 400 To Advance In Playoffs

Daniel Suarez Needs Solid Effort In Bank Of America ROVAL 400 To Advance In Playoffs

by October 8, 2022 0 comments

CONCORD, N.C. – Daniel Suarez needs a solid day at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL to advance to the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Playoffs.

The Trackhouse Racing driver enters Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 eighth in the standings, just 12 points ahead of Chase Briscoe who is currently the first driver out. Chaos in the standings ensured after the NASCAR Playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway, when William Byron was docked 25 points for spinning Denny Hamlin out under caution. The controversary completely changed the NASCAR Playoff standings; however, just prior to the race weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Byron won his appeal and regained his lost 25 points, placing him back above the cutline in seventh, 14 points to the good. As a result, bubble drivers, such as Suarez and Briscoe are back to fighting for their Championship hopes.

“For me honestly right now, before the whole points situation that happened to them (No. 24 team), nothing has changed,” Suarez said. “The only thing that’s changed is that position. But points-wise, it’s exactly the same. We just have to go out there and do our thing.”

Trackhouse Racing has had a solid road course effort this season. In fact, earlier this season, Suarez earned his first-career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Sonoma Raceway. Suarez has historically struggled at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in the NASCAR Cup Series, but ever since he joined Trackhouse Racing, his performance has improved at the road course. Last year, he finished 13th, and this year, he has kicked off the race weekend fifth fastest in practice, and the Mexican native will start the fourth race at the ROVAL in the third position following a stout qualifying effort. Despite the points situation this weekend, Suarez believes that if his team can focus on themselves, they’ll be just fine.

“We just have to go out there and do our thing,” Suarez said. “We have a very, very good program when it comes to road course racing. We have shown that in the past. We have to go out there, have fun and do things no different than any of the other road course races that we have done. Yeah, we definitely aren’t in a comfortable points position like some of the other guys, but I think we’re going to be good. I do believe that putting yourself in this position heading into a road course, I see this as an opportunity. I think that we’re going to perform well and I think we’re going to be able to do our thing this weekend and put ourselves on the good side of the points.”

The NextGen’s safety has been called into question lately by several drivers in the garage; however, Suarez hasn’t been one of the drivers publicly speaking out. He believes that people need to work together because everyone in the industry is in the “same boat”.

“We have to go there and do most of the listening because, let’s face it, we’re race car drivers, but we’re not safety people,” Suarez said. “The only thing that we know is that it hurts when we wreck. That’s all we know. There are a lot of smart people working very, very hard to make these cars better and better, and I’m sure we’re going to get there. We just have to work together. We have to remember and remind ourselves that we’re all in the same boat on this journey. If we’re fighting with each other, we’re going to go nowhere and the boat is going to go down. We have to continue to work and get this boat moving forward.”

The Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will broadcast live on NBC and PRN on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com

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