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While Daniel Suarez’s win at Atlanta was huge, Freddie Kraft was not particularly impressed by the win, attributing it to “Circumstances”. This angered Suarez’s fiance Julia Piquet, who quickly fired back at Kraft with a Clown Emoji. What is the whole story between Piquet and Freddie Kraft?
The inciting incident in this social media drama came from the most recent episode of “Door, Bumper Clear”, where Freddie Kraft gave a somewhat backhanded compliment to Suarez for his win. While Kraft credited Suarez for the win, Kraft also called it “circumstantial”.
I don’t want to take anything away cuz I thought he did a good job. I don’t think he had the fastest car. I think he was the one of the most aggressive guys at the end, and that’s what got him the win. It’s still circumstantial. He’s one Bubba Wallace push away from you winning that race, so third place ain’t saving his job.
Freddie Kraft
The margin for error in instances like that is indeed so unbelievably small. If Ryan Blaney or Kyle Busch get the right push off of turn four or Suarez makes a small bobble, Blaney or Busch surge ahead by a couple of feet to take the win. However, Suarez is the one who ended up with the win at the end of the day.
This was also a part of a larger discussion surrounding Suarez’s job security. Both Kraft and Brett Griffin mentioned that they are unsure that the win solidified Suarez’s job security. For a more in-depth analysis of that context, read the article below.
Julia Piquet did not take kindly to the comments. She fired back by alluding to the “Car control” and the “talent” it took for the drivers both throughout that race and the last lap.
In fairness to Piquet, handling was a major issue all throughout the race, and the cars were horrendously unstable. There were plenty of incidents that were incited by how unstable the cars were. This included Kyle Busch spinning Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano’s crash at the end of stage two, and Brad Keselowski’s crash in the final stage. All of these are included in the post-race highlights below.
This was not a typical Daytona or Talladega race with maximum grip where drivers were flat out with no handling issues at all. The drivers truly had to manage poor handling of race cars throughout the event.
Kraft responded to Piquet on Twitter. Kraft seemed to not back down from any of the comments that he made, but, are they accurate?
In his first point, he seems to deflect that he is doing this against Suarez and Suarez alone. In fairness, he did qualify his initial comments by saying that Suarez did a “Good job”.
He stood on his comments that the win was “Circumstantial” because he claims that all superspeedway races are dependent on what happens behind the winner. While claiming that every race is that way is quite extreme, superspeedway races often come down to what happens behind the leader.
Look at the finish of the 2024 Daytona 500 as an example. William Byron won that race because of an accident he had nothing to do with and a caution that came out at the perfect time.
As far as his third point about a traditional intermediate track taking more “Talent” to drive, that’s a bit foggier. Atlanta last weekend was a menace to drive for all involved because of how unstable the cars were and how little grip there was. They had to drive these cars in a sprawling pack of 20-30 cars at the time.
That doesn’t mean that 1.5-mile tracks are not tough to drive. These tracks require drivers to work the throttle and brakes through the turns to keep the car going straight while being on the absolute edge of control. Does it take more “Talent” than it does to race at Atlanta though? Freddie Kraft has never driven a Cup Series car, so, this opinion can probably be taken with a grain of salt.
The debate continues to rage on about Suarez’s win at Atlanta. Did it save his job, and will he parlay that into a better season? Those questions will slowly be answered as the season rolls on.
