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Following the conclusion of the 68-lap race at Circuit of the Americas, it was clear that Daniel Suarez was not happy.
Fans could clearly see Suarez racing through the field after the checkered flag had flown just in time to give his teammate in Ross Chastain a little shot to move him out of the way before really nailing the rear-end of Bowman’s No. 48 on pit road.
So, what happened? Why was Suarez so upset with Bowman and also his teammate in Ross Chastain? Let’s break it down.
Before we discuss the inciting incident, we should first note that Daniel Suarez was having a stellar race. He was running in the top-5 almost all day and was on track to finish fourth or fifth if seemingly endless GWC’s didn’t continue to bunch the field up and delay the inevitable fourth career win for Tyler Reddick.
Suarez had to be feeling pretty darn good about his position. But, as with so many other hopefuls in the closing laps of that race, all his efforts in keeping a clean race car and surviving to the end to bring home a respectable finish went up in smoke.
As you can see in the video above, going into the hairpin angle of turn number 1, Suarez’s Trackhouse teammate drove in deep and made contact with Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevy. This sent Bowman into Suarez in a chain reaction of events. Suarez got into Martin Truex Jr. and caused a slight log jam.
After running up front almost all day, Suarez was relegated to a 27th place finish. This made Suarez pretty angry in regards to the senselessness of how drivers were racing that day and, after the checkered flag fell, he decided to show his displeasure on pit road, first using his car as a weapon as seen in the video atop the page and then with some heated words.
We’ll likely never know what was said between the two Trackhouse teammates here. All we really know at this time is that Chastain overdrove a corner, as he tends to do, which led him getting into Bowman which led Bowman to getting into Suarez, so on and so forth.
Chastain attempted to justify his aggressive racing with the video clip below.
After his actions on pit road, if NASCAR is consistent, Daniel Suarez should be looking at a monetary fine and possibly a points penalty. There were media personnel and NASCAR officials on pit road at the time of his tantrum and his actions were pretty dangerous.
Let us at the Daily Downforce know if you think Suarez has a reason to be upset with Chastain and Bowman or if you think he was overreacting. Do you think a penalty of some sort is justified? Let us know!
