Daniel Suarez Defends Himself Over ‘Intentional Wreck’ Claim Over Tyler Reddick Incident at Richmond

Daniel Suarez and Tyler Reddick was involved in a dramatic clash at Richmond Raceway that cost the 23XI Racing driver the win.

Daniel Suarez Defends Himself Over ‘Intentional Wreck’ Claim Over Tyler Reddick Incident at Richmond

Daniel Suarez and Tyler Reddick (Via IMAGO)

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The NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond witnessed just a handful of cautions, but one of them changed the whole dynamic of the race. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who won stage one, had one of the fastest cars of the day and was on his way to win the race, before midway to the Cook Out 400 an incident caused by Daniel Suarez cost him big time.

The No:99 Chevy of Daniel Suarez found himself racing behind a slow Ty Gibbs, who was on a different tire strategy and made contact with him. Joe Gibbs Racing No:54 Camry lost its balance and got into contact with the No:45 Toyota, sending him to the wall, causing significant damages to the car and ruining his chances.

NASCAR racing community didn’t like the incident and called out Daniel Suarez. The Mexican-American understood the response to his actions and defended himself on his post-race interview. He insisted that the wreck wasn’t intentional and put some blame of the Ty Gibbs, claiming the youngster slowed way too much than expected.

I mean, I feel bad for the 45, I think it was. It really wasn’t intentional; the last thing I wanted was to crash him for no reason. The 54 already had older tires, and at that point, it’s a two, three-second difference, you know? And when he went to the bottom, he slowed down way more than I anticipated.

Daniel Suárez said after the race, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.

Further talking about the point, the Trackhouse Racing driver admitted that the force he used while bumping the JGR driver was a little too much and how that resulted in the race getting ruined for the 23XI Racing driver. The Chevy driver feels bad for the incident that was the caused by his attempt to buy more time for himself.

SO, I bumped him a little bit to get some room. But just maybe a little bit too hard of a bump for the tires that he had. He got a wiggle, and then he ended up spinning out the 45, which really wasn’t intentional. Feel bad for that, but yeah, just a bad situation there. Just trying to make as much time as possible.

Daniel Suárez added.

Tyler Reddick sarcastically thanked Daniel Suarez for the race result

On his post-race interview Tyler Reddick addressed the incident and the comments from Daniel Suárez. He admitted that he expected an incident to happen in the situation, as the Trackhouse driver had caused similar incidents in the past. He isn’t sure the racer wanted to wreck him intentionally.  

Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick
Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick (Via IMAGO)

I thought I had a feeling that was what was going to happen. I was just hoping that, you know, more respect was going to be given. But yeah, I mean, he went in there, he moved the No. 54. I don’t know if he meant for it to wreck me, but nonetheless, I feel like time and time again, you know, Daniel’s done that type of thing.

Tyler Reddick said.

In the same conversation, he went onto sarcastically thank Daniel Suarez for changing the race for him. He also admitted to being disappointed with the fact that he finished multiple laps down like all three of his teammates, due to this incident.

It’s pretty much the worst-case scenario for us when you have a Camry as fast as ours. You need to score the points… So yeah, all in all, it was pretty much the worst-case scenario. Yeah, we can thank Daniel Suarez for that.

Tyler Reddick added.

The 2025 season so far hasn’t been kind to the ex-Xfinity Series champion, who hasn’t won a single race yet this year. He has secured a spot in the playoff on points, if he hadn’t, the response after the wreck would have features much more furious comments.

Also Read: Denny Hamlin Declares Next-Gen Cars Made Luck More Irrelevant in NASCAR