Heartbroken pole-sitter Daniel Suarez claims he was always one step behind race leaders at Indy
Daniel Suarez has a solid shot at making the playoff on points.
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Daniel Suarez (Credits: @TrackhouseRacing/Twitter)
Trackhouse Racing’s Mexican driver Daniel Suarez had a solid shot at a win and playoff berth at Indy but failed to do so following better execution from his rivals. Suarez started the race on pole but lost the lead earlier in the race to the eventual winner Michael McDowell. He finished the race at P3 behind Chase Elliott at P2.
After a poor start to the race on stage one, the No:99 team returned strongly by first nudging Elliott on the way to secure P2 and then taking back the lead just before pitting on lap 50 under the green flag. Suarez entered the pits as race leader with No:9 Chevy and No:37 Ford behind him but exited last after the air hose caught below his car. The time lost was enough for the front two to secure a big gap on him.
While talking about the results after the race, Suarez said he had a fast car, but they were behind one adjustment in the earlier stages. He added that they were behind Elliott and McDowell the whole day, and the pit stop issue broke his heart a bit as it came when a car came alive—Suarez promised to continue pushing in the upcoming races.
“I mean, we win, and we lose as a team, and that’s all I can say. The guys brought a very fast race car. I felt that maybe we were one adjustment behind in the first run with the back of the car, but then we made it a little bit better,” Suarez said, as reported by Motorsports.Com.
“But I felt like I was always one step behind (Elliott) and (McDowell), and then at the end, I felt that when my car came alive again, we had that issue. A little bit heartbreaking. That’s part of the sport. All we can do is continue to push, continue to build race cars like this, and I’ll keep on winning races,” Suarez added.
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Daniel Suarez promises a strong comeback
Suarez, who won the Sonoma road course race last season, pointed out that they lacked a bit at Indy and said he was much stronger on Saturday. He promised to analyze what went wrong for them on Sunday and come back stronger in Watkins Glen next Sunday.
“We can perform, I think, even better. I felt like (Saturday) we were very strong, and today we were strong. We were lacking a little bit; I didn’t like the first half of the race. But I’m pretty sure we’re going to go back, analyze everything, and come back stronger next week,” Suarez said.
The Trackhouse driver is 28 points off the playoff cutoff line after the two back-to-back top 5 finishes. He needs to either secure a win or continue the front-row finishing streak in the coming races at Glen and Daytona to secure the playoff over Bubba Wallace.
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Justin P Joy
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