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Daniel Suarez was victorious in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday in the second road course race of 2022. It was the 30-year-old's first win of his Cup Series career.
Suarez is the first Mexican-born driver and fifth foreign-born driver to win a Cup Series race.
Suarez dominated the final stage and outlasted Chris Buescher and Michael McDowell to earn the victory, which clinched him a spot in the playoffs.
Suarez's Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain took the win at the first road course race of the season at Circuit of the Americas in March.
Here's a look at the top 10 finishers from Sunday's race, as well as a recap of the action.
Toyota/Save Mart 350 Results
1. Daniel Suarez
2. Chris Buescher
3. Michael McDowell
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Austin Cindric
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Ross Chastain
8. Chase Elliott
9. William Byron
10. Brad Keselowski
Full leaderboard available at NASCAR's official site
The race began with an early caution flag as Bubba Wallace had some engine issues that knocked him out after 10 laps.
The road course at Sonoma Raceway was unkind to the drivers, as many of them knew early on that their tires would be tested.
One driver who didn't face any early adversity was Kyle Larson. He led the first 25 laps and won the first stage. He decided not to pit after the stage but quickly fell out of the lead.
Chase Elliott, who was the pre-race favorite to win, took an early lead in the second stage. But a mistake during a pitstop caused him to have to reverse after he initially took off, and he didn't get all the way back into the box. Elliott was penalized for pitting outside the box, which pretty much derailed his chances at a victory.
Despite some minor trouble here and there for other drivers, Stage 2 was fairly clean with no caution flags coming out. Joey Logano eventually won the stage.
At the start of the third stage, Suarez seized an early lead by passing Buescher. An early spin-out by Tyler Reddick initially looked dire, but the race stayed green.
The second caution flag of the day finally came out midway through the final stage when Larson's right front tire flew off his car. His crew chief and two crew members will receive four-week suspensions for the costly blunder.
After the restart, Suarez regained the lead and never relinquished it. He led the race for a total of 47 laps. He's the fourth driver to earn his first win in the 2022 season.
The drivers will now turn their attention to next Sunday's Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. It will be a marathon of a race, set for 300 laps and 399 miles.
The NASCAR All-Star Open is the final mode of qualification for the NASCAR All-Star Race.
The Open takes place on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway as a prelude to the All-Star event.
Four drivers from the Open field will land in the All-Star Race through two different qualification methods.
The three stage winners from the competition itself will move on to the All-Star Race. A fan vote determines the final entrant into the All-Star field.
The Open field comprises drivers who did not win a race over the last year and have not been champions of the NASCAR Cup Series or the All-Star Race.
Tyler Reddick is the only driver who won a stage of the Open last season who is back to qualify out of the last-chance qualifier again.
Reddick and his Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon should be viewed as the favorites to advance out of the Open because they have two of the strongest cars in the field.
NASCAR All-Star Open Info
Date: Sunday, May 22
Start Time: 5:30 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Live Stream: FoxSports.com and Fox Sports app
Entry List
Austin Dillon
Tyler Reddick
Corey LaJoie
Garrett Smithley
Chris Buescher
Harrison Burton
Justin Haley
Todd Gilliland
Cole Custer
Ty Dillon
Erik Jones
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Cody Ware
Landon Cassill
B.J. McLeod
Daniel Suarez
Preview
The NASCAR All-Star Open essentially has three different sprint races to earn qualification into the All-Star Race, which takes place later on Sunday night at Texas Motor Speedway.
The first two stages will last 20 laps. The final stage is just 10 laps. The winners of the three stages move into the All-Star Race.
Winning the fan vote is the only other way a driver can get into the All-Star Race if he does not win an Open stage.
Tyler Reddick was one of three stage winners during last year's Open. That is the only history we can really use to predict Saturday's results. The All-Star Race is in its second year at Texas.
Ross Chastain and Aric Almirola, who are both in the All-Star field, won the other two stages of the Open last May.
The racing throughout the Open will be tight since one mistake can drop a driver away from the leading pack and ruin his Saturday night.
Getting to the front is imperative for the Open drivers since Texas has been a tough track to consistently pass at.
The starting order for the Open will be determined by single-car, one-lap qualifying prior to the race. The top finishers in qualifying should be viewed as the favorites to advance.
Reddick and Austin Dillon are two of the most notable names in the Open field. Both drivers have won Cup Series races in the past, and they should be competitive at the front of the group.
The Richard Childress Racing teammates have the most NASCAR Cup Series points of any Open participants.
Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez are the only other Open competitors in the top 20 of the Cup Series points standings. Jones and Suarez are expected to be competitive for qualification spots as well.
There is always the potential for a surprise to occur, especially with the stages being so short, but we are more than likely going to see at least two of Dillon, Reddick, Jones and Suarez advance to the All-Star Race.
Mr. 305 is out to prove he can conquer tracks as well as he can lay them down.
Recording artist Pitbull is now the co-owner of NASCAR's Trackhouse Racing Team, joining Justin Marks in the endeavor. The rapper, whose real name is Armando Christian Perez, tweeted that he's been a fan of stock car racing since he first watched the 1990 Tom Cruise film, Days of Thunder.
Trackhouse driver Daniel Suarez was among the first to congratulate his new boss on Twitter, while accounts across the sport shared their excitement.
Pitbull has appeared and performed at many NASCAR and racing events over the years. Now he'll have a permanent spot to watch the races from pit lane.
"Pitbull is an iconic talent in the music industry and has tremendous passion for NASCAR racing," NASCAR said in a statement. "We look forward to working with him to further engage diverse audiences and introduce new fans to our great sport.”
Marks and Pitbull say they will also collaborate on Trackhouse's philanthropic efforts to further NASCAR-themed STEM education initiatives within inner-city charter schools through their partnership.
NASCAR driver Daniel Suarez is hoping to play a role in making the top stock-car racing association in the world more inclusive moving forward.
In an interview with TMZ Sports, Suarez talked about his desire to get more Latinos involved in NASCAR and motorsports as a whole:
"I want be successful but [I also want to] make a path for more Latinos," Suarez said. "The sport is amazing, we just have to make it for everyone."
Suarez, who is a native of Mexico and the only Latino driver in NASCAR's Cup Series, said he has been inspired by Bubba Wallace's attempts to create diversity within NASCAR.
Wallace is the only black driver in any of NASCAR's three national series, and he has recently used his voice to help influence some big changes within NASCAR.
Most notably, NASCAR announced last week that Confederate flags will be banned from all tracks moving forward after Wallace publicly expressed his belief that the flags had no place in NASCAR. Wallace also used a "Black Lives Matter" paint scheme for his car after the killing of 46-year-old George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Wallace's efforts have seemingly already started to pay dividends, as New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara attended Sunday's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway following the Confederate flag ban.
Suarez suggested that Wallace's actions have served as an inspiration to him: "I'm really proud of him for everything that he has done for taking leadership on this situation. I don't feel like many people in his shoes would've done the same. He's done a great job."
The 28-year-old Suarez drives the No. 96 car for Gaunt Brothers Racing in the Cup Series, and he has enjoyed his fair share of success in NASCAR since breaking in during the 2014 season.
Suarez won the Xfinity Series points title in 2016 and is a three-time race winner in the Xfinity Series, and although he has never won a Cup Series race, he has 32 top-10 finishes on his resume.
As he and Wallace continue competing and pushing for more diversity in NASCAR, Suarez is hopeful that the sport will have a far different look in the not-too-distant future: "We're slowly moving the needle and hopefully five to 10 years from now, we see a lot of more Latinos on the race track. Not just fans but also drivers, pit crews, mechanics, African Americans and all kinds of people."
The final two participants for the 2019 NASCAR Monster Energy Series postseason will be determined at one of the most famous venues in motor sports.
Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson have the potential to clinch playoff berths on points, while any driver beneath them in the standings could qualify with a victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
A week ago at Darlington, Erik Jones won to secure his spot alongside Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick and others.
Sunday presents the competitors with a unique situation since qualifying occurs the morning of the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard.
NASCAR at Indianapolis Information
Start Time: 2 p.m. ET
TV: NBC
Ticket Info: Available tickets can be found on StubHub.
Bowyer enters the Brickyard with the best chance to secure a playoff position without taking first place.
According to NASCAR.com's clinching scenarios, the driver of the No. 14 car needs 48 points and a new winner, or 46 points if a previous race champion crosses the finish line in the top spot.
Bowyer and his Stewart-Haas Racing team have confidence going into Sunday because of a fifth-place finish in 2018, as he noted to Motorsport.com's Jim Utter.
"It's all lining up to be a really big weekend, between racing at a place like Indianapolis and for as high of stakes as we are racing for," Bowyer said. "It's pretty clear cut what we have to do if we want to get into the playoffs.
"We are confident," Bowyer said. "We ran well at Indy last year and we'll need to do it again. This is what the playoff format was designed to do."
The 40-year-old holds an eight-point advantage over Suarez and Newman, who both have to gain 54 to go along with a repeat winner to land in the playoffs.
Jimmie Johnson lies 18 back of the pair, and he needs help from all around the field to join the 16-man playoff if he fails to come out on top.
The seven-time series champion has not won in 84 races, but there are some younger competitors rooting for the No. 48 car to enter Victory Lane, per NBC Sports' Dustin Long.
"I would like to see him just win to shut everyone up," Kyle Larson said. "When you are watching somebody like that dominate, you never expect to see them in this position, being winless for as long as he's been, at risk of not making the playoffs and having a chance to win the championship."
The good news for Johnson is Hendrick Motorsports has the most NASCAR victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he has captured the crown on four occasions.
If the driver and crew of the No. 48 car conjure up some of the Hendrick magic at the Brickyard, Johnson could slide into the field while knocking out a few drivers ahead of him.
There are plenty of racers already locked into the playoffs capable of finishing the regular season in first, and in turn, they could make the last two spots come down to points.
Brad Keselowski is the defending champion at the Brickyard. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. all have a quartet of victories in 2019.
If a playoff driver finds Victory Lane, the drama will shift to track positioning and possibly some risky racing from the other postseason hopefuls.
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Statistics obtained from NASCAR.com
Daniel Suarez had an excellent qualifying run at Kentucky Speedway on Friday and won the pole for Saturday's Quaker State 400.
This will be Suarez's second career start from the front of the pack. He'll be joined in the front row by Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola.
Here's how the entire field will lineup for the race, via NASCAR.com:
Row 1: Daniel Suarez (pole), Aric Almirola
Row 2: Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch
Row 3: Kevin Harvick, Daniel Hemric
Row 4: Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr.
Row 5: Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch
Row 6: Joey Logano, William Byron
Row 7: Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard
Row 8: Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Row 9: Michael McDowell, Denny Hamlin
Row 10: Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott
Row 11: Erik Jones, Alex Bowman
Row 12: Ryan Newman, Matt DiBenedetto
Row 13: David Ragan, Chris Buescher
Row 14: Ty Dillon, Bubba Wallace
Row 15: Corey LaJoie, Ryan Preece
Row 16: Matt Tifft, Bayley Currey
Row 17: Ross Chastain, Landon Cassill
Row 18: B.J. McLeod, Quin Houff
Suarez, 27, is still seeking his first win on the Monster Energy circuit. He's been inconsistent this season with a 40th-place finish last week at Daytona and just two top-10 finishes in the past 10 races. The Mexico native started from the pole at Pocono last July and registered his best-ever finish (second).
Getting into the winner's circle is very much on Suarez's mind after he won the pole:
Almirola was right on Suarez's heels for the top spot. The No. 10 Ford finished his qualifying lap in 29.380 seconds, just 0.126 seconds off the pace.
Based on the point standings, reigning series champion Joey Logano left the door open for Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski to narrow their deficit. Harvick trails Logano by 75 points, with Keselowski 87 off the lead.
Logano will start from the 11th position, marking the second time in the past five races he's qualified outside the top 10. Keselowski, his Penske Racing teammate, will start right behind Suarez and Almirola from the third position, while Harvick, another SHR driver, will begin in the fifth spot.
Defending Kentucky champion Martin Truex Jr. is also in a good spot to make noise in the race. The Joe Gibbs Racing star will be on the outside of the fourth row. The Toyota driver won the pole and led the most laps last year en route to taking home the checkered flag.
All 36 drivers in the field will have a chance to leave their mark in prime time on Saturday night when the Quaker State 400 begins at 7:30 p.m.
The track wasn't the only place where drama unfolded during qualifying for the 2019 TicketGuardian 500 on Friday.
As drivers battled for positioning for Sunday's race, emotions ran high and wound up spilling onto pit road. Michael McDowell and Daniel Suarez were involved in a physical altercation on pit road that saw punches thrown:
When it came time to assign blame for the scuffle, McDowell pointed the finger at Suarez:
Suarez said it was his opponent's "lack of respect" on the track that sparked the fight:
Of note, the two are set to start near each other on Sunday, as McDowell qualified 27th with Suarez just behind him in 28th.
