LONG POND, Pa. – All Daniel Suarez needed was a little help.
A slight push from his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Erik Jones and Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway may have crowned a first-time winner in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
That’s racing, he said – but also acknowledged how it hurts to be that close, as he stood on pit road while his mentor and race winner Kyle Busch celebrated the victory.
RELATED: Race results | Pocono winner Kyle Busch praises Suarez
“Sometimes as a driver you’re on offense or you are on defense, and myself in the second part of the race, I was most of the time on offense, and I was just attacking as hard as I can,” Suarez said, finishing a career-best second. “Many times my spotter was telling me what was going on behind me, and one or two times I was very, very close to telling him, hey, I don’t care what’s going on behind me, just tell me what’s going on with the 18.
“You know, we did a good job. I feel like we put ourselves in position. We just have to put ourselves in position more often. If this starts to happen often, we are going to get one.”
Suarez lined his No. 19 Toyota up beside Busch in second for the final green-white-checkered attempt in NASCAR Overtime. He restarted well and began side-drafting Busch’s No. 18 for the lead. But then-third-place Jones flared out in an attempt to take the top spot and forced Suarez to battle with the No. 20, while Busch extended his lead.
Sure, Suarez was going to race his JGR teammate Busch clean, just as Busch races him. But he had gotten a shot at it, he would have taken it, he said; the 26-year-old sits on the outside of the playoff bubble, 96 points behind the final spot with five races remaining in the regular season.
RELATED: Jones finds momentum at Pocono with top five
A win is what he needed Sunday.
“I was going to do anything,” Suarez said. “Anything I could. If I could make (Busch) lose or give him a little bump, I was going to do it. But I never got close enough. The only time I was close enough side by side was in the last restart and when the 20 got on my inside, I had to worry about him instead of worrying about the 18. …
“Definitely helps a lot to have this kind of performance from my race team because as you know, we’ve been struggling lately – the last couple months or so – but very proud of my guys,” he said later. “Like I said on the radio today, second place is good, but I didn’t care if we were second, third or fifth, I really wanted to win. We needed that win, but, you know, that’s part of racing.”
The weekend was a banner weekend for the No. 19, as he also earned his first pole in the Monster Energy Series after Kevin Harvick’s top speed was disallowed after failing inspection. He faded back after some pit road damage early in the final stage, but battled back to the front in the waning laps.
His strong run impressed many, but notably Busch, who has served as Suarez’s longtime mentor since the Monterrey, Mexico, native began racing in NASCAR.
“He could have won. I mean, he was right there with us all day long,” Busch said. “He trailed us that whole run, and I couldn’t shake him. I couldn’t get away from him, and I was trying, but he was right there that whole time, and he stayed in front of Chase. Like he was good. … With Daniel and those guys, they had an awesome run, and they should be proud of that.”
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After the race and the crowds cleared, Suarez debriefed with crew chief Scott Graves on pit road for a few minutes, exchanging quick words with team owner Joe Gibbs. The run is a confidence-booster for the team as they draw closer to the playoffs, Graves said.
“We felt like we had the ability to run like this and just haven’t executed in races and finally today we were able to put a whole one together,” Graves told NASCAR.com and ESPN. “It’s the first time we’ve had a trouble-free race I would say since Dover when we finished third. We know we can do it; we’ve just got to get more of the consistency and be able to run the track position and stay like that. …”
“He’s just very determined and mentally tough that he’s going to make this work and he’s going to be successful and that he’s going to do it. He doesn’t give up, even when we’ve had the struggles we’ve had this year. Sometimes it gets uncomfortable, but you’ve got to talk about it and figure it out and look at the details of what’s going on and what we’re doing wrong and how to fix it. Like I said, he doesn’t give up and he’s always been open to listening to everything, the good and the bad, and trying to figure things out.”
As the No. 19 group heads into next weekend’s race at Watkins Glen International, they’ll look to extend the momentum from Sunday to the twists and turns of the New York road course. And just maybe, they’ll turn a career-best run into a first-time, playoff-spot-clinching victory. He did finish third there last summer and earned a stage win in that race.
“I wish these kind of races were happening two months ago and everything was going to be easier,” Suarez said. “But that happens sometimes. We’re still a new team and we still figure things out sometimes and that’s part of racing. But we’re going to get there, we just have to keep working.
“The next race, Watkins Glen, that’s a very good track for me, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we could get another shot at it.”