BRISTOL, Tenn. — Daniel Suarez said he’s already earmarked the $100,000 he collected Friday night through the NASCAR XFINITY Series Dash 4 Cash bonus program, aiming to put the money back into the restoration of his modest collection of vintage cars. But the 23-year-old driver owed much of his six-figure payday to a much newer car and a vintage performance.
Suarez endured a taxing 302 laps, an overtime finish and benefited from trouble to bonus contender Ryan Blaney to come home fifth in Friday’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. His fourth top-five finish in the last seven XFINITY Series races bumped him up a spot to sixth in the championship standings and put more money into the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 team’s coffers.
Suarez said he wasn’t keeping a mental log of where other Dash 4 Cash competitors were on the scoreboard, though the stray thought of clinching the bonus did pop into his head.
“We were trying to get better and I said, ‘Man, I think we’re in the spot right now.’ It was pretty good,” Suarez said. “You don’t have time to think about it, you have so many things going on with the race car, about the laps and everything. Sometimes, that crosses your mind to think you’re in the position to win this thing. I think it was great. Our 100 percent focus was to be better and better during the race and it’s how we finish. Thanks to the team and all the hard work, we ended up with a top-five.”
Suarez outlasted the remaining three drivers eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus at Bristol — among them Regan Smith, who finished ninth, and Elliott Sadler, who crashed out to a 31st-place result. But his fiercest competition for the enlarged check was 21-year-old Blaney, who had prevailed in Wednesday’s weekend opener for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Blaney rose as high as second in the running order and spent the bulk of the evening on the fringes of the top five. But his car developed problems as the race entered its final quarter with two loose rear wheels. Blaney finished five laps down after making two unscheduled green-flag stops — one to change the left-side rubber, then the next for the right — leaving him glum in 22nd place.
“I don’t know. I thought it was driveline-related, but I’ve never had two loose rear wheels so I didn’t know it was that bad,” Blaney said. “Thought it was driveline. It’s unfortunate. It sucks. …
“Dash 4 Cash was feeling really good and just gave it away.”
Suarez’s outing helped to set the field for the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash finale, scheduled in two weeks at Darlington Raceway — a track where Suarez has never raced. Richard Childress Racing drivers bracketed Suarez in the final rundown at Bristol, with Ty Dillon taking fourth and Brian Scott sixth. Defending series champion Chase Elliott completed the bonus-eligible quartet for Darlington with a seventh-place effort.
For Dillon, the performance had a pleasing side effect, allowing him to chop five points off the series lead held by Chris Buescher, who ran out of fuel while leading on the lone green-white-checkered restart and settled for 11th place.
“I felt like I passed a couple of cars seven times there at the end. Our car was just blistering fast,” Dillon said. “We had a good restart there and got our fourth top-five in a row, gained some points and we’re just chugging away at this thing. They’re slowly letting us back in it and we’re getting better and better.”