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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR’s XFINITY Series points leader Daniel Suarez wrecked out of Friday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway midway through the event.
The accident left Suarez with a season-low 32nd place finish after posting an impressive season start highlighted by 12 top-10 finishes in the first 14 races. That run included his historic maiden victory at Michigan two weeks ago making Suarez the first Mexican-born driver to win a premier series race.
His fortune on the Daytona high banks, however, was a low point of his season and threatened to dethrone him from his lead in the series standings. However, Elliott Sadler ran out of gas before NASCAR Overtime got underway in Friday’s race and finished 18th, allowing Suarez to hold a six-point lead in the standings after the Daytona event.
It was not entirely a surprising outcome according to Suarez who said the racing Friday night was extremely aggressive from the drop of the green flag.
“I’m good, I’m just really disappointed,” Suarez said after emerging from the infield care center with a clean bill of health.
“That’s the consequences I guess when racing so hard so early. They were bumping very hard, being aggressive, trying to gain positions before the competition caution.
“They were racing like it was the last 10 laps, but it was too early for that.”
The accident that ultimately sidelined Suarez was his second of the young night. His No. 19 Arris Toyota was initially damaged when Suarez was collected in a 14-car accident on Lap 16 that brought out a 7-minute, 40-second red flag period.
He was running in the back half of the field later when his car snapped toward the left and hit the SAFER Barrier lining the track’s inside retaining wall.
“The car was not right,” Suarez said. “I had a car very close to my right side, I was very tight but feel like I barely touched him and I went around unfortunately. I guess that’s how it is sometimes on superspeedways.”
“Everyone wanted track position even before the competition caution. But it was crazy — three wide — everyone was bumping. I think I called it one lap before. I told my spotter, ‘everything is getting crazy here.’
“But I’m fine. NASCAR does a very good job with safety on these cars.”