BROOKLYN, Mich. — August marks the final month in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season. Four races remain in the final push to the 16-driver postseason that begins on Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway.
Trackhouse Racing drivers Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez sit on inverse sides of the playoff elimination line but both are akin to a recent lull in performance over the last few races.
After scoring his first win of 2023 in June at Nashville Superspeedway, Chastain has a best finish of 13th (Pocono) and ran outside the top 20 in four of the last five races. Suárez placed second last month at Atlanta Motor Speedway and sat 15th in points. Since Atlanta, the driver of the No. 99 has two finishes outside the top 30 in the last three races.
Chastain and Suárez both said the team has lacked speed during the recent stretch.
RELATED: Cup playoff standings | Where bubble drivers stand
“We’ve been off on balance and we just can’t quite get the balance where we need to to go fast, and the window for being off and still having speed is closing with this new car,” Chastain said. “I think a year ago with the balance we have, I think we are actually a step better than we were a year ago, but everybody else took four steps.”
Suárez noted that recent races at New Hampshire and Richmond didn’t play into their hand.
“We’re not very surprised in the low downforce package because low downforce has been a little bit of a struggle,” he said.
Ahead of Sunday’s Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), Suárez sits 34 points below the elimination line.
With a pair of road courses still left on the regular-season calendar, Suárez is adamant he’s not in a must-win situation to reach the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
“We can easily do points,” Suárez said. “There’s a handful of races. If we have a good points race (Sunday), we can be on the other side of the (cutline). We have to be smart. I don’t think we are gonna be in a must-win situation in the next four weeks. But we’ll see. Thirty points can go either way in that race.
“I think we should be good (at Michigan). A win would be beautiful, but I think we can leave here with a top five, that would be very nice, especially heading into Indianapolis and Watkins Glen where we know we can be very competitive. I feel good about it.”
Chastain showed great pace in Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions at Michigan, placing a top-five single lap in practice and backing it up with a front row starting spot alongside polesitter Christopher Bell. Suárez will start 14th and was in the midpack in terms of speed off the hauler.
MORE: Sunday’s starting lineup
Despite the recent cluster of feeble on-track performances, the Trackhouse duo continues to keep the morale up in the shop and around the team.
During the week, the organization held an event at Charlotte Motor Speedway that had families of Trackhouse employees in attendance.
“Trackhouse Tuesdays at the Charlotte Motor Speedway legends track with school bus races and watching (Trackhouse owner) Justin Marks go up on two wheels and “Squeaks,” one of our mechanics on the 1 car, plow it into the concrete pit wall,” Chastain said. “We had a blast out there. Everyone was down in the Turn 4 suite and we had dinner and bounce houses for all the kids. It was really, really awesome watching those guys bang into each other.”
On Sundays, Suárez may not welcome the roughhousing on display like his teammates on “Trackhouse Tuesdays,” but he said he’s up for the challenge that awaits in the final four races that include the fight for the final playoff spots among fellow road-course aces Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger.
“It makes the challenge more fun. I know what I’m capable of,” Suárez said. “I know what my team is capable of and I know that we can be pretty strong and when we have the right strategy and moving in the right direction and in sync, we can be a team that is hard to beat. … I think that having a couple road courses in there I think that our chances can be as good as anyone.”