Martin Truex Jr.’s engine expired early in the Final Stage of Sunday evening’s Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway, bringing an end to the No. 19 driver’s day after completing 250 of 400 laps.
After starting on the front row for the 400-lapper around the Virginia short track, Truex scored much-needed stage points after the early exit with eight tallies in Stage 1.
“It hiccupped once going down the backstretch, and then it started missing,” Truex said about any warning to his engine failure. “It’s like it broke a valve spring or something and then it kind of self-disintegrated, self-destructed really quickly. I don’t know. One of them days.”
A sour pit stop with an issue on the left-rear wheel in Stage 2 catalyzed the quick downward spiral for the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team and Truex was unable to grab points in Stage 2 after a fierce battle with Chase Elliott.
Truex entered Sunday’s race 13th in the playoff standings with a comfortable 108-point margin to the elimination line. Sunday’s 37th- and last-place finish marks Truex’s first DNF of 2024. The retiring 2017 Cup Series champion entered Richmond having completed 5,817 of 5,824 laps this season.
“I think James (Small, crew chief) had the right strategy to put the tires on when he did,” Truex said. We just had an issue on pit road with the left rear coming off. We went from being one of the fastest cars on the track to not having a very good car with a very small change. We just missed an adjustment race-track wise, but we were still going to be okay. It is a shame. Last race here full time and it would have been nice to get another win.”
Four of the last five winning strategies at Richmond Raceway included seven or more pit stops, taking four tires on each stop. The two recent winners each drove under 10 laps after their last stops, suggesting some similarities in achieving victory. But there’s a difference this time in Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (6 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) — the option tire.
Teams will get six sets of prime tires, two option tire sets — a softer, faster tire compound — and standard wet weather tires if needed. The choice in grip will enhance the strategy calls, especially with four more chances left to earn a spot in the Cup Series Playoffs.
Denny Hamlin heads into Sunday as the betting favorite, just ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing counterparts Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. The updated Racing Insights projections give Bell, the No. 20 driver, a slight edge over Hamlin, the hometown driver.
Even with all the tire and strategy changes shaking up the competition, JGR drivers remain the top picks in projections. The team’s consistency is unparalleled at Richmond, amassing 19 wins across six different drivers — with 10 of those wins coming in the last 17 races. Hamlin is the most recent victor at the track, and 10 of his 54 career wins came in his home state of Virginia. As for Bell, he’s won the most stages this year and is two laps shy of leading 600 laps for the first time in a season. He’s put together one of his best regular seasons and is charging to the playoffs with a full head of steam. Finally, there’s Truex and Ty Gibbs, who each have a healthy gap over the elimination line but could win at any time to clinch.
DRIVERS TO WATCH
MARTIN TRUEX JR.: Five drivers have won a race in their final full-time season. Sunday is likely Truex’s best chance to make it six. He’s finished seventh or better in 10 of the last 11 Richmond races and was on the verge of winning there in the spring. He has the consistency to lean on and the talent to win there.
CHASE ELLIOTT: Elliott is not only 12 points behind his teammate Kyle Larson for the Regular Season Championship but also 12 markers back for the most points earned on short tracks in 2024. His fifth-place finish at Richmond in the spring sets the stage for a potential win, which is crucial if he wants those 15 regular-season bonus points for the playoffs.
JOEY LOGANO: Logano’s 2024 campaign took off after a runner-up finish at Richmond this past spring. He ranks third in most points scored on short tracks in 2024 and has four straight top 10s at Richmond. While he’s already locked into the playoffs, he’s still a candidate for a multi-win season.
JOSH BERRY: The short-track specialist can shake up the playoff picture on Sunday. Berry’s average finish on short tracks in a Cup car is 11.4. He will also have Rodney Childers atop the pit box, who has prepared cars to finish 15th or better in 19 of the last 20 Richmond races.
CHRIS BUESCHER: Still looking for a trip to Victory Lane, Buescher is 17 points to the good and there’s still time for him to catch fire before the playoffs. Over his last five races at Richmond, Buescher has earned a win and three top fives and should be in the mix on Sunday.
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.
RICHMOND, Va. — When Christopher Bell got the call that his crew chief, Adam Stevens, would be away from the track for a little more than NASCAR’s two-week break for the Olympics, his reaction was marked by surprise. Taking in the news that Stevens had injured both knees in a diving board accident while on family vacation, Bell also took a pause.
“I mean, I guess he said that he was jumping, and it just literally snapped both of his knees. So that’s insane,” Bell said Saturday at Richmond Raceway, site of Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (6 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). “I’d never heard of that, but then come to find out, my car chief Chris Sherwood — actually my crew chief now — his wife said that she’s seen that before, but it makes me terrified of jumping off a diving board, that’s for sure.”
There may be no twists and flips on the 10-meter platform for Bell, but he’ll take a leap into Sunday’s 400-lapper without Stevens — his crew chief since 2021 — atop the pit box for the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota team. Replacing him in the interim will be Sherwood, who is a familiar face for Bell and who subbed for Stevens during a Cup Series weekend in 2021 at Watkins Glen International.
There’s a confidence level there with Sherwood, Bell said, that dates back to before his arrival on JGR’s Cup Series roster. There’s also the knowledge that Stevens will have a guiding role from back at the team headquarters.
“Honestly, there’s not a better guy out there for the job than Sherwood, just because I’m very comfortable around him,” said Bell, who starts fifth Sunday. “He was my mechanic on my Xfinity cars at JGR back in 2018, 2019, so we have a long history. And Adam is still, he’s going to be basically doing his job. The communication will be through Sherwood because Adam can’t be here. But yeah, I feel confident that we’ll be just fine.”
Some of that optimism stems from his penchant for racing on Richmond’s 0.75-mile layout. He’s a three-time winner in just five Xfinity Series races here, and though he’s yet to break through at Richmond in the Cup Series, his average finish is an admirable 7.5 in eight starts.
Tempering those positives is the strategy-sensitive nature of Richmond, where a new wrinkle debuts this weekend with the introduction of tire choices for the first time in a points-paying Cup Series event. “You’ve got to bring that one up, too, don’t you?” Bell laughed when reminded of the extra strategy layer. Still, he’s hopeful that a solid day — from a results standpoint and in the team’s communication — is achievable.
“This is definitely one that we have circled to be a track where we run well, hopefully score a lot of points at,” Bell says. “The thing that’s very interesting about Richmond is that it is a place that’s filled with late pit-strategy calls, right? And with Adam not being on the pit box, if there’s any sort of delay from the information he’s getting in Huntersville, North Carolina, to what we’re actually doing here in Richmond, they could be a little tricky because this place, the name of the game is executing your pit strategy, whether you’re short-pitting or long-pitting, and there’s a lot of last-minute decisions that have to be made here at Richmond.
“I think every week that we miss with Adam, it should get easier and easier as we get into a routine, but I don’t know. I mean, I feel confident that we’re going to be strong, and hopefully, we don’t miss a beat.”
RICHMOND, Va. — On Aug. 10, 2024, Connor Hall experienced one of the coolest moments of his life.
His eyes lit up when asked about it: “I’ve never felt anything like that.”
NASCAR national series drivers often wear cool suits to combat scorching conditions like the heavy, post-tropical storm humidity that accompanied 90-degree temperatures Saturday at Richmond Raceway. Hall, the defending NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion and one of the best Late Model Stock Car racers in the country, had never experienced the relief of a cool suit. He raved about the feeling in spite of the additional 15 pounds of weight on his body.
One might have a hard time getting Hall to show the same enthusiasm about the fact that a top-10 finish in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut was pretty cool, too.
Hall, the 27-year-old from nearby Hampton, Virginia, can sometimes present himself as stoic. He’s measured in how he reacts to both accomplishments and failures as a race-car driver.
So the smiles, hugs and fist bumps he delivered after climbing out of his No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet on Saturday night were natural; he was elated to score a 10th-place finish in his first Truck race. Yet Hall balanced that emotion with the feeling that he could have performed better.
“If we ran this race again tomorrow,” he thought, “I could run top five.”
Connor Hall (No. 91) in action during the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Clean Harbors 250 at Richmond Raceway on Aug. 10, 2024 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo: Logan Whitton/Getty Images)
For each point of criticism Hall levied against himself at Richmond, a friend or team member delivered an easy retort.
Hall bristled after mistakes he made on his first two pit stops of the race, miscues that cost his team precious track position on the 0.75-mile oval. “No amount of practice can prepare you for your first live pit stop,” he said. Hall then was reminded that he delivered a perfect stop on the third and final pit sequence of the race, gaining four positions ahead of the event’s final 25 laps.
Said crew chief Darren Fraley on the radio after that stop: “The next time you pit in your career, pit like that.”
Hall regretted communicating so adamantly about the loose nature of his race truck after practice Saturday. He felt the team’s corrections as a result of his feedback led to a tight ride throughout the 250-lap race. He was reminded how his astute communications during the main event allowed the team to make the adjustments that made a top-10 run possible.
Hall reflected on those mistakes with a what-could-have-been attitude. He was reminded that, before Saturday, he had never turned laps in a Truck Series ride — and that he ended the night as the highest finishing rookie.
The fact of the matter — one Hall realizes when he reflects on the positives of Saturday night — is that his Truck Series debut could not have gone much better. He ran top-10 average lap times in practice, and he made up for his own error in qualifying during the race, working his way through a field of more experienced competitors after starting 21st.
And yes, during that run, he did allow himself to soak in the moment.
“When Connor Jones and I were racing for 10th and 11th, I was like, ‘I’m racing a truck right now,'” Hall said. “I know that sounds really cliché; I sound like a race fan. All of the sudden I was like, ‘I’m in the middle of this. I’m running pretty decent. And if I can make it a couple more spots, I’ll be right outside the top five.'”
Mentally, Hall spent the rest of his time in the truck on Saturday night learning. After each caution flag waved, he was quick to begin asking his team questions.
How can I do better on the restart? What can I do differently to make that pass? What’s the best way to attack pit road if we have to stop under green-flag conditions? Is it normal to feel these vibrations when braking? What’s the ideal engine temperature?
The inquiries were no surprise to those who know Hall. His attention to detail is part of the reason he’s a national champion Late Model driver who’s again first in Division I points this year.
He’s hoping his meticulous nature will mesh with his motivation to make NASCAR racing his long-term career — plus some support from sponsors — to land him a full-time ride in a national series in 2025 and/or beyond.
If nothing else, on Saturday, he proved to himself he belongs on such a stage. That message was reinforced by the likes of stock-car racing great Chad Bryant, a friend and mentor of Hall who was the first to greet the driver when he climbed out of his truck at Richmond.
Many others, including team co-owner Bill McAnally, congratulated Hall with enthusiasm strong enough for the driver to momentarily focus on what he had just accomplished.
On a hot day and night in Richmond, for Hall, that was pretty cool.
RICHMOND, Va. — Daniel Dye’s fate for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs rested on making up a five-point deficit in Saturday’s regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway. He knew that defensive driving wasn’t going to get him there, and decided that receiving continual running updates on the provisional standings wouldn’t help, either.
In the end, he made it, becoming the first Truck Series driver to jump into the postseason pool in the finale from below the elimination line, finishing eighth in the Clean Harbors 250 and supplanting Tanner Gray as the last qualifier for the 10-driver playoff field. Gray was the first driver out, ending up 12 points shy of Dye after placing 12th.
Dye, the 20-year-old in his second Truck Series season, stuck to his plan of focusing forward — without the ever-changing details about where his rivals were running in the No. 43 team’s radio transmissions.
“I said earlier in the week, I really didn’t want to know what was going on with everybody else,” Dye said post-race after clinching his first playoff berth. “As soon as you start playing defense, you kind of get in the way of your potential. So no, after we got quite a bit of stage points to get a swell, I started thinking about it a little bit more so we maybe didn’t have to be as aggressive, but no, I asked one question the whole time. Then it’s just, when you’re behind, you’ve got to be on offense. If you’re in by 15 or 20 (points) coming into the race, maybe play a little defense, but when you’re out by five, you’ve got to go to work.”
Finishes of sixth and third in the stages made the difference for Dye, who collected 13 stage points while Gray was shut out at the breaks. Gray started 26th after his Tricon Garage No. 15 team battled through early issues — including brake trouble through practice and qualifying — and he was the beneficiary of a mid-race caution to return to the lead lap.
“Overall, we were just too sloppy throughout the year,” Gray said. “Made a lot of mistakes, myself included, and just should have never been in the position to be on the (elimination line) in the first place. I feel like with all the resources and tools that we have over at Tricon Garage and Toyota, that we’re most certainly a playoff-caliber team, and it seems like year after year, we find a way to screw it up. So we definitely need to look in the mirror and have some self-reflection and just figure out where I need to be better, where we can be better as a whole and just clean up all the mistakes that we make that puts us behind too much. Just got to be better.”
Dye joins Regular Season Champion Christian Eckes, top-seeded Corey Heim, Saturday’s winner Ty Majeski, Nick Sanchez, Rajah Caruth, Tyler Ankrum, Grant Enfinger, Taylor Gray and defending champ Ben Rhodes in the 10-driver field. Taylor Gray and Rhodes were the only other drivers to clinch on the basis of points; the former was in by Stage 1, and Rhodes ensured his shot at a third championship in four years by a 34-point margin.
“I’m pretty darn relaxed, actually,” said Rhodes, who was up by 22 points entering Saturday night’s race. “I’ve been in a lot more stressful situations than this, so I guess you could say ‘forged by fire’ over the years. We’ve been in situations where we’ve been in on tiebreakers, one point going into the weekend spread, so this was plush — 22 points, I wasn’t really stressing. I just knew we had to execute the things we could control. Luckily for us tonight, everything worked out in our favor on the stuff that we couldn’t. There was a couple close calls, but for the most part, we came in here with with a better program than we’ve been running in the past few weeks, which gives us good momentum going into the playoffs.”
Heim, who finished 16th, earned the No. 1 seed based on his five regular-season wins. Eckes, a three-time winner this year, secured a bonus of 15 playoff points for clinching the regular-season title. He’s slotted just three points behind Heim as the second seed.
“I think the biggest thing for us is the bonus points. That obviously helps a lot,” said Eckes, who sealed the crown after winning Stage 1. “So it’s exciting to get the championship, but at the same time, we’ve got a lot more work to do to get the big one at the end of the year. So like I said, proud of the guys, but still a lot more work to do.”
RICHMOND, Va. — Ty Majeski took the lead on a restart with eight laps remaining in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway and held on to hoist his second consecutive race trophy after winning the Clean Harbors 250.
Majeski’s No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford led Christian Eckes across the finish line by a slight .936 seconds to earn the win and vindicate a gut-wrenching loss at the three-quarter mile Richmond track from a year ago when he dominated the race only to lose the lead with four laps remaining.
That tough loss was still very much on the mind of the 29-year-old Wisconsin native this weekend. And he nearly gave this one away too after receiving a pit-road penalty when a tire got loose on his first pit stop during the Stage 1 break.
“This feels good, we’ve had great ThorSport trucks here at Richmond the last two years but found different ways to lose them (races) and tried to do that again tonight,’’ said Majeski, who now has five career wins in the Truck Series.
“We really need to clean that stuff up.’’
Eckes, driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet officially claimed the Regular Season Championship in winning Saturday night’s opening stage — his series-best eighth stage victory of the season.
“Confidence is high for sure,’’ said Eckes, a three-race winner in 2024. “I feel like we’re in a better position than we were last year and I thought we were in a pretty good position last year too. Real proud of the team. We didn’t have quite what we needed today but proud of everybody and ready to get these next seven races underway.”
For the first time in the modern playoff format, a driver raced his way into championship contention in the last cutoff race. Daniel Dye, 20, finished eighth in the No. 43 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet — good enough to put him in the playoffs by 12 points over Tricon Garage’s Tanner Gray, who finished 12th.
“Just all the hard work these guys have put in and it’s really good to validate myself and the work I’ve put in to change up what I’ve been doing,’’ Dye said. “It’s so cool to have our 43 in the playoffs.
“We just weren’t good enough,’’ Tanner Gray said. “Didn’t have the speed, didn’t have the balance and I didn’t do a good enough job, so I’m really frustrated.”
His younger brother Taylor Gray finished third Saturday night, followed by veteran Grant Enfinger and rookie Layne Riggs. The third-place finish was good enough to secure Gray’s position in the 10-driver playoff field and comes in his first full-time season.
Fourth-place finisher Enfinger led the most laps — 98 of the 250 — and earned the Stage 2 win; his first stage victory since last season.
Tyler Ankrum, defending series champion Ben Rhodes, Dye, Ty Dillon and series debutant Connor Hall rounded out the top 10.
The 10-driver playoff field will include Tricon Garage’s Corey Heim, a five-race winner who holds a three-point advantage on Eckes to start the seven-race playoff run. Majeski goes into the playoff run ranked third, followed by fellow race winners this season, Nick Sanchez and Rajah Caruth.
Enfinger is seeded sixth followed by Ankrum, Taylor Gray, Rhodes and Dye.
The playoff opener, the LiUNA! 175, is Sunday, Aug. 25 at the Milwaukee Mile (4 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Truck Series garage, confirming Ty Majeski as the winner.
RICHMOND, Va. — After a 45-minute practice and a smattering of qualifying laps in Saturday’s preliminaries, the introduction of tire-compound choices to NASCAR Cup Series racing at Richmond Raceway remains a strategy head-scratcher.
Cup Series teams will have two types of Goodyear rubber to choose from in Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — seven sets of baseline “prime” tires (six for the race, plus one transferred from qualifying) and two sets of “option” tires. The yellow-lettered primes are more durable over a longer run, while the red-lettered options have more short-term grip and more rapid wear.
When teams choose to bolt on the option tires could decide both stage wins and the overall victory. How the race plays out with caution periods will be crucial to the decision-making process.
“Well, it is like every race: You tell me when the cautions are going to come out, and I’ll tell you the strategy you should use,” cracked Chris Gabehart, crew chief of Denny Hamlin’s pole-winning No. 11 Toyota. “Unfortunately, my caution Ouija Board is broken right now. I hope we fixed it over the two-week break. Certainly, I think you are going to leave them laying for the end of the race for the most part — now I won’t say — there may be some cars that need some points that might try to put a set on to steal a stage win or something like that, some of those cut-off cars potentially, but I think to win the race, you will have to leave them for the end of the race.”
The tire-choice procedure was first used at the NASCAR All-Star Race in May at North Wilkesboro Speedway, but Sunday’s 400-lapper will be the first application in a points-paying event. Another key difference between the two events: Sunday’s race will be held on a worn, abrasive surface, a change from the freshly paved asphalt at the Wilkesboro track.
On Saturday, teams had both types of tires available for practice, but were required to qualify on the yellow-sidewall prime tires. Even with an expanded practice to learn about the tires’ nuances, question marks remain.
“I don’t have the answers yet. We have a lot of information to go through, I know that,” said Chris Buescher, who qualified seventh in the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford. “We need to look at our runs, our teammates’ runs, others, when they put reds on, when they put yellows on. There’s a lot of questions. The heat of the day, very sunny versus tomorrow’s night race. That made a big difference in North Wilkesboro with the reds. We blistered them in practice, I think a handful of teams did, and had no issues and ran in the entire race on reds, right? So I don’t think that’s going to be allowed here with the Richmond surface in the shape it is, but like I said, we have a lot of deciphering to do.”
The most recent Cup Series race at Richmond back in March was marked by three longer green-flag runs — 91 laps, 54 laps, and a late 159-lap stretch. The outcome, however, boiled down to a late-race yellow flag that eventually extended the race by two overtimes, and Hamlin got the jump on teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the final two-lap dash to the checkered.
How will teams pick their spots Sunday? Saving a red-lettered set for a sprint to the end would be optimal, but a longer-run finish would defeat that stockpiling gambit.
“I mean, that’s the risk you always take, right, with tires,” said defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, who starts 11th. “I mean, gosh, how many times have folks tried to stay out and they end with a sticker set in their pits, hoping for a caution, and they don’t get it, and it ruins their day. So that’s just the risk you take, and like I said, it’s going to be interesting to see if you’ve got one set left, and there’s 100 laps to the end. Are you going to throw on your final set? I don’t know. It just depends how much they fall off the cliff. … That’s why the crew chiefs get paid big bucks tomorrow.”
Leaving Richmond with an unused set of option tires in reserve could potentially leave a sour taste, said Truex, a three-time Richmond winner in his final Cup Series season. That bitter possibility, Truex says, is all part of the plan that NASCAR officials had when they decided to introduce another unknown into this weekend’s race procedures.
“Well, that’s the hard part. But you know, then if you don’t have them or if guys do, you’re going to get smoked,” Truex said, referring to a saved set of reds. “So it’s just one of those … that’s the reason they did it. They’re going to put us in that position of, nobody knows what’s going to happen. … It’s not uncomfortable. They just like for things to happen that nobody sees coming. They don’t want us to be prepared for everything. They don’t want us to have the opportunity to know exactly what’s going to happen.”
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
This next four-race run to close out the regular season is especially crucial for 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain. Wallace is the first driver outside the Cup Series playoff elimination line, ranked 17th but only seven points behind Chastain.
The Richmond three-quarter miler hasn’t necessarily been a shining star on either of the driver’s resumes. Chastain has a pair of top-10 finishes in 11 starts with a best showing of third place (2023). Wallace has 12 Richmond starts but has never had a top 10. His best showing of 12th place came in this race last year.
Both drivers are optimistic and focused on their playoff hopes for the next month, which includes races at various tracks, including the Richmond short track, Michigan two-miler, Daytona Beach superspeedway and Darlington, a 1.366-miler.
“Definitely don’t feel safe until you’re locked in,’’ said Wallace, who was more than 100 points out of 16th place just a handful of races ago. “We have four very good opportunities to do that. Ran really well here in the spring. … four real good opportunities to make some headway but you know, also four good opportunities to take us out of contention so have to show up and it’s time to put it back into gear.’’
Chastain has qualified for the playoffs the last two seasons, finishing runner-up to champion Joey Logano in 2022 and ninth last year.
“Approach for me is a constant evolution,’’ explained Chastain, who said he enjoyed the previous two weeks off not thinking about racing. “Really no two weeks are ever the same. If I find something that’s going to help me better physically, then I do it. My weeks and my preparation are really never the same.
“We can’t try any harder now than we did before the break,’’ he added.
RICHMOND, Va. – Daniel Suárez capped an eventful two-week break with a bit of news. After a gala wedding in Brazil and a victory in a NASCAR Brasil Series race just days later, his Trackhouse Racing team announced Friday that he’ll return to the No. 99 Chevrolet for the 2025 Cup Series season.
The contract extension, Suárez said, actually came first. Announcing the details was a matter of timing.
“It’s been done for a little while,” Suárez said before Saturday’s qualifying at Richmond Raceway. “We just … it’s been a lot going on in my life, career, personal life, and we just wanted to wait for the right moment.”
Another timing component, it turns out, was also significant. The single-year length of the deal was intentional for both driver and team, with Suárez indicating that the Justin Marks-founded organization has grown rapidly since its 2021 debut but that performance gains are needed.
Suárez qualified for the Cup Series Playoffs by winning a photo-finish thriller at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the second race of the season. He has just one top-five result in the 20 races since. In reaching the new agreement, Suárez said the contract includes incentives that could increase the length of the agreement if certain performance goals are met.
“There is a lot of things in the contract that activate longer if we both decided that is the right thing to do,” Suárez said before qualifying 21st for Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (6 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). “There is a lot of things in Trackhouse that are adjusting and changing. Performance-wise, we’re not exactly where we want to be — not just in the 99 but in Trackhouse as a company, and we have to make sure that we fix that before we want to go any longer. This goes really both ways.
“I think that 2022, we started extremely strong in Trackhouse with the Next Gen car, 2023 was strong, and 2024 hasn’t been as good as we were expecting. So we have work to do. We believe that we know where we’re heading, and we have already some things in our back pocket that we’re working on behind the scenes. But we have work to do, so hopefully that work gets reflected on track.”
That decision, he said, was mutual.
“It was Trackhouse and also myself, because, like I said, I want to win. They want to win, too,” said Suárez, who has been with the team since its competition debut. “But like I said, we have some things in our contract that if tomorrow, things start heading in the right direction the way that we’re working, that contract is going to change very quickly by itself, so we want to make sure that we are clicking and competitive the way we want. I don’t want to run 15th. They don’t want to run 15th. But it’s not a secret, this year has been a struggle for Trackhouse performance-wise.”
Suárez made his own solid performance achievements during the two-week break for the Summer Games, winning in the NASCAR Brasil Series during its Aug. 4 meet. Besides having the distinction of winning races in the Cup Series, Mexico Series and now in Brazil, Suárez said that the spirited crowd left an impression on him.
“It was unbelievable what I experienced over there,” Suárez said. “We all know how big the sport is, but I don’t think many people have experienced it in person. I saw a NASCAR Brasil race with 40,000 people in the grandstands, and the first thought that came to my mind was what the Cup Series would do here. It would be unbelievable. So I had an amazing experience over there, and hopefully, one day, we all can experience that together.”
Suárez also tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Julia Piquet in her Brasilia hometown – the centerpiece of a packed two-week break.
“Honestly, we had the time of our lives. We are very, very blessed and very fortunate,” Suárez said. “We had a great time. Honestly, from beginning to end, I don’t think I could have asked for anything different. Great, great time with family, with close friends.”
