What happened?
Daniel Suarez inherited the lead and held off Chris Buescher for the last 26 laps at Sonoma Raceway to win his first career NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, June 12. Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick, and Austin Cindric rounded out the top five.
The Mexico native has become only the fifth foreign born driver to win a Cup Series race and first since Marcos Ambrose in 2011.
How did it happen?
With a strong pass for the lead made at the halfway point.
At the end of stage two, Buescher had inherited the lead from Chase Elliott after the latter was penalized for servicing the car outside of the pit box – and we’ll get to that later. Buescher would restart as the leader of the final stage. Alongside him was Suarez.
While maneuvering around turn 1 before climbing their way into turn 2 on the restart, Suarez stood his ground on the outside and was able to clear the RFK Racing driver and took the lead with 50 laps to go on the 1.99-mile road course.
And, well, that was it.
OK, not really. But when it comes to lead changes and pit strategy, there was no real challenge to Suarez’s reign with the exception of an offensive mounted by Buescher on the final restart with 26 laps to go.
Under 20 laps to go, the battle for P1 is on! pic.twitter.com/YlLBvshyP3
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 12, 2022
Buescher was able to stay within a second the Team Trackhouse Racing driver for a majority of those 26 laps, yet Suarez continued to hold his line unbothered by the RFK driver’s charge. By the time the checkered flag waved, Suarez had increased his lead by over three seconds on the No. 17. Third place McDowell was having a strong day by his standards, but certainly did not have the speed to catch the Texan and did have the track position to keep Cup veteran Harvick at bay.
WINNER. WINNER. WINNER. Retweet to congratulate @Daniel_SuarezG on his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory!@TeamTrackhouse | @pitbull pic.twitter.com/09mLkrifxt
— FOX: NASCAR…
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