Two in a Row!

On this last stop of NASCAR's west coast swing, Daniel Suárez did not have double duty responsibilities, leaving him completely focused on the Cup race.  The team's intent was to build on last weekend's successes.  But when the car unloaded and drove out onto the racetrack for the first two practice sessions, he ended both in 28th place.  Qualifying was a bit more promising, as he advanced through all three rounds.  His times landed him 14th, 7th, and finally 10th.  And then he ended the third and final practice session in 11th place, showing an overall improvement in his car as they prepared for the start of the Cup race.

And that promise carried through the beginning of the race.  Within three laps, he was up to 6th place.  Unfortunately he would not find himself that close to the front of the race for a very long time.  About 100 laps later, he was in 19th place and one lap down, where he stayed for most of the rest of the race.

It wasn't until 15 laps before the scheduled end of the race that he found some luck.  Once his situation started to improve, the good things just snowballed.  When a caution came out on lap 184, he got the lucky dog free pass to get back onto the lead lap.  With 8 laps to go, he restarted in 21st place.

Then the cautions started coming fast and furious, and he and his pit crew clawed themselves forward a little bit more each time.  Another caution, another 2 positions.  One more caution, 3 more spots.  When the race restarted for the final time, Daniel was in 16th place.  And somehow, in only 2 laps, he pulled himself up 9 more spots to finish in 7th place.  Again!  The same finish as last week!  Two top tens in a row!

He was once again the highest finishing rookie.  In this race, he earned another 30 points, bringing his total up to 102.  That places him 19th in the drivers' standings, up 2 positions from last week.  He is 14 points behind Erik Jones and 15 points ahead of Ty Dillon.

¡Buen trabajo, Daniel!  ¡A seguir terminando en los primeros 10 lugares!