Double Duty (and Double Recoveries) at Dover

Dover dished up another dose of double duty for Daniel.  The extra practice from running in the Xfinity race has proven to be invaluable in providing Daniel with more opportunities to learn the tracks.

His #18 Subway crew unloaded a pretty fast Xfinity racecar, notching the 4th and 9th fastest speeds in the two practice sessions.  Qualifying went even better, as he grabbed the 2nd fastest times in the first two rounds, finally ending up 3rd in the third and final round to determine his starting spot for the race.

As the race got underway, he ran in the top five for the first 45 laps.  But after restarting 3rd on lap 46, he felt his right rear tire going down.  As he tried to control his car and work his way to the inside wall to maneuver onto pit road, he dropped to back to 23rd.  By the time he got back on the racetrack with two fresh right-side tires and some fuel, he was 2 laps down in 35th.  When stage 1 ended on lap 60, he was 2 laps down in 32nd.

During the caution following the end of stage 1, Daniel stayed out, took the wave around, and got 1 lap back.  Just 15 laps later, he was in the lucky dog position, the first car one lap down, when a caution got him the free pass to get back onto the lead lap.  When the race resumed on lap 80, he was at the tail end of the longest line in 29th place.

If you are going to have a problem during the race, it is best to have it early so you have time to recover.  And recover he did.  Every lap or two, he would pick up another spot.  In 11 laps, he was back inside the top 20.  Another 10 laps, and he cracked the top 15.  And 10 laps after that, he was in the top 10 again.  But another caution and varying pit strategies saw him restarting 19th on lap 115.  When stage 2 ended 5 laps later, he was in 16th.

He stayed out during the between-stages caution and restarted the race in 2nd place.  One lap later he took the lead, which he held for the next 19 laps.  While his car was not stout enough to catch the leader and eventual winner, he did wheel his car to a 3rd place finish.

Things were looking good over on the Cup side of the garage, too.  He logged practice speeds that put him between 8th and 15th fastest.  Qualifying went even better, finishing each round in the top ten and eventually earning the 3rd spot on the starting grid.

Once the race got underway, he maintaining a spot in the top 5 for the first 50 laps.  The next 50 laps, he ran between 6th and 10th.  During the last 20 laps of stage 1, he ran between 10th and 14th.  As stage 1 ended, he came across the start/finish line in 10th.

He stayed out for the between-stage caution, restarting in 7th.  He stayed in the top 10 for the next 20 laps.  During the next 100 laps, he ran between 11th and 15th, eventually ending stage 2 in 13th place.

Stage 3 began with Daniel and his #19 Stanley Camry in 12th place.  For the next 85 laps, he ran between 8th and 12th.  But the race which had seen many cautions, allowing for frequent pit stops, suddenly went green for quite some time.  On lap 325, Daniel's crew chief, Scott Graves, brought him down pit road for a green flag pit stop to get fresh tires and more fuel.  As a result, he found himself 1 lap down in 20th place.

As luck would have it, a caution came out just 3 laps later, allowing them to take the wave around and get back on the lead lap.  He restarted 16th and started moving forward.  He was getting close enough to see the top 10 when a caution came out with just 4 laps to go.  He pitted for 2 tires and lined up in 9th place for the final restart.  That is when the day ended under caution as a result of a Talladega-style crash.

Thankfully Daniel came through unscathed, crossing the finish line in 6th place, his best finish thus far in his first Cup season.  He was the highest finishing rookie as well as the highest finishing member of the Gibbs teams.  He earned 32 points, bringing him to a total of 278 points, which keeps him 19th in the drivers' standings.  He finished 9 spots ahead of Erik Jones, earning 5 points more than him, bringing Daniel to within 5 points of Erik.  And he finished 8 positions ahead of Ty Dillon, earning 9 points more than him, positioning him 50 points ahead of him in the standings.

And on the separate rookie standings, here are the current numbers:

• Daniel Suarez -- 147
• Erik Jones -- 130
• Ty Dillon -- 126
• Corey LaJoie -- 98
• Gray Gaulding --94

By the way, Daniel's #19 Stanley Camry was the random car chosen to go to back to the R&D Center this week.

Next weekend we are off to Pocono to dodge the Pennsylvania raindrops and tackle the tricky triangle, where Daniel will once again do double duty in both the Xfinity and Cup series.