Daniel Suarez made history in South Florida as a victory in Miami made him the champion of the XFINITY Series.
Starting on the pole, he dominated the race, leading 133 of the 200 laps. However, the championship the whole race was never a lock for the native of Mexico, as each of the Championship 4 drivers spent time at the head of the field.
It started to intensify with 57 laps to go when all four of the title contenders held the top four spots in the running order for around 10 laps. It peaked with Erik Jones taking the lead with 43 to go before debris slowed the race.
Suarez worked his way back to the lead on the restart with 37 to go. From there, it was game on to the finish. Justin Allgaier made contact with the wall running in second with 20 to go and Jones made contact with the wall running down his teammate for the lead with 15 and 13 to go.
Ray Black Jr. spun exiting Turn 4 and brought out the caution with 10 to go. Elliott Sadler exited pit road first but restarted second because, Cole Whitt, on much older tires, opted not to pit.
Mike Bumgarner, Sadler’s interim crew chief, pleaded with the 14 team to take the bottom lane on the restart, but they wouldn’t. Sadler restarted as the lead bottom car.
On the restart with three to go, Whitt spun his tires and backed up Jones and Allgaier, costing them a chance at a championship.
Sadler gunned ahead, but Suarez jumped to the outside, took the lead and scored the victory and the championship.
It’s his third victory in 68 career XFINITY Series starts, third of 2016 and first at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
He’s also the first foreign-born champion in any NASCAR national series.
Sadler came home third.
“It’s heartbreaking to be that close and to kind of be in position there in the end,” Sadler said. “The guys made a great call to put me in that spot. Yeah, I’m sad for myself, but I’m more sad for my sponsors, my team my guys in the shop. I love them to death. All the hard work they put in these cars. I wanted to win this championship for them really bad.”
He also addressed his team pleading with the 14 team to let them have the top lane on the final restart.
“I just wanted to see if they would let us have the top and just let us four race for it because he was on such old tires,” he added. “He decided to stay up there.”
“I made a mistake on the restart,” Sadler continued. “He didn’t go and I was a little intimidated and I let Daniel get a good run on me. Congratulations to him and his team. He did a really good job on that restart. I messed up a little bit.”
Allgaier came home fourth. Jones finished ninth and secured Sunoco Rookie of The Year honors.
A major incident of note took place on lap 137 Jordan Anderson slammed into the back of Jeremy Clements on the backstretch, who was slowing down to avoid hitting the 16 of Ryan Reed in the middle of a lazy spin.
The race lasted two hours, 34 minutes and 34 seconds at an average speed of 116.455 mph. There were 21 lead changes among 11 different drivers and seven cautions for 39 laps.
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