Daniel Suarez found victory lane at Dover International Speedway on a cloudy Sunday morning in the Drive Sober 200 and locked himself into the Round of 8 in the inaugural XFINITY Series Chase.
On paper, it looked easy for the 24-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico. Suarez started fifth and led 123 of 200 laps on his way to victory. In reality, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Suarez. On lap 139, shortly after making a green flag pit stop, Suarez was involved in an incident with Justin Marks. Suarez turned Marks heading into turn one and Marks violently slammed the SAFER Barrier wall, finding air but thankfully not flipping over.
Marks did not think that Suarez went too far in his actions.
“[Suarez] had tires and he was racing for the win,” Marks told NBC Sports after being released from the infield care center. “We weren’t that good. He was trying to make up as much time as possible. I was trying to do the same thing. There’s limited space out there.
“I like Daniel. I don’t think he did anything on purpose. I don’t think he did anything stupid. I think it was just a pretty optimistic move.”
It was Toyota’s 125th XFINITY Series victory and 16th of the season. It’s Suarez’s second win of the season and of his career. Suarez took the lead back from Justin Allgaier on lap 155 after Allgaier got around him on the restart and never looked back, winning by over five seconds.
Ty Dillon was second and Allgaier was third. Ryan Blaney, who was a last minute substitute for Joey Logano, finished fourth. Alex Bowman ended the day in fifth. Blaney wasn’t the only last minute substitute, as a few Cup drivers scheduled to race elected not to due to the race being delayed until the morning of the Cup race. Austin Dillon handed his No. 2 Chevrolet over to Regan Smith, who finished 13th. Meanwhile, Drew Herring was called in to substitute for Kyle Busch, but it wasn’t pretty for the part time driver- multiple problems during the race regulated him to 21st.
It was a battle of attrition for drivers on the XFINITY Series Chase bubble. After leading 54 laps early, bubble driver Erik Jones had an unscheduled pit stop for a vibration right after the halfway point. Jones got back on the lead lap by being a wave-around after the caution flew on lap 139 but couldn’t make it on fuel and finished 16 after pitting with a handful of laps to go.
Ryan Sieg sped on pit road during green flag pit stops right before the Marks caution and that penalty led to Sieg finishing 19th after running well most of the day. During the lengthy clean-up the Marks wreck required, Blake Koch had to pit from the lead onto a closed pit road due to running out of fuel. Koch couldn’t initially re-fire his car and he ended up going a lap down. Koch finished 14th.
The points situation now looks to be very unsure heading into Charlotte for the cut-off race next weekend. The only two drivers who are locked into the Chase are Suarez and Elliott Sadler. Allgaier is third in points, 17 ahead of ninth in points. Brendan Gaughan is 14 ahead, Ryan Reed is 11 ahead, and Darrell Wallace Jr. sits 10 ahead. Koch has a four point cushion heading into Charlotte while Brennan Poole is the last driver in the Chase and has a three point advantage over Dillon in ninth. Erik Jones is down by four and Ryan Sieg is down by 10. Finally, Brandon Jones sits 18 back and either needs to win or get very lucky at Charlotte for his Chase to continue past it.
