Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-60):
● Daniel Suárez started 11th and finished 11th.
● Suárez reported the splitter was too high on the No. 41 ARRIS Mustang and he was experiencing tire chatter.
● The ARRIS driver reached the top-10 on lap 15.
● He made his first pit stop from the eighth position on lap 43 for fuel, two right-side tires and adjustments to help with the Mustang’s handling.
● Suárez ended the segment in 11th and pitted for fuel, four tires and adjustments during the Stage 1 break to help with a tight condition.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 61-120):
● The No. 41 driver started 17th and ended the stage in 21st.
● The 27-year-old Ford driver struggled with the handling of the ARRIS Mustang during the first run of Stage 2.
● On lap 112, Suárez pitted for fuel only and adjustments to gain track position before the end of the stage.
● Under caution on lap 115, Suárez reported the front was tight and he couldn’t turn the back. He pitted for fuel and four tires from 21st.
● In a one-lap shoot out, Suárez restarted 22nd and ended the stage 21st.
● The team elected not to pit during the stage break to gain track position.
Final Recap (Laps 121-200):
● The ARRIS driver started 14th and finished fifth.
● The Mexico native worked his way up to 12th when the caution was displayed on 134. He did not visit pit road, and the race went back to green on lap 136.
● Shortly after the green flag, another caution came out. Suárez was in the 14th spot and did not pit.
● Suárez reported he was tight on exit and loose on entry when the next caution was displayed on lap 149 as he ran in 17th.
● He restarted 18th on lap 152 after pitting for two tires, fuel and adjustments.
● On lap 163 he was 13th, and on lap 175 he was in the 10th position.
● A strong ARRIS Mustang, along with having more fuel in the tank than some of his competitors, allowed Suárez to pass several cars in the closing laps to finish fifth.
Notes:
● Suárez earned his third top-five and eighth top-10 of the season.
● This is Suárez’s second straight top-five in six career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Michigan. He finished fourth in the series’ previous visit to the track in June.
● Kevin Harvick won the Consumers Energy 400 to score the 67th overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s 53rd points-paying Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win, its second this season and fourth at Michigan.
● This was SHR’s 17th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory with Ford. The team won its first race with Ford when Kurt Busch captured the 2017 Daytona 500.
● This was Ford’s 39th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory at Michigan – the most at any track currently on the schedule.
● This is Ford’s fourth straight victory at Michigan. Joey Logano won in the series’ previous visit to the track last June. Clint Bowyer and Harvick swept the June and August races, respectively, in 2018 for Ford and SHR.
● This was Harvick’s 47th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win. He now stands alone at 16th on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series win list.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 24 laps.
● Twenty-four of the 38 drivers in the Consumers Energy 400finished on the lead lap.
● Kyle Busch remains the championship leader after Michigan with a 20-point advantage over second-place Logano.
Daniel Suárez, Driver of the No. 41 ARRIS Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“It was a decent day for us. We had ups and downs in the ARRIS Mustang. There was something wrong, a bad set of tires or something in that second stage. We couldn’t control it. The team was able to overcome that with good adjustments, and they put me back in the game with track position, and we were able to get a good result from there.”
Next Up:
The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race on Saturday, Aug, 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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