Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-100):
● Daniel Suárez started 14th and finished 14th.
● Suárez dropped back to 15th by lap six.
● On lap 17, Suárez gained his spot back and continued to run 14th.
● The Haas Automation driver battled for the 13th position with the No. 12 car of Ryan Blaney. Passed him on lap 28.
● After a battle with the No. 20 car of Erik Jones, Suárez fell back to 14th, reporting his car was tight in the center of the corners but loose off.
● Upon the conclusion of the stage, Suárez pitted for four tires, fuel and a slight tire pressure adjustment.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 101-200):
● Suárez started 15th and finished 17th.
● During a caution on lap 113, Suárez was given the option to pit, but he chose to stay out and maintain track position.
● After a battle with his Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) teammate Aric Almirola, Suárez fell back to 17th on lap 183.
● The remainder of the stage ran under green and the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang stayed on the lead lap, but Suárez reported that his car was tight as the stage came to an end.
● At the end of the stage, Suárez pitted for fuel, four tires and wedge and tire pressure adjustments.
Final Stage Recap (Laps 201-400):
● Suárez started 14th and finished 10th.
● On the restart, Suárez battled with his SHR teammate Clint Bowyer for 12th.
● After a caution on lap 244, the team pitted for four tires, fuel and a slight tire pressure adjustment. Restarted 14th.
● On the lap-250 restart, Suárez drove his No. 41 Haas Automation Ford up to 12th.
● Suárez entered the top-10 by passing the No. 9 of Chase Elliott on lap 301.
● After driving up to ninth, the caution came out on lap 316. Suárez pitted for four tires and fuel. Restarted 10th.
● Suárez held onto his 10th position for the remainder of the race.
Notes:
● Suárez earned his 10th top-10 of the season and his third top-10 in six career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond.
● The Federated Auto Parts 400 marked Suárez’s 100th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start.
● Suárez has never finished outside the top-20 at Richmond.
● Martin Truex Jr. won the Federated Auto Parts 400 to score his 25th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his series-leading sixth of the season, his second in a row and his second at Richmond. His margin of victory over second-place Kyle Busch was 2.630 seconds.
● There were five caution periods for a total of 32 laps.
● Only 13 of the 38 drivers in the Federated Auto Parts 400 finished on the lead lap.
Daniel Suárez, Driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“I feel like it was a clean day. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the speed that we wish we had, but we worked very hard. We made good adjustments. The pit crew did a good job. They got better as the night went and we just had a top-10 car and finished in the top-10. We’re still working extremely hard to get that first win and, hopefully, we can make it happen soon.”
Next Up:
The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Bank of America Roval 400 on Sunday, Sept. 29 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. It is the third race of the 10-race playoffs and the last race in the Round of 16. It starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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