Daniel Suarez reminisces on late charge at Richmond on option tires: ‘Most fun I ever had’

One week after making a hard charge just prior to the finish of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond, Daniel Suarez had a tougher go of things in the early stages of the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan.

He was P29 after the conclusion of Stage 1, when the race was suspended due to inclement weather and pushed back to Monday.

Still, Suarez felt pretty decent about his positioning if not for a few minor mistakes.

“Overall really the 99 Chevy Camaro, it’s pretty sporty actually,” Daniel Suarez told the USA broadcast. “I’m not too worried about it. But I’m a little upset with myself because I felt like there was a couple decisions I could have done a little bit better, but all in all the car is pretty good and hopefully Mother Nature here can cooperate a little bit and we can go back at it.”

Mother Nature, of course, did not cooperate.

The teams will take back to the track on Monday to resume racing, potentially getting in the full length of the race instead of having it shortened by daylight after a few delays on Sunday afternoon.

Can Daniel Suarez make a push to get into contention?

That remains to be seen, but he’s certainly in good form in recent weeks. And he’s loose, too, having gotten married over the NASCAR break. He was all smiles on an interview post-race on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s been a lot of fun, man. Last week in Richmond it was a hell of a race,” Daniel Suarez said. “I mean I haven’t found one person that didn’t enjoy the race, because the race was entertaining with the option tires.”

Suarez made better use of the tires than just about anyone else, going from reasonably far back in the field to the top 10 in the late stages by using the red option tires when others were on the prime tires.

He started flying by the field and for a moment it looked like he might have enough track left to catch Austin Dillon, who was in the lead.

“The most fun I ever had in a race car was the last 16 with the red tires,” Daniel Suarez said. “You know when you play video games and you play NASCAR the game and you put it in easy mode and you’re passing everyone like crazy? That’s exactly how I felt in the last 16 because everyone had older tires and I had newer reds, so it was unbelievable the difference. It was crazy. My team, they called the best race out there. The last caution we didn’t eat but we still finished in the top 10, so it was a decent day.”

Suarez will look to improve on his P29 on Monday when the FireKeepers Casino 400 resumes at 11 a.m. ET.

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