Daniel Suarez turned in a third-place run in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway to match his career best finish.
Suarez also finished third last year at Watkins Glen and the sophomore driver was pleased with the effort Sunday at the “Monster Mile.”
“Yeah, well, just overall, just very proud of my team,” Suarez said. “I would like to say that the entire year we have had good speed pretty much everywhere we go, top 10s, top 5s sometimes, cars. We just haven’t been able to get the deal done, and especially in the first month and a half of the season, just struggling a lot.
“But now just really proud of my team. I feel like I was putting a lot of pressure on myself earlier in the season, trying to put a lot of pressure on the team to get the results.”
While Suarez had some challenges being competitive after restarts, he felt his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was very strong on longer runs.
“A lot of clean air and clean racetrack, and the car is just faster,” Suarez explained of the final laps of the race. “I was running most of the day between sometimes in the top 5, in the top 10 all day long, and the car was strong running there, just going away a little bit too soon. My short run speed wasn’t great. But once I was in the front, I was able to overcome that with clean air.”
Suarez continues to pursue his first career Cup win but is definitely optimistic about the way his team is heading after Sunday’s performance.
“I feel like if we keep running the way that we’re running today, top 5, top 10 pretty much all day long we were running in the top 10, I think it can happen any time,” he said of chasing win number one. “We just have to somehow beat the 4 car. The 4 car today was in a different league. Normally if you can run in the top 5, you can have a shot any time. Those crazy restarts and stuff. Like I said, overall very proud of my team. I feel like we are moving in the right direction. We just have to keep it up.”
