NASCAR Cup Series

Xfinity Chase race No. 2: Daniel Suarez wins at Dover

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Suarez nails down his second series win by 5.625 seconds to punch his ticket into the next round of the Xfinity Chase.

Daniel Suarez dominated the Drive Sober 200 at Dover International Speedway for his second career victory to advance into the second round of the first ever Xfinity Chase. The 24-year old Mexican is just one of six foreign born drivers to have visited the winner’s circle in this series.

“I’m very proud of this team – the 19 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry,” said Suarez about his win at Dover. “They did a really good job today and the guys just brought an amazing car. We had a ton of speed. This is one of those races that you would feel bad to lose the race. ARRIS, Juniper, Toyota – everyone that supports this program together, it’s pretty unbelievable to win.”

Suarez led the most laps, 123 of 200, in the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and leaps to the top of the Chase field just ahead of Elliott Sadler who also has a win and will advance.

“That’s something really good and it just gives us more confidence and we are going to move to the next one at Charlotte with a little more – we know we’re really strong in Charlotte so now we can go out there and have a little fun,” he said about being locked into the next round. “We always have fun, but try to enjoy the race a little bit more on the relaxed side and try to get a win.”

With his third place finish, Justin Allgaier is third in points while Brendan Gaughan and Ryan Reed round out the top five as the series moved to an elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway next Saturday.

Ty Dillon had a solid day finishing second, however he is three points behind Brennan Poole, who is in the eighth and final spot. The one driver who took a huge hit was Erik Jones. The 20-year old, who is headed to Sprint Cup next year, had to pit at lap 194 because he could not make it on gas. He was on the lead lap at the time and would drop to two laps down finishing 16th. Unfortunately that would drop him to 10th in the standings and trails Poole by four points.

One car that was in contention for the win and was on the lead lap was Drew Herring until he smacked the No. 6 of Bubba Wallace trying to clean off his tires prior to the restart on lap 152. It cut down his left rear tire and if pitting under green wasn’t bad enough, he would be caught speeding and a pass-through would leave him three laps down. Herring was subbing for Kyle Busch.

PIT NOTES:
The other foreign born drivers to win in the Xfinity Series are Marcos Ambrose (Australia, 5 times), Ron Fellows (Canada, 4), Suarez (2), Juan Pablo Montoya (Columbia, 1), Nelson Piquet Jr. (Brazil, 1) and Larry Pollard (Canada, 1).

Since the XFINITY Series race was pushed to today due to yesterday’s weather, Sprint Cup Series regulars Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Austin Dillon are no longer participating. Drew Herring, Ryan Blaney and Regan Smith will pilot the Nos. 18, 22 and 2 cars, instead, respectively. All three cars were forced to start at the rear of the field because of driver changes.

NASCAR has an issue with the rear window of Drew Herring’s No. 18 Toyota and while repairs were being made it cracked and had to be replaced. The crew was able to get him back on the track in time for the start of the race.

The No. 3 Chevrolet (Ty Dillon) and No. 15 Ford (Josh Wise) started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

CAUTIONS
Lap 2 – Josh Wise engine blows, Matt DiBenedetto hits wall. No free pass was warranted.
Lap 34 – Jordan Anderson hits wall. Jeff Green gets free pass. (*Competition Caution)
Lap 60 – Ryan Ellis hits outside then inside walls. Out of race.
Lap 139 – Justin Marks crashes into outside wall. Alex Bowman gets free pass.

DRIVE SOBER 200 FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Daniel Suarez
2 – Ty Dillon
3 – Justin Allgaier
4 – Ryan Blaney
5 – Alex Bowman
6 – Corey Lajoie
7 – Elliott Sadler
8 – JJ Yeley
9 – Brendan Gaughan
10 – Ryan Reed
11 – Darrell Wallace Jr.
12 – Ross Chastain
13 – Regan Smith
14 – Blake Koch
15 – Brennan Poole
16 – Erik Jones
17 – Brandon Jones
18 – Ryan Preece
19 – Ryan Sieg
20 – Dakoda Armstrong
21 – Drew Herring
22 – Jeremy Clements
23 – Mario Gosselin
24 – Ray Black Jr.
25 – Brandon Hightower
26 – Garrett Smithley
27 – Joey Gase
28 – David Starr
29 – Derrike Cope
30 – Mike Harmon
31 – Justin Marks
32 – Jeff Green
33 – BJ McLeod
34 – Morgan Shepherd
35 – Matt Waltz
36 – Ryan Ellis
37 – Jordan Anderson
38 – Timmy Hill
39 – Josh Wise
40 –  Matt DiBenedetto

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