Daniel Suárez became the first Mexican-born driver to win a race on NASCAR's top series Sunday when he ran away with the Cup series event at Sonoma Raceway.
Suárez, who came to the U.S. from Monterrey, Mexico, 11 years ago with little money and even less familiarity with English, took the lead from Chris Buescher at the start of the third stage and held it for most of the final 49 laps, beating Busecher to the finish line by more than 3.8 seconds.
Suárez entered the 350-mile race over Sonoma's winding road course 20th in the Cup series standings with four top-10 finishes this season. His best previous best finish was fourth. But Sunday's win qualifies him for NASCAR's 10-race playoff this fall, and he drove the race of his life to earn it.
