Suarez entered Sunday’s race as one of the drivers trying to fight their way into the 16-driver playoff field on points as he so far lacks a victory during the 2023 season.
With a runner-up finish at Atlanta two weeks ago and 16th-place run at New Hampshire last weekend, Suarez was hoping to build on some momentum at Pocono.
However, both he and his Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain struggled in Saturday’s practice and qualifying, which didn’t set a good tone for the weekend.
On Sunday in the race, the situation only got worse.
When the second stage restarted, Joey Logano – who had won Stage 1 – got turned around and both Suarez and Noah Gragson got caught up in the aftermath.
The damage to Suarez’s No. 99 Chevrolet was severe and even though his team tried desperately to get it back in raceable condition, eventually an oil line leak send him to the garage, where he was credited with a 36th place finish and completed 37 of 160 laps.
“I don’t know – I got turned around on the right-rear on a very fast straightaway. Just lucky we didn’t get wrecked big time, but unfortunately we couldn’t continue anymore,” the 31-year-old native of Monterrey, Mexico, said of the incident.
“But at the end of the day, it’s our fault. We shouldn’t be back there with those guys. We fought the balance of the car in the first stage. We lost a bunch of track position. We kind of got it back a little bit.
“I felt like once we got the balance, we were going to be able to drive to the front. But we didn’t get the opportunity to and got wrecked before that. It was a racing incident, but we shouldn’t be back there racing with those guys anyway.”
After the race, Suarez had dropped to 18th in the series standings and now sits 23 points behind Michael McDowell, who currently occupies the 16th and final berth in the playoffs.
Five races remain before the field of 16 is fit and a win – of course – would lock Suarez into the playoffs. But 23 points is still a workable margin to overcome.
“It’s not great; it’s not ideal. But I have to control what I can control, and I cannot control some of the other guys,” he said. “Like I said, in my mind, we shouldn’t be racing back there.
“We just have to be better. Definitely frustrated because I feel like we’re better than this. I’m frustrated also because I feel like guys are wrecking each other and I’m the one that ended up out of the race without being in their mess.
“But what are you going to do – sometimes you’re on the good end of it and sometimes you’re on the bad end of it. Unfortunately, today, I was on the short end of it.”
