Whenever a post-race celebration includes a taco piñata and red wine, you know you’re having a great time.
Mix in the fact that it was Daniel Suarez – quite clearly a popular name in the garage – who beat and poured, and I’d say what Sonoma lacked in drama on Sunday (more on that later), it more than made up for it. in the “wellness” section.
Take that, Joe Gibbs and Stewart-Haas!
“I mean, it’s been a tough road,” said Suarez, who was sidelined by JGR and SHR a few years ago and forced up the Cup Series ladder.
“It’s been a tough journey. These guys believe in me…Trackhouse Racing, Justin Marks, Ty Norris. Everyone who’s helped me get to this point.
“This is the first of a long series.”
CHASTAIN’S NO-NO:Ross Chastain needs ‘(expletive) boo’, Hamlin vows revenge, Chase Elliott gets warning
ELLIOTT GOES CRAZY:Chase Elliott loses his mind, Logano warns Byron, and Kurt Busch has that “rare” quality
HAMLIN’S WARNING:Hamlin rips NASCAR over call that could have led to ‘lawsuit,’ VP responds, Blaney is rich
Daniel Suarez makes NASCAR history
Before we dive too deep, let’s get the details out of the way so the guys in the numbers department don’t yell at me.
Suarez led the final 47 laps at Sonoma for his first career Cup victory, becoming the first Mexican driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race and only the fifth foreign driver to win a Cup race. He is also the fourth Cup winner for the first time this season.
The. Did I understand everything? !
Frankly, victory was way overdue. Suarez has already had a winning car several times this season and probably should have won several times during his Gibbs years.
Let’s not forget that he was also the Xfinity Series Champion a few years ago.
It’s been a long road, hasn’t it Daniel? Surely those emotions must have been at the forefront when you took on the ladies?
“I was asking for my piñata,” Suarez said of his first thought after the win. “I was asking the team to bring the piñata with me. I wanted to break it.”
No matter!
Buescher beats COVID, Toyotas historically have a bad day
So Suarez won his first race, but, in typical road racing fashion, he wasn’t the only unusual name up the leaderboard.
Chris Buescher beat COVID last week and came back to finish second, his best performance since 2020 at Daytona, while Michael McDowell took third place.
Michael McDowell!
Austin Cindric, meanwhile, finished fifth – his best result since winning the Daytona 500 four months ago – while Justin Haley brought him home with a respectable 12th place finish.
Those were the good finishes…now, the bad ones. Look elsewhere, Toyota.
Joe Gibbs Racing was shockingly bad at Sonoma, with Martin Truex Jr. leading in…26th!
Kyle Busch spun, Denny Hamlin wasn’t a postman, and Christopher Bell just rolled. Yes, safe to say this group missed the mark.
But the same goes for all Toyotas. How bad was that?
Kurt Busch was the top-ranked Toyota in 18th place, making it the first time since 2007 that Toyota didn’t have a car in the top 17.
Fortunately, this race was not called the Toyota Save Mart 350.
Oh.
Austin Dillon calls Chastain, Harvick calls pit crew ‘wankers’
Beyond a few dusts here and there, we didn’t really get much of that Sonoma road drama.
Suarez won by a mile, led pretty much the entire final stage and had just two natural warnings. There was no retaliation for Ross Chastain (yet) or Joey Logano (I still think Byron owes him one), and everyone left in generally good spirits.
Ah, who am I kidding? There are still angry drivers… and owners!
“Don’t take any (expletive) form for this car,” Richard Childress told Austin Dillon over the radio after Ross Chastain got a little too close.
“So much for all those apologies last week. You know, they were all (expletive),” Dillon replied.
The crown jewel of this week, however, goes to Kevin Harvick, who finished fourth despite a…fragile…pit stop late in the race.
“I swear to god we look like the biggest (expletive) bunch of wankers on pit road every week,” he said.
NBC takes over in Nashville with the return of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And yes, I’ll save you the Google search for those of you who aren’t aware of your British slurs or don’t watch Ted Lasso.
There are several definitions of a wanker, but my favorite is from the Britannica dictionary: a stupid, insane or disagreeable person.
Fair enough. Well done, Kevin.
Anyway, to…well, nowhere. The Cup Series takes a week off next Sunday before restarting it in Nashville.
And hey, it’s that time of year when NBC takes over the reins from Fox for the second half of the season.
Welcome back, Junior!
