With it being extremely difficult to pass in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway, the front bumper and right-side door were utilized quite often when making passes in the race’s closing stages, as is typical for the half-mile paperclip.
For some drivers, in particular Daniel Suarez and Aric Almirola, the full-contact racing wasn’t done in the most favorable of ways, which became apparent as the two had a fairly animated discussion in the garage after the event.
? Daniel Suárez and Aric Almirola had a long, animated discussion post-race Sunday at Martinsville.
The exchange on @NASCAR.com:https://t.co/enuYNKya1F
— Zach Sturniolo (@zachstur) April 17, 2023
The two drivers ran in the same vicinity for much of the event but didn’t truly engage in the beating and banging you typically see at Martinsville until the end of the race’s second stage when the two drivers exchanged shots corner after corner battling for second.
While neither driver ended up retaining the position – as a result of fresher tires quickly approaching behind – there was certainly some hard feelings involved, despite the final stage running 220 laps.
Aric Almirola, driving the No. 10 for Stewart-Haas Racing, would go on to record a season-high sixth-place result, while Daniel Suarez tumbled down the running order in the final stage, coming home 17th in his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
Even though there weren’t any shoves or pushes involved in the post-race discussion – like there were on-track – the discussion seemed to be pretty spirited, with several gestures pointing to different ends of the track.
The discussion eventually fizzled out, although there was no real sign of agreement between the two drivers (i.e. handshake, fist bump, etc.), so the only people that really know the status of the relationship are Suarez, Almirola, and the people around, maybe.
One thing is for sure, though. We’ve come to expect stuff like this at Martinsville, and despite Sunday’s NOCO 400 being rather tame on-track, there is still some lasting impact off the track.
Watch the full discussion on NASCAR’s YouTube Channel:
