When you have the level of full-contact racing that you do in the closing laps of a road course event in the NASCAR Cup Series, you’re bound to have somebody frustrated with another competitor.
This weekend at COTA, it was Daniel Suarez showing his displeasure for Alex Bowman – and apparently Ross Chastain – on the cooldown lap of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.
Suarez, who finished 27th after competing inside the top five for the majority of the event, sped up after the checkered flag was displayed to find Alex Bowman and Ross Chastain, who both finished inside the top five.
Then, as the three cars were entering pit road, Suarez made decent contact to the rear-end of Chastain, his teammate at Trackhouse Racing, before continuing on to make even more contact with Alex Bowman as the cars approached their parking spots.
.@Daniel_SuarezG not happy with @Alex_Bowman. He raced to catch up (even booted his teammate out of the way) and hit the back of the 48. No real confrontation, though. #NASCAR | #NASCAR75 | #EchoParkGP pic.twitter.com/ZszBAALAhs
— JJ (@TomcatNASCAR_2) March 26, 2023
The disdain from Suarez to Bowman – and even Ross Chastain – likely stems from an incident on the second attempt at NASCAR Overtime, when the driver of the No. 1 got into the back of Bowman, which therefore launched him into Suarez, who turned Martin Truex, Jr.
That incident and the damage it caused to the No. 99 Chevrolet Camaro were what saw the Monterrey, Mexico-native’s chances of scoring a solid top-five result fall apart. Meanwhile, both Bowman and Chastain finished in the top five.
Around goes Truex! pic.twitter.com/n83JSa0v3b
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 26, 2023
That’s not where the tempers ended, though. After climbing from their cars, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez had a discussion about the late-race incident on pit road, which Jeff Gluck of The Athletic captured on video.
While the conversation between Suarez and Chastain looked mostly civil – at least more civil than recent conversations with drivers mad at Chastain have gone – there were definitely some hurt feelings on the side of Suarez.
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) March 26, 2023
After the race, Alex Bowman had his own two cents about the late-race restart incident, which shuffled the No. 99 to the rear of the back, and saw both himself and Chastain collect minimal damage.
“He just thought I drove in and tried to drive through him. I had the corner made,” Bowman said. “Only reason I was inside of the No. 99 was to protect from the No. 1. Then the No. 1 just hammered me in the corner, dumped me, then I ran into the No. 99, kind of cleaned him out.”
“Daniel [Suarez] and I, we’ve been teammates in the past, raced together a long time. I respect the hell out of him,” Bowman continued. “I’m sure he’s still not super happy. Just tried to explain that I wouldn’t race him like that, that I was shoved in there. You see that a lot on these road courses. Indy last year, [Kevin] Harvick was super mad at me and crashed me. Then he watched the video, and he was like, Man, I crashed the wrong guy.”
While Alex Bowman rebounded from the contact to finish third, and Ross Chastain right behind him in fourth, a potentially good points day was spoiled for Suarez, who came home in 27th.
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