Daniel Suárez's Race Speed Deficit and Poor Qualifying Don't Bode Well for Gateway
6 months agoAlthough his win at Atlanta locked him into the playoffs, Daniel Suárez's season has rapidly unraveled since then as he had a streak of ten races with below-average speed from Phoenix to Darlington, but he finally had above average speed again in last week's Coca-Cola 600 for the first time since Las Vegas. While that may suggest a potential turnaround in Suárez's fortunes, it's worth noting that Suárez has only really had decent performances on drafting tracks and 1.5-mile ovals this year, and Gateway most resembles Darlington, a track where Suárez ranked second-slowest in speed two races ago. He did finish seventh in last year's Gateway race, but he has been significantly slower this year than any of the other years when he had competitive equipment, so his bad Darlington run will likely be more predictive (especially since he only qualified 31st and was the second-slowest Chevrolet in qualifying).
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference