Any time a post-race celebration includes a taco piñata and red wine, you know you’re having a good time.
Mix in the fact it was Daniel Suarez — pretty clearly a popular name in the garage — doing the beating and the pouring, and I’d say what Sonoma lacked in drama Sunday (more on that later), it more than made up for in the “feel-good” department.
Take that, Joe Gibbs and Stewart-Haas!
“I mean, it’s been a rough road,” said Suarez, who was cast aside by both JGR and SHR a few years ago and forced to work his way back up the Cup Series ladder.
“It’s been a rough journey. These guys believe in me … Trackhouse Racing, Justin Marks, Ty Norris. Everyone that helped me to get in this point.
“This is the first one of many.”
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Daniel Suarez makes NASCAR history
Before we dive too far in, let’s get the particulars out of the way so the fellas in the numbers department don’t yell at me.
Suarez led the final 47 laps at Sonoma for his first career Cup win, becoming the first Mexican driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race and just the fifth foreign driver to win a Cup race. He’s also the fourth first-time Cup winner this season, too.
There. Did I get everything?!
Frankly, the win was way overdue. Suarez has had a race-winning car several times already this season, and probably should have won a few times during his Gibbs years.
Let’s not forget, he was also an Xfinity Series champion a few years back, too.
It’s been a long road, right Daniel? Surely those emotions had to be front and center when you took the checkers?
“I was asking for my piñata,” Suarez said of his first post-win thought. “I was asking the team to bring the piñata with me. I wanted to break it.”
Never mind!
Buescher beats COVID, Toyotas have historically bad day
So Suarez won his first race, but, in typical road race fashion, he wasn’t the only unusual name toward the top of the leaderboard.
Chris Buescher beat COVID last week and came back to finish second, his best showing since 2020 at Daytona, while Michael McDowell took home third.
Michael McDowell!
Austin Cindric, meanwhile, finished fifth — his best finish since winning the Daytona 500 four months ago — while Justin Haley brought ‘er home a respectable 12th.
Those were the good finishes … now, to the bad ones. Look away, Toyota.
Joe Gibbs Racing was shockingly bad at Sonoma, with Martin Truex Jr. leading the way in … 26th!
Kyle Busch spun out, Denny Hamlin was a non-factor, and Christopher Bell just sort of rode around. Yes, safe to say that group missed the mark.
But so did all of the Toyotas. How bad was it?
Kurt Busch was the highest-finishing Toyota in 18th, making it the first time since 2007 that Toyota didn’t have a car in the top-17.
Good thing this race wasn’t called the Toyota Save Mart 350.
Oh.
Austin Dillon calls out Chastain, Harvick calls pit crew “wankers”
Beyond a few dust-ups here and there, we didn’t really get much of that road-course drama at Sonoma.
Suarez won by a mile, led pretty much the entire final stage, and there were only two natural cautions. There was no retribution for Ross Chastain (yet), or Joey Logano (I still think Byron owes him one), and everyone generally left in a pretty good mood.
Ah, who am I kidding? There are always angry drivers … and owners!
“Don’t take no (expletive) form that 1 car,” Richard Childress radioed to Austin Dillon after Ross Chastain got a little too close.
“So much for all of those apologies last week. You know those were all (expletive),” Dillon responded.
This week’s gem goes to Kevin Harvick, though, who finished fourth despite a … shaky … pit stop late in the race.
“I swear to god we look like the biggest (expletive) bunch of wankers every week on pit road,” he said.
NBC takes over at Nashville as Dale Earnhardt Jr. returns
And yes, I’ll save you the google search for those of you who aren’t up-to-date on your British insults or don’t watch Ted Lasso.
There are several definitions for wanker, but my favorite is this one from the the Britannica Dictionary: A stupid, foolish or unpleasant person.
Fair enough. Good one, Kevin.
Anyway, on to … well, nowhere. The Cup Series takes a bye week next Sunday before revving it back up at Nashville.
And hey, it’s that time of year where NBC takes the reigns from Fox for the second half of the season.
Welcome back, Junior!
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Kevin Harvick calls out team, Suarez breaks through, Dillon dares Chastain