By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor
JOLIET, Ill. — Daniel Suarez isn’t sure how he’s going to make the playoffs just yet.
But make no mistake – he believes his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team will find a way.
“I don’t really know but we’re going to make it,” Suarez said at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday. “Somehow, we are going to work very hard like we’ve been doing.”
Suarez arrived at Chicagoland Speedway in the midst of a mid-season slump. The Mexican tied his career-best Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series finish when he took the checkered flag in third at Dover International Speedway in May, but in the five races between it and Chicagoland he finished no better than 15th.
“It’s a real shame that we haven’t showed the results we deserve because the speed has been there,” Suarez said. “We have shown the ability to finish in the top-10 every race.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I am doing wrong.”
While he’s still in position to challenge for a playoff spot, Suarez’s slump has combined to trap the Joe Gibbs Racing sophomore outside of the playoff grid heading into July, leaving him sitting 19th in the standings after NASCAR ran their first race of the summer at Sonoma Raceway.
Suarez sits 73 points outside of the current playoff cutoff heading into Sunday’s Overton’s 400. With 10 races remaining in the regular season, the means the 2016 Xfinity Series champion will need to make up roughly seven points per race if he hopes to make the playoffs without a victory.
If Suarez can’t close the gap in the next few races his No. 19 team will have to shift their focus towards a late playoff-clinching win. But the 26-year-old isn’t ready to give up on points racing just yet.
“By points is very doable,” he said. “I think if we have the speed to go out there and win a race, we will take that chance. But if don’t and have the finish top-five or top-10, we’re going to be consistent and play that way. Winning the stage points and stuff like that.
“I mean 70 points in 10 races is not a lot. It’s doable but you have to race smart and a lot of people freak out a little bit. I am not one of those. I have to stay calm. We will be fine.”