By Jerry Jordan, Editor
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Teammates Clint Bowyer and Daniel Suarez narrowly avoided disaster at Bristol Motor Speedway as Bowyer spun between Turns 1 and 2 sliding up in front of Suarez and forcing him as close to the wall as he could go without ripping off the right side of the racecar.
Bowyer said it was the loosest that his car has ever been at Bristol and being so hard to handle he just lost it. The two said they were lucky it didn’t ruin what would turn out to be a good night for both.
“Man, we needed more rear grip all night long,” Bowyer said, after the race. “That is probably the loosest I have been here. We kind of fought front turn all weekend long and we tried to make up for it with rear wedge and track bar out and that just hurts rear grip.
“It could have been a lot better. It is short-track racing, you are making split decisions and I was trying to pass those two cars and get some more stage points for us and, you know, I clipped him. I mean, it wasn’t nothing he did. I was trying to shoot the gap and I had a run on those guys and trying to do all I could do.”
Bowyer said the end result was good for the team, which is one spot out of the 16th place cutoff spot and just two point behind Suarez.
“I was hoping to be a Top 5 car because when you are a Top 5 car you have a chance to win and we were just a bit off that all night,” Bowyer said. “It was a good weekend for us, kind of a rebound weekend, which is what we needed. But, you know, you can’t expect those guys to just lay over for you. We did all we could do.”
Suarez didn’t want to diminish his skill level but he conceded he did have a little bit of luck on his side when he was able to avoid Bowyer and the outside wall by mere inches. It turned out to be a key move for him as he would eventually follow Bowyer to the finish line.
“I don’t know, probably I am a little lucky and a little good,” Suarez said. “It worked out good, it was pretty tight. I was lucky that Clint has experience and he was going to keep his car out of the wall and it was just a enough room for me to split in there.
“If it wasn’t for that I was going to hit him.”
Suarez said he feels like it was a positive weekend. He moved up to the 16th place position in the battle for the NASCAR Playoffs by picking up some crucial stage points. He said his car was strong and he hoped he could have finished in the Top 5 but in the end he didn’t have what he needed to get there.