Suarez becomes first Mexican driver to win pole in Cup series
LONG POND, PA.» Daniel Suarez made NASCAR history when he became the first Mexican driver to win a pole in the elite Cup series.
The milestone comes with a bit of an asterisk: Suarez earned the top spot for Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway because the times of front-row starters Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were tossed out because their cars failed inspection.
Suarez had qualified third but officially starts his bid for his first career Cup win from the pole.
“It feels good, because we haven’t been running well lately,” Suarez said. “I feel like this is just the beginning of the weekend. The real business is (Sunday) and we have to keep this rolling.”
A whopping 13 cars failed inspection and will start at the rear of the field in order of owner points.
Martin Truex Jr. of Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, who qualified 14th, will start 8th. Truex will be attempting to sweep both Cup series races this season at Pocono, after winning June 3 in the Pocono 400.
“We thought we could pick up from our first round time and we just didn’t pick up enough there in Round 2,” Truex said. “We made some adjustments on the No. 78 Auto-owners Insurance Toyota between rounds. I just slipped a little in Turn 1 and lost some time.”
Suarez was the “El campeon!” of NASCAR’S developmental series in 2016, but failed to produce similar results when he was abruptly bumped to Cup on the heels of the departure of Joe Gibbs Racing fixture Carl Edwards.
The 26-year-old Suarez has yet to win a Cup race in 56 career starts and has only two top-five finishes. He’s 20th in the standings in the No. 18 Toyota and will likely need a win to earn an automatic berth into NASCAR’S playoffs.
“The results of my race team has been pretty bad the last few months,” Suarez said. “When things are going bad, you have to work even harder.”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted in Spanish to Suarez after the Xfinity title, and called him “a pride for Mexico and Latin America.”
Suarez’s mother was at Pocono visiting her son at the track.
“It was pretty cool to have mom,” he said. “My entire family is in Mexico. It’s cool to have my mom with me and starting on the pole.”