WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — For the first time as a NASCAR Cup Series team, Trackhouse Racing had three cars finish in the top-10 in the same race.
(HHP/Blake Harris)
(HHP/Blake Harris)
Photos courtesy of Team Chevy.
Shane van Gisbergen led the way with a commanding, 11.116-second win over Christopher Bell. He is the second driver with multiple 10-plus-second wins since 2000, according to NASCAR Insights (Martin Truex Jr. in 2018 is the other).
Bookending the top-10 was Ross Chastain who started fourth and finished 10th on the day. Three spots ahead of him was Daniel Suarez, who finished seventh.
(HHP/Blake Harris, Photo courtesy of Team Chevy)
Suarez’s last top-10 finish was a run of back-to-back top-10s at Talladega in April (ninth) and Texas in May (10th). Seventh at Watkins Glen is also his best Cup finish since getting second at Las Vegas.
“It feels nice to get a good finish for this No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet team. For the last couple of months, I feel like we’ve had decent, top-10 speed. We just haven’t been able to execute. Today, we were able to execute a decent race,” Suarez said.
Photo: Dominic Aragon/TRE
While Suarez started 19th and didn’t earn any stage points, crew chief Matt Swiderski and the No. 99 team hit the strategy just right in the end. They gave Suarez exactly what he needed to finish strong.
“This team did a good job all day. Our Chevrolet was pretty good – I don’t know if it was good enough to win, but it was good enough to be fighting in the top-10 and that’s where we ended up,” Suarez said.
(HHP/Blake Harris, Photo courtesy of Team Chevy)
Suarez now has four top-10 finishes in eight starts, including three top-5 finishes. He has an average finish of 12.8 at Watkins Glen – his best at a single track in his Cup career, dating back to 2017.
“This place has been good to me in the past. Like Iowa and Indianapolis, there’s been a lot of tracks that have been good to me in the past. We’ve just had a lot of accidents and things happen that were out of our control. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into the next couple of races and get a win,” Suarez said.
In contrast to SVG and Chastain, Suarez is winding down his days at Trackhouse. He also isn’t locked into the playoffs – but he has two more chances to get in.
Next up is the Aug. 16 race at Richmond and the Aug. 23 race at Daytona.
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Photo by Dominic Aragon/TRE
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com