Races August 23, 2021 No. 99 Struggles to Find Grip on Two-Mile Track Date: August 22nd, 2021 Event: FireKeepers Casino 400 (Round 25 of 36) Series: NASCAR Cup Series Location: Michigan International Speedway (2-mile oval) Format: 200 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/60 laps/80 laps) Start/Finish: 30th / 22nd (completed 200 of 200 laps) Point Standing: 25th with 423 points Notes: Daniel Suárez finished 22nd in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Michigan Speedway in Brooklyn. Suárez is 25th in the season standings after 25 races. Suárez started 30th on Sunday and climbed to 24th by the end of Stage 1. Suárez ascended to fourth in the second stage by doing a two-tire stop before the stage started. He ended the stage in 20th. The No. 99 started the final stage in 11th, but Suarez told the team he just didn’t have the grip to stay with the leaders and fell to mid-pack. A restart with 13 laps remaining saw Suárez dodge a multicar accident and move from 28th to 20th The race restarted with eight laps remaining, but hopes to gain more spots ended when he and another car made contact damaging the No. 99. He finished the race in 22nd. Michigan weekend wasn’t all work for the team. Trackhouse Founder Justin Marks, Suárez, and Trackhouse team officials attended Friday night’s Pitbull concert near Detroit. It was the kickoff of a 32-concert tour for the Trackhouse partner. The Cup Series will return to action Saturday Aug. 28 in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in the regular season finale. Suárez will need to win in Daytona to earn a place in the 16-driver playoffs. NBCSN will televise Sunday’s race at 7 p.m. EDT. Daniel Suárez, driver of the No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet Camaro for Trackhouse Racing: “We just didn’t have the front grip today to run up front and stay up front. In clean air I could be Ok, but in traffic we were in trouble. We will be ready for Daytona. I feel confident. We have had a really good super speedway program in 2021.”
