NASCAR fined Daniel Suárez of Trackhouse Racing $50,000 for a behavioral penalty after a post-race incident March 26 at Circuit of The Americas. The sections cited in the NASCAR Rule Book were 4.4.B&D NASCAR Member Conduct, contact with another vehicle on pit road after the race.
After the cooldown lap of the NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA, Suárez repeatedly contacted the back bumper of Alex Bowman‘s No. 48 Chevrolet as the duo entered pit road, moments after nudging teammate Ross Chastain aside to get to Bowman.
MORE: Watch and listen to Suárez‘s post-race cooldown lap
The collision between Suárez and Bowman took place feet from a NASCAR official near pit entrance who was directing drivers where to go. Suárez hit Bowman‘s car twice before Bowman brake-checked the No. 99 car.
Suárez‘s frustration seemed to stem from a double-overtime restart that saw him go from inside the top five down to a 27th-place finish after contact in the braking zone entering Turn 1. Chastain bumped Bowman into Suárez, sending the seventh-year veteran into 2017 Cup champion Martin Truex Jr., spinning Truex and flattening Suárez‘s right-front tire. Bowman and Chastain continued on to finish in third and fourth place, respectively.
Suárez confronted Bowman and Chastain upon exiting his vehicle to discuss the incidents.
RELATED: Breaking down late-race aggression | What team owner Marks had to say
Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks said Monday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio he would “rather have two guys mad about losing” than shrugging off their chances to win.
