Battle at the Beach: Daniel Suarez Takes the Win at Daytona
Daniel Suarez takes it two-for-two tonight in the Battle at the Beach at the Daytona International Speedway in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East this season. Suarez led a total of a 119 of 150 laps to capture his second victory in the series this season. Suarez, from Monterrey, Mexico, became the first driver from the country to win a race at the hostoric track. He leaves Daytona with a 18 point lead over Lee Pulliam after two races in 2014.
Austin Hill scored his second career top-10 finish in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series this evening by coming home in the second position. Hill started the event from the second spot but could never catch the strong car of Daniel Suarez. He was 0.596 seconds behind the race winner when the checkers flown to end the race.
Brandon McReynolds scored his third top-five finish this evening by driving his No. 16 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota home to a third place finish. McReynolds was one of the cleanest drivers all evening long battling up front with Suarez at one point. He did not get a great qualifying effort that was 19th fastest, but once when the race started, McReynolds was able to chew his way to the front to capture his eighth top-10 finish.
Ben Rhodes night started off great after qualifying on his first ever NASCAR K&N Pro Series East pole, but later on got into an incident that heavily damaged his No. 41 Alpha Energy Solutions Chevrolet, and Rhodes went on to a disapointing 15th place finish out of 26 cars. Tonight was the second time of his NASCAR K&N Pro Series career that he started a race inside the top-10.
See below for the full race results:
Fin | Str | Car | Driver | Team | Laps | Points | B/Points | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | 6 | Daniel Suarez | Sunoco Racing Fuel Toyota | 150 | 48 | 5 | Running |
2 | 2 | 22 | Austin Hill * | A&D Welding Ford | 150 | 42 | Running | |
3 | 19 | 16 | Brandon McReynolds | NAPA Auto Parts Toyota | 150 | 41 | Running | |
4 | 11 | 15 | Nick Drake * | NAPA Auto Parts Toyota | 150 | 40 | Running | |
5 | 9 | 11 | Lee Pulliam * | Don Valley North Toyota | 150 | 39 | Running | |
6 | 10 | 96 | Kenzie Ruston | Ben Kennedy Racing Chevrolet | 150 | 38 | Running | |
7 | 3 | 20 | Gray Gaulding | Krispy Kreme Chevrolet | 150 | 38 | 1 | Running |
8 | 18 | 99 | Patrick Staropoli * | PEAK Toyota | 150 | 36 | Running | |
9 | 12 | 34 | Scott Heckert | Turner Scott Motorsports Chevrolet | 150 | 35 | Running | |
10 | 21 | 31 | Kaz Grala * | OzLINK Chevrolet | 150 | 34 | Running | |
11 | 15 | 46 | Brandon Gdovic | American Messaging/Windstax.com Toyota | 150 | 33 | Running | |
12 | 23 | 97 | Jesse Little | Vanacore Homes/NTI Chevrolet | 150 | 32 | Running | |
13 | 17 | 4 | Sergio Pena | UTI/NASCAR Technical Institute Toyota | 150 | 31 | Running | |
14 | 13 | 98 | Cameron Hayley | Cabinets by Hayley Chevrolet | 150 | 30 | Running | |
15 | 1 | 41 | Ben Rhodes * | Alpha Energy Solutions Chevrolet | 150 | 29 | Running | |
16 | 14 | 42 | Jay Beasley * | Toyota Racing Development Toyota | 150 | 28 | Running | |
17 | 20 | 21 | Mackena Bell | Special Smiles Toyota | 149 | 27 | Running | |
18 | 7 | 43 | Brodie Kostecki * | Arcoplate Toyota | 148 | 26 | Running | |
19 | 22 | 71 | Eddie MacDonald | Grimm Contracting Chevrolet | 148 | 25 | Running | |
20 | 16 | 2 | Ryan Gifford | Toyota Racing Development Toyota | 147 | 24 | Running | |
21 | 8 | 1 | David Garbo, Jr. * | Garbo Lobster Toyota | 145 | 23 | Running | |
22 | 5 | 24 | Brennan Newberry | Qore24 Chevrolet | 143 | 22 | Running | |
23 | 4 | 4 | Ronnie Bassett, Jr. * | Butler Trailer Mfg. Toyota | 143 | 21 | Running | |
24 | 26 | 18 | Brandon Jones | Paragon Energy Holdings Toyota | 143 | 20 | Running | |
25 | 25 | 55 | Jerry Dawson * | EXIT Realty Chevrolet | 81 | 19 | Accident | |
26 | 24 | 89 | Cory Joyce | Kyros Ent Chevrolet | 74 | 18 | Brakes |
RACE STATISTICS Fastest Qualifier: Ben Rhodes *, Time: 18.589 Seconds, Speed: 71.655 mph Failed To Qualify: Clint King (07), Beto Monteiro (12), Nathan Russell (75), Brandon Jones (33) (Jones replace Sam Hunt in No.18 due to illness) Time of Race: 1 hrs., 9 mins, 12 secs Average Speed: 48.121 mph Margin of Victory: .596 Seconds Caution Flags: Laps 11-16; 40-44; 56-61; 64-72; 85-92; 94-100; 130-136; 140-145. 8 for 54 laps. Lap Leaders: Ben Rhodes (grid), Gray Gaulding 1-31, Daniel Suarez 32-150. Total Laps Led: Daniel Suarez 119, Gray Gaulding 31. 1 changes involving 2 drivers.
Brett Winningham
Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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