Battle at the Beach: Daniel Suarez Takes the Win at Daytona

Racing News
Tuesday, Feb 18 2017

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:

FinStrCarDriverTeamLapsPointsB/PointsStatus
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.

« Battle at the Beach: Doug Coby Snaps the Victory in Closing Laps BMR Drivers McReynolds, Drake Finish Third, Fourth In K&N East Action At Daytona »

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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