Daniel Suárez holds up the checkered flag after winning the NAPA 150 Saturday at Columbus Motor Speedway in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
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Rev Racing Driver Earns His First K&N East Victory
Daniel Suárez is ready to declare Columbus Motor Speedway as his home track.
The 21-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico doesn’t have an official home track in the United States, but the .333-mile in Ohio certainly is an adopted one as Suárez picked up his first career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victory in the NAPA 150 last Saturday night. His previous two starts at the track resulted in fifth-place finishes.
The victory was the second straight NASCAR touring series win for Suárez, who also won the NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series event on June 30 in his last outing that came in his hometown.
“It’s amazing. I can’t explain how I feel,” said the victorious Suárez, who led a race-high 88 laps. “I’ve worked so hard for this moment.”
It’s the second first time win for Suárez in as many seasons. On May 12, 2012, he picked up his first NASCAR Toyota Series triumph in Mexico City.
“The whole team has worked really hard for this. We’ll work now to keep this momentum going,” the driver of the No. 6 Toyota Racing Development Toyota added.
Suárez, making his 24th start in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, became the fifth different Rev Racing driver to reach Victory Lane since the organization began fielding cars for NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity in 2010. He also became the first Mexican-born driver to win in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East since Rogelio Lopez at Nashville in 2007.
Suarez, coming off his first career series win at Columbus, was also enthusiastic about his performance at Iowa.
“The momentum we have is what I’m really proud of with everybody on the No. 6 Acapulco Toyota,” Suarez said. “Everybody is doing a really good job in the last few races. My communication with my crew chief is getting better and better and I’m really happy about that.”
In the East meets West K&N Pro Series combo race this weekend at Iowa Speedway, Daniel Suarez finished third and now sits in eighth place in the East series’ point standings.
By Jason Christley, NASCAR Home Tracks
Daniel Suarez is our next guest on Fan4Racing Fan2Fan NASCAR-NHRA Talk, Monday, August 5th at 8:35pm ET. Call 347-996-5176 during the LIVE broadcast Q&A segment to interact with Daniel Suarez.
