Ross Chastain lauds Trackhouse teammate Daniel Suarez’s Daytona performance after No. 99’s near playoff miss 

Ross Chastain praised Daniel Suarez after the latter nearly secured a playoff berth at Daytona International Speedway. The Trackhouse Racing driver also admitted that he tried to 'push' Suarez but was unsuccessful at it.

Suarez began the race outside the top 10 and had qualified the best among his Trackhouse teammates. Due to inclement weather, qualifying was decided by performance metrics from the previous race at Richmond, where Suarez secured a second straight seventh-place finish.

The No. 99 driver eventually found himself among the front runners when a third lane opened up in the closing laps. He drafted behind Ryan Blaney, launched into a four-wide situation on the final corner, and Blaney edged him out by 0.031 seconds to take the win.

Chastain, who'd finished 14th, was all praise for Suarez in second.

"I'm proud of the effort by Daniel (Suarez) and the No. 99 team. He kept his cool tonight. I tried to push him at times; it didn't work out and he made it up there on his own there at the end and gave himself a shot. It would be better with three, but we're definitely proud of the effort tonight," he said via Speedway Digest.

Daniel Suarez has recently found his stride after a string of poor finishes. If he can maintain his momentum going forward, he'd be in a position to help out his Trackhouse teammates on their playoff run.

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Daniel Suarez reflects on his strong run at Daytona

Daniel Suarez is on his final stretch of races as a Cup Series driver. A playoff berth at Daytona would've bolstered his chances for a new seat next year. However, Suarez remained optimistic about returning to contention in a post-race interview.

"I don’t know about the last few laps, but maybe 40 laps before the end, I felt like we we didn’t set up ourselves as good as we wanted to be, but that’s not a skill that was back there with us, and he was able to make it to the front. So probably the fastest superspeedway car we have had in a few years. Our playoff run ends here, but I’m very positive we’re gonna be there very soon,” he said.

Connor Zilisch was named Daniel Suarez's replacement at Daytona on Saturday, August 23. This may very well be Suarez's final year in the Cup Series, unless he can find a seat in the Xfinity Series and re-enter 2027 as a free agent.

He previously raced for JR Motorsports earlier this year in Mexico City. He went on to win the race by steering clear of a collision between Zilisch and Ty Gibbs up front. Notably, he'd begun the race from the tail end after wrecking out of qualifying and switching to a backup car.