First modification: 13/06/2022 – 03:22
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San Francisco (AFP) – Daniel Suárez became the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR Cup motorsports race, winning Sunday at Sonoma Raceway (Sonoma, California).
Before Suárez, only four drivers born outside the United States had achieved victories in this motorsport series, including Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya in 2010.
The other members of the list are the Australian Marcos Ambrose, the Canadian Earl Ross and the Italian-American Mario Andretti.
“It’s a crazy day. I have so many thoughts in my head right now,” said an emotional Suarez celebrating with his country’s flag. “It’s been a tough road, a tough ride in the Cup Series. These guys believe in me and I have a lot of people to thank in Mexico.”
“I’m very happy that we were able to make it work,” said the Mexican, winner of the 2016 Xfinity Series championship and a graduate of NASCAR’s diversity program.
The 30-year-old Monterey driver led Sunday’s test for 47 of its 110 laps to beat American Chris Buescher to the finish of the 1.99-mile (3.2 km) Northern California circuit.
Suárez’s victory is the third for the Trackhouse team this season.
The Mexican joined this young team, which has among its owners the singer Pitbull, in the 2021 campaign, in which his best result was a fourth place in the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Race.
This year the Mexican had been warning of his potential with two other fourth positions at Auto Club Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“What a great Daniel Suárez! Enjoy it a lot with your whole family, congratulations; how much you deserved it”, congratulated his compatriot Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez on Twitter, who this Sunday finished second in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix of Formula 1.
© 2022 AFP
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