“We win and lose as a team”: Daniel Suarez refuses to blame his crew-team despite slow pit-stop that helped Chase Elliott and Michael McDowell

Playoffs hopeful Daniel Suarez's day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last Sunday stemmed a good result for the Trackhouse Racing driver. However, given the position he finds himself in at the end of the regular season, a P3 finish last weekend was just not good enough for the Mexican native.

Touted to be one of, if not the fastest car ahead of race day, Suarez went into the Verizon 200 at The Brickyard full of confidence. He was hoping to punch his ticket into the postseason.

However, surprise winner Michael McDowell snatched that opportunity away from the #99 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver.

The #99 crew and driver lost out to Front Row Motorsports' McDowell and Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott at the end of the 200-mile-long event. They deemed a slow stop on the pit road as the cause of the slump.

Lapped cars and the leader's excellent pace meant Daniel Suarez could not drive up to the front once again and challenge for victory at The Brickyard.

The Mexican driver elaborated in a post-race interview with Bob Pockrass and summed up his day:

"We are a little bit behind on adjustments in the first half of the race and then by the end we got better, but unfortunately, we lost some time to the first two guys, but that's part of racing."

He added:

"We have to continue to build racecars like this. We win as a team and lose as a team so, we're not going to point fingers here. We are going to go back home analyze everything and come back stronger."

Chase Elliott, another playoff hopeful found himself in a similar position. Three lapped cars between him and the leading #34 Ford Mustang cost the #9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver to lose precious time. This ultimately relegated him to a P2 finish.

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Daniel Suarez's team owner Justin Marks' views on his slow pit stop at Indianapolis

Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks was also gutted by the potential victory for Daniel Suarez slipping away from the #99 driver on pit road.

Elaborating on how a nine-second stop would have put Suarez in a position to contend for the win, Marks said in an interview with Dustin Albino of jayski.com:

“I think if we come down pit road and have a nine-and-a-half second pit stop, I think Daniel wins the race. This is a game of tenths."

Watch Daniel Suarez as he tries to claim a playoff spot next weekend at Watkins Glen International.