The stakes are incredibly high in the NASCAR playoffs following another dramatic race at Talladega.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr took his first win of the season at Talladega as he avoided a 28-car pile-up five laps before the end.
The incident, which Austin Cindric labelled as ‘predictable’, caught out several playoff drivers as Cindric was hit by Brad Keselowski and spun into the pack.
Five playoff drivers were eliminated from the race in the crash and has put them under increased pressure for the Bank of America Roval 400 to secure their spot in the Round of Eight.
One of those drivers was Daniel Suarez, who endured a miserable weekend at Talladega.
Tiff Needell stunned by Daniel Suarez’s bizarre crash at Talladaga
The No. 99 driver served a pass-through penalty for an unapproved change to the roof of his car, which put him out on contention upon the race start.
READ MORE: Kyle Larson reveals ‘luck’ factor behind matching career-best NASCAR Talladega finish
When Suarez found himself about to be a lap down, he remained in the middle of the field and when he saw a gap open on the top of the track, he was hit by the faster-moving B. J. McLeod and was spun onto the grass, narrowly avoiding the rest of the pack.
The Mexican ended up finishing down in 26th as he was caught up in ‘the big one’ towards the end. Speaking on the Lovecars On The Grid Podcast, Tiff Needell was left baffled by Suarez’s actions that led him to spin out at stage one.
“Suarez had a drive-through penalty for something he did, I forget what it was,” he said. “And then of course one car goes a lot slower than four lanes or 40 cars.
“So when you’re being lapped, the pack comes at you, going about 10mph faster than you, you’re only doing 190 and they’re doing 200. And he bizarrely chose to sit in the middle of the road. I don’t know what he was doing!
“Of course they all split, they were only three wide at that stage to be fair. So they all split, so he’s going backwards through these two lanes. He’s just heading back, back, back, and bizarrely suddenly decided, there was half a gap to the top lane, but he’s still going 5mph slower than the moving pack.
“And he moved up trying to get into the slot and the bloke hit him and he went off and crashed and that was him out, well almost out, he came back later.”
Daniel Suarez is under threat of elimination from the NASCAR playoffs
Suarez sits 10th in the drivers’ standings heading into the Roval, putting him at risk of elimination from the playoffs.
The Mexican is 20points behind eighth place Chase Elliott and will have to make up that margin and beat his rivals to stand any chance of qualifying for the next round.
William Byron has secured his place in the final eight as he leads the drivers’ standings over Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson.
With several playoff drivers put on the backfoot by the accident at Talladega, the Roval may see even more aggressive action as they desperately battle to advance further.