Just after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas, Daniel Suárez was steaming. As the cars headed to pit road, Suárez bumped his teammate Ross Chastain out of the way in order to bump Alex Bowman on pit road. This was payback from a late race spin that sent Suárez from a potential top five to 27th, and Suárez blamed Bowman for that.
Given the number of people standing on pit road, intentionally hitting someone on pit road is illegal and Suárez learned his fate Wednesday.
NASCAR fined Suárez $50,000 for his actions. Suárez had a sense of humor after being a bit lighter in the wallet.
https://twitter.com/Daniel_SuarezG/status/1641203570581143553?s=20
While Suárez loses $50,000, he’s rather lucky he didn’t get any points taken away. Last year, Ty Gibbs made contact with Ty Dillon on pit road. While Gibbs didn’t lose any points as he was an ineligible Cup driver, he was fined $75,000 and the team was docked 25 points.
Maybe NASCAR gave a lighter penalty to Suárez because he hit Bowman from behind after the race, while Gibbs veered into Dillon during the race and almost sent him toward crew members and officials. Either way, the precedent was there to take away points, and they decided not to.
For anyone who asks, fine money goes toward The NASCAR Foundation. But since it’s not a direct donation from the driver, they cannot claim their fine as a tax deduction.