Clint Bowyer was not happy with the penalty NASCAR issued for Daniel Suarez for the incident at the Circuit of the Americas.
The No. 99 Chevrolet driver for Trackhouse Racing Team was not happy with Alex Bowman in the race. He retaliated on the cooldown lap in the race by bumping his teammate Ross Chastain out of the way at the pit-road entrance and then hit the back bumper of Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
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For his actions, NASCAR fined the driver $50,000 for violating Section 4.4.B&D (Member Conduct) in the NASCAR Rule Book. However, for his actions, Bowyer said that the penalty should have been more severe.
“I think it should have been even steeper. And the reason is because of that official. We all know there’s a safety element to this. What we do on that racetrack is one thing. You’ve got helmets on. You’re contained in safety seats,” Bowyer said.
“You see that official highlighted over there. That could have been very, very dangerous and ugly on that behalf. You have to lock this down. This cannot happen on pit road where those officials are after the race.”
.@Daniel_SuarezG not happy with @Alex_Bowman. He raced to catch up (even booted his teammate out of the way) and hit the back of the 48. No real confrontation, though. #NASCAR | #NASCAR75 | #EchoParkGP pic.twitter.com/ZszBAALAhs
— JJ (@TomcatNASCAR_2) March 26, 2023
Suarez in his defence said that he was Bowman was brake-checking him and that he didn’t expect the fine that NASCAR imposed.
“No, I was not expecting that just because we were running — based on SMT and stuff I saw — below 20 miles per hour. It was very, very slow. And also, the No. 48 car was brake-checking me, so we were not going quick. There was one official there, and that was wrong,” Suarez said.
“I was not expecting anything, but it is what it is. NASCAR wants to send a message, and it’s OK. I’m OK with that. It’s not right what I did, but I don’t think that anything else was going to happen. I wasn’t going to kill somebody like a lot of people thought. But it is what it is. I’ve already moved on from that.”
It is quite clear that Suarez was retaliating against Bowman as we can see him hitting Bowman’s car a couple of times.
Suarez While the incident involved Suarez bumping his teammate Chastain, he said that they have agreed to let go of the incident.