Daniel Suarez was on the verge of his first top-10 finish at Sonoma Raceway until he was spun by Jimmie Johnson on the last lap of Sunday’s race.
Suarez was running in 10th when slight contact from Johnson as they navigated Turn 4 sent his No. 19 Toyota around.
After recovering, Suarez managed to place 15th, one spot better than his 2017 result. Johnson went on to finish 11th.
“We started wheel hopping after 10 laps into a run,” Suarez told Fox Sports 1. “We just missed something with the brakes. ... After finally we figured it out, I felt like maybe we had a top-10 car. We just got dumped on the last lap.”
Suarez said that Johnson apologized to him about the contact.
“I was loose, so it didn’t take a lot for someone to spin me out,” Suarez said. “He didn’t hit me hard, he just put his bumper there a little bit. It was enough to spin me out because I guess I was loose already. We came from a little rough few weeks and a top 10 was going to be nice for us.”
Suarez has not finished better than 15th in the five races since he placed third at Dover.