DOVER, Del. — Not too far from the time Daniel Suarez was chatting with booth during the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday (May 15), a scary situation involving his No. 7 pit crew and a FOX Sports’ team member occurred.
Due to the horse racing track going around the infield of Dover Motor Speedway, there are many steep hills teams and fans have to navigate. On Friday, a pit cart that was being pushed down a hill started gaining speed and was headed right toward pit reporter Amanda Busick. Donovan Williams, a tire carrier on Suarez’s team, jumped in to protect Busick.
Busick left the incident without injury, but Williams was sent to the hospital and will not pit the No. 7 this weekend as a result. Andrew Egnarski replaces Williams at Dover.
“Told [Williams] at hospital I hate we had to meet this way,” Busick posted on X. “But so grateful we did! We both agreed what a reminder this is to never take any of it for granted. Can’t wait to hug you at a track again soon, Donovan. And thank you to all who rushed to help us immediately.”
Suarez also talked to Williams Friday night. When asked what he said to him, Suarez replied, “How’s your ass?”
“That just tells you how [Williams] is,” Suarez said. “He’s a very good leader, and we’re gonna miss him today [Saturday]. I feel like we’re lucky that his injuries are not huge. I mean, he’s walking at least. I’m really praying that we can have him back in the next week or two. He’s a tough man. I’m pretty sure that he’s gonna be back before doctors tell him to.”
This came just days after jackman Allen Holman was moved from the No. 7 team to William Byron’s No. 24 while Spencer Bishop went from the No. 24 to Suarez. Spire Motorsports leases pit crews from Hendrick Motorsports, so HMS reserves the right to call up crew members from Spire to its team whenever.
“It’s been a tough week for us in the pit crew department, because we lost our jackman earlier in the week to the [No.] 24 gang, which is fine,” Suarez said. “I love Allen. He was doing an amazing job with us. … I love Spencer too. I got to practice with him during the week, and he’s extremely good, so I don’t think it was a downgrade at all.
“I think that we’re gonna be fine, but now losing Don … we got two different people In a matter of a few days, so we’re in a little bit of a difficult situation. But we just have to maximize our day. It’s gonna be not gonna be easy, but we have to make sure that we don’t make the the hole deeper.”
But the hole was dug deeper. The difference in pit crew chemistry was evident in qualifying for the All-Star Race on Saturday, which involves a pit stop. Suarez posted what was at the time the third quickest lap. But as he went into turn 1 after taking the checkered flag, the right front wheel fell off, sending the No. 7 hard into the outside wall.
“My warning was that the car was very, very tight,” Suarez said. “Leaving pit road, it was super tight. I was like, ‘That’s odd,’ but you know, different set of tires, different pressure, so I didn’t think much about it. And then in [turns] 3 and 4, I got super tight again, which that made me kiss the wall and exit a little bit, and I was like, fuck, hit the wall a little bit there. But I still thought that it was air pressure related, but no vibration or anything. And then I got into corner 1 and the tire obviously came off.”
To add insult to injury, Suarez was penalized for losing the wheel, giving him a DNF in qualifying and dropping him to a 33rd-place starting spot.
“F–k those guys,” Suarez said while laughing. “I finished. I was third. Hey, come on, NASCAR, fix that shit.”
Still, the Mexico native refused to throw his pit crew under the bus.
“I feel like my pit crew has been doing an amazing job,” Suarez said. “I’m super proud of them, but we have lost two guys in the last few days. And these guys, this group that did it today, they have never practiced together. So it’s tough. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just we’re asking too much of the guys. They are amazing, but it’s hard to do these kind of things. It’s a lot of pressure. They want to be fast. Just an unfortunate circumstance.”
The No. 7 team will have to go to a backup car for Sunday’s All-Star Race. Even Spire teammate Michael McDowell and his crew helped in getting the backup ready.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.