Daniel Suárez continues to win races with a victory at Interlagos while Gabriel Casagrande and Alex Seid share the spotlight as they took the championship lead from Leonardo Reis.
Leo Torres, Gabriel Casagrande and Daniel Suárez all took victory in the three exciting NASCAR Brasil Series races that were held at the historic Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace last week. Suárez’s victory, which he took in Race 2 on 3 August, proved to be a historic one.
As he had already won the thrilling Atlanta NASCAR Cup Series race and the exhibition NASCAR Mexico Series race at the L.A. Coliseum, Suárez became the first driver in NASCAR history to win races in three international divisions in the same year.
While Suárez’s win took up the spotlight – and deservedly so, Casagrande’s own victory allowed him and teammate Alex Seid to take over the lead in the overall standings from Leonardo Reis, who had a terrible round with two non-scoring finishes.
Qualifying Recap
Just like the previous round at Autodromo Potenza, the Interlagos round began with a points awarding Qualifying session. Unlike Potenza where it was done in the 20-minute session, the Qualifying at Interlagos was done in a single-car format.
The drivers were released in five random groups and each were given two flying laps to set their best lap time. Naturally, those that were assigned in the latter groups had the advantage from their adversaries in the earlier groups.
Casagrande was assigned to the penultimate group and he played his cards perfectly, clocking a fast lap time of 1:52.577 to secure the top overall position and full points for the No. 83 Axalta/Milltec1 Camaro crew.
Behind him was another driver that secured full points. Júlio Campos brought the No. 57 Super Carros Camaro normally driven by Felipinho Tozzo to second overall and first in class, securing both him and Tozzo the 25 points in the Challenge division.
Cayan Chianca and Suárez completed the top-3 positions in the top NASCAR Brasil division. However, Suárez was ineligible to score points due to his wildcard status, so Reis in fifth was the one to be officially classified in third place on the standings.
Victor Andrade and the pairing of Beto Monteiro and Marcel Jorand were second and third in the Challenge results, having qualified their No. 22 XBRI Pneus Ford and No. 39 Gas Verde Camaro in eighth and eleventh place overall respectively.
Race 1 Recap
The action at Interlagos was followed with the first race on Saturday afternoon. With Special Edition rules in place, the top-10 qualifiers had their grid positions randomized for Race 1 and Chianca was the one to pull the 5-star ticket to pole position.
Chianca immediately stormed to the lead at the start, with Torres and Luan Lopes trailing from the get go. Suárez, Lucas Mendes and Andrade joined the fight later on to create a six-car battle for the win.
Chianca looked to have victory secured when Lopes tipped the driver of the No. 4 Odontoprev Ford into a half-spin at the Senna S chicane on the final lap.
Chianca skillfully kept his car under control, but this opened the room for everyone in the lead pack to contest the battle. Eventually, it came down to a battle between Mendes and Suárez that was won by the latter after a drag race to the line.
However, Suárez did not actually win the race itself. Earlier in the race, the Mexican was handed a five-second time penalty for barging Torres through. The penalty relegated Suárez to sixth and ironically, it was Torres who got the spoils.
Torres quietly picked his moment and out dragged Mendes to the finish, putting him in the position to take advantage of Suárez’s penalty and clinch his first win of the 2024 season with the No. 2 Maxon Oil/M1 Motors Ford.
Mendes’ misery was compounded by the fact that he didn’t even finish inside the top-3. Chianca and Lopes also outran him on Interlagos’ long front straight, leaving the 18-year old driver to contend with a fourth place finish.
Andrade easily won the Challenge race in fifth, finishing more than 21 seconds ahead of Gabryel Romano in eleventh. Goiânia oval winner Jorge Martelli completed the Challenge podium in twelfth.
Leo Reis’ title challenge received a significant dent when teammate Thiago Lopes – unrelated to the Thiago Lopes that debuted at Potenza – had to make an emergency pit stop, leaving the newly reskinned No. 32 Sterling Ford to finish in a lowly 21st position.
To make matters worse for Reis, he didn’t receive a single point due to the Special Edition format – the first two races awarded points for the top-18 drivers, irrespective of their division, in increments of one point.
Race 2 Recap
The aptly named “Sunset Race” was held a few hours later. The top-10 qualifiers had their randomized grid positions inverted and since the Casagrande/Seid duo ended up tenth in Race 1, they got the chance to lead the field for Race 2.
Seid, who raced the No. 83 Camaro on both Saturday races, retained their lead in the first corner. The action was short lived, however, as chaos broke out behind the 40-year old driver that necessitated the Safety Car.
It started when Tozzo, Suárez and Rafael Dias tried to fit their cars three-wide at the Senna S, resulting in Suárez and Dias being forced to take the escape road. Suárez rejoined safely, but Dias rejoined into the path of Chianca’s car, sending both drivers into a spin.
The midpack drivers had to take avoiding action to not crash into either Dias or Chianca, with Antonio Junquiera being unlucky enough to drive his No. 16 Villa Stradale Ford Mustang straight into the tire barriers.
Just a few corners later, Tozzo had a spin at Descida do Lago that led to some minor contact with Torres. That was the least of Torres’ problems however, as he failed to stop in time for the Safety Car and ran into the side of Luís Trombini’s No. 63 Philco Camaro.
Chianca, Junquiera and Torres were eliminated on the spot, with Arthur Scherer also retiring during the Safety Car period. As for Dias, he had to make an unscheduled stop that left him two laps down from the leaders.
The race was restarted on lap 4 with Mendes getting the jump on Seid at the first corner. It was not without issues however – Mendes closed the door on a dive bombing Lopes, sending the latter into a big spin.
This resulted in Mendes receiving a 10-second penalty, handing the theoretical race lead to the drivers behind. Seid contested this lead with Suárez and Beto Monteiro, with Suárez winning it out after he made the pass on Seid on lap 7.
In an inverse of the situation in Race 1, Suárez’s runner-up finish on the line was enough to promote him to the winner’s circle. Seid finished 1.177 seconds behind, but he received the full championship points that will be useful for the title hopes of him and Casagrande.
Beto narrowly fends off a late challenge from Andrade to claim third overall and victory in Challenge, the first for him and teammate Marcel Jorand. Witold Ramasauskas and Nick Monteiro completed the NASCAR Brasil and Challenge podiums in fifth and seventh.
Race 3 Recap
The third race was the sole race held on Sunday. The grid was determined by the combined scores of the first two races, so Suárez earned pole with his sixth and first place finishes ahead of Andrade, who had a fifth and a fourth.
Both drivers retained their 1-2 positions after the first corner, followed by Campos and Lopes with Casagrande struggling to keep the No. 83 Camaro in the leader’s draft.
The complexity of the race would change when the Safety Car was called at the end of lap 5 after a collision between Junqueira and Martelli, which resulted in Junqueira wrecking his No. 16 Stradale Ford once more.
Suárez kept his lead on the restart that took place on 7, but Andrade made a poor getaway and dropped down to fifth. He then spun his car at Descida do Lago, ending his hopes for a sweep in the Challenge division.
The lead battle is now contested between Suárez, Campos and Casagrande. Suárez tried his best to keep them at bay, but Casagrande latched onto Suárez’s draft and slingshot his way past the former Xfinity champion at the start of lap 10.
It was all that Casagrande needed to take home the victory, securing his fourth victory of the year and ensuring that he and Seid would move to the lead of the championship prior to the next round at Cascavel.
Campos also managed to overtake Suárez in the dying stages of the race, clinching second overall and first in Challenge.
Suárez completed the overall podium ahead of Torres and Dias, who were classified as the top-3 points finishers in the NASCAR Brasil class. Leo Reis was fourth in class and sixth overall.
The podium in the Challenge class was completed by Guilherme Backes and Edson Reis, who finished ninth and eleventh overall respectively. Andrade recovered to finish twelfth, just 1.4 seconds away from Edson at the checkered flag.
Championship Standings
Two victories for the Gabriel Casagrande/Alexander Seid pairing at Interlagos saw them move to the lead in the standings for the first time since the opening round at Campo Grande.
With 236 points, they have a 25 point lead from Leo Reis. Vitor Genz was left further behind in third, now with a deficit of 76 points after an anonymous round for the highly popular driver.
Genz had to be wary because Cayan Chianca’s results left him with only a 5-point deficit to Genz. Rafael Dias stayed in fifth while Lucas Mendes now takes sole ownership of sixth place with his solo outing at Interlagos.
Lourenço Beirão and Sérgio Ramalho were seventh and eighth despite not taking part with Witold Ramasauskas and Leo Torres completing the top-10 positions in the NASCAR Brasil championship.
In Challenge, Victor Andrade became the new overall leader thanks to his consistency against the series heavyweights. The Sao Paulo driver now leads with 195 points, 20 ahead of Felipinho Tozzo who gained two positions thanks to Júlio Campos’ assist.
Guilherme Backes remained in third with 169 points while Julio Martelli dropped from first to fourth, trailing Andrade by 34 points. Gabryel Romano, Nick Monteiro, Luís Trombini, Léonardo Yoshii, Giovani Girotto and Marcel Jorand rounded out the top-10.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.