XFINITY day goes bad in a hurry for Daniel Suárez at Phoenix

Daniel Suárez's day came to an early and violent end in Saturday's XFINITY Series DC Solar 200 at Phoenix Raceway.

Suárez, who won last year's XFINITY championship but is not defending the title because he has moved up to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, was entering Turn 1 when he lost his right-rear tire. That sent him sideways and hard into the outside wall, wadding up his No. 18 Joe Gibbs racing Toyota and bringing out the caution on Lap 14.

In a FOX Sports television interview, Suárez blamed driver Jeremy Clements for earlier clipping him from behind, which he said led to the flat tire.

"I was worried about losing my right-rear (after the incident). I was just cruising around hoping to be able to come in and get it looked at," said Suárez, who added that he did not appreciate getting clipped by Clements.

Clements, on the other hand, said Suárez was at fault for racing too hard too early in the event, claiming that the contact came only after Suárez unnecessarily made it three-wide.