Kyle Busch wins in Mexico City
Kyle Busch scored his third victory in a row in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and his first ever on a road-course, winning an incident-filled Corona Mexico 200 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Scott Pruett seemed to have the race under control in the closing stages despite pressure from a charging "Rowdy" Busch, but he outbraked himself at turn four with nine laps remaining, handing the lead to the Joe Gibbs driver who seized the opportunity to win on Mexican soil.
Busch was eleventh on the penultimate restart due to strategy as he had led the race earlier, but made his way through the field - and a number of incidents in front of him - to be second only seven laps later when the last caution flag came out with 16 to go.
Following the last restart he put pressure on Pruett and even tapped the rear end of the Ganassi car a couple of times, although he later seemed to lose contact with it. However he kept filling Pruett's mirrors until he saw him lock wheels and open the door for another Nationwide win.
"We ran up front the majority of the race there and Pruett had a little miss out there in turn four and I was able to get by him," said Busch, who has led nearly 64 percent of the laps of the Nationwide season thus far. "It looked like [Pruett's] car was fading back a little bit, but our car stayed pretty decent the whole time.
"If I ran good clean laps I knew I could build a big enough gap so those guys couldn't get me. Luckily I built a good enough lead because [Marcos] Ambrose was pretty good there at the end."
The race saw seven caution periods - and two red flags for 28 minutes - but that number didn't to justice to the amount of incidents on the track. The last 30 laps were action packed right behind the leader, and Busch was able to keep his nose clean through the carnage.
"It was just mayhem," Busch added. "We kept just trying to make sure that we missed all that stuff and get through it all but we were able to do it and kept our nose clean and make it here first."
Australian Marcos Ambrose had a bumpy afternoon but still came out without major damage from a number of clashes he was involved in, notably one with Boris Said.
He was able to mount a late challenge for victory after getting by Patrick Carpentier and Scott Pruett in the last 13 laps, but he ran out of time to get close enough to Busch.
"That was tough," said Ambrose. "Another two laps and we would've been in victory lane probably but congratulations to Kyle. He has driven a heck of a weekend. He's really driven well and had the car to beat. We restarted at the back and just couldn't get to him on time."
"I didn't mean to get into Boris. He's a great racer and I quite like him, and still do. It's just hard racing out there."
Once again Pruett saw his maiden NASCAR win slip though his fingers in the last ten laps, after losing to teammate Juan Pablo Montoya last year following a controversial clash at turn one.
This time he blamed set up issues for losing a win that looked in the cards, having led the most laps of the day but taking third in the end.
"We weren't real happy with the set up," Pruett said. "It was just a little off. We took a pretty big swing at it pitting a little early towards the end. We took some spring rubbers out and it got a little better but just not good enough to run hard. We were hanging on but that was about it."
Carl Edwards finished fourth behind Pruett after almost ripping off the rear panel on the Ganassi car when he tried to overtake under braking for turn one.
The reigning Nationwide Series champion had to pit from the lead under caution when all the other front runners had already made their last stops. He had to fight his way through to get back up front after that, finishing ahead of Patrick Carpentier.
Adrian Fernandez managed a 14th place finish despite making contact with the wall at the Peraltada corner after getting spun by Sam Hornish. The American was not a favourite among the crowd after that, but still was able to finish just ahead of the local hero.
Pole-sitter Colin Braun was a contender until he got a penalty for a pit road violation, which dropped him down the order. He was later involved in a couple of incidents while trying to move up through the field.
Clint Bowyer finished sixth and continues to lead the driver standings.
Pos Driver Car Laps 1. Kyle Busch Toyota 80 2. Marcos Ambrose Ford 80 3. Scott Pruett Dodge 80 4. Carl Edwards Ford 80 5. Patrick Carpentier Dodge 80 6. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 80 7. Scott Wimmer Chevrolet 80 8. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 80 9. Mike Bliss Chevrolet 80 10. Steve Wallace Chevrolet 80 11. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 80 12. David Reutimann Toyota 80 13. Mike Wallace Toyota 80 14. Max Papis Chevrolet 80 15. Adrian Fernandez Chevrolet 80 16. Jason Keller Chevrolet 80 17. Brad Coleman Ford 80 18. Ruben Pardo Dodge 80 19. Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 80 20. Rafael Martinez Ford 80 21. Jason Leffler Toyota 80 22. David Ragan Ford 80 23. Landon Cassill Chevrolet 80 24. Kevin Lepage Ford 80 25. DJ Kennington Dodge 80 26. Erik Darnell Ford 80 27. Kelly Bires Ford 80 28. Alex Garcia Chevrolet 80 29. Brian Simo Chevrolet 80 30. Kyle Krisiloff Dodge 80 31. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 80 32. Ron Hornaday Chevrolet 78 33. Colin Braun Ford 76 34. Antonio Perez Dodge 75 35. Boris Said Ford 54 36. Michel Jourdain Jr Toyota 39 37. Kevin O'Connell Chevrolet 32 38. Kenny Hendrick Chevrolet 30 39. Jose Luis Ramirez Dodge 28 40. Chris Cook Chevrolet 20 41. Larry Gunselman Chevrolet 17 42. Scott Gaylord Ford 12 43. Kertus Davis Chevrolet 1
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments