Pruett fastest in Mexico practice
Scott Pruett topped the timesheets at the end of practice for the Nationwide Series Corona Mexico 250 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
The Ganassi driver set his fastest time in the second and final practice session before qualifying, with a lap of 1:28.097. Pruett claimed pole a year ago at this event and was set for victory before a collision with teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. The American veteran is among the favourites for Sunday.
Running only twelve thousandths of a second slower than Pruett was Roush Fenway's 19-year-old Colin Braun, who has great knowledge of the track from his days in Grand-Am. Despite almost matching Pruett's time, he reckoned he could have gone a bit faster.
"I think everybody did mock runs there at the end and unfortunately we only had one lap on our mock run and we had the red flag come out and a few other guys got in the way there right at the end," Braun said.
"I felt we could have been a little bit faster than that, I'm sure everybody does, but I'm real happy right now. We should be in good shape for the race."
Another road course specialist, Boris Said, was third fastest but nearly five tenths off from Pruett's time. Kyle Busch, who had topped the first practice session of the day, finished fourth and was best among the Sprint Cup regulars in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Australian Marcos Ambrose was fifth fastest and will be put together with the other top five drivers from Friday into the eighth and last group in Saturday's qualifying session.
Patrick Carpentier, who was on pole for his first Nationwide Series road course event at Montreal last year, finished the day seventh fastest and almost a full second adrift, but ahead of Max Papis who competes for Rusty Wallace's team this weekend.
Antonio Perez emerged fastest among the locals in ninth, while crowd favourite Adrian Fernandez was 13th, switching the driving with David Green during the day as the former Nationwide Series champion will qualify his car on Saturday while Fernandez races in the American Le Mans Series round at Long Beach.
Jason Keller and Joe Fox were involved in an incident that has forced the latter to withdraw from the event. Also having incidents were Landon Cassill and Sprint Cup Series regular David Reutimann.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Scott Pruett Dodge 1:28.097 2. Colin Braun Ford 1:28.109 + 0.012 3. Boris Said Ford 1:28.640 + 0.543 4. Kyle Busch Toyota 1:28.855 + 0.758 5. Marcos Ambrose Ford 1:28.905 + 0.808 6. Brad Coleman Ford 1:28.981 + 0.884 7. Patrick Carpentier Dodge 1:29.068 + 0.971 8. Max Papis Chevrolet 1:29.120 + 1.023 9. Antonio Perez Dodge 1:29.339 + 1.242 10. Erik Darnell Ford 1:29.441 + 1.344 11. Jason Keller Chevrolet 1:29.508 + 1.411 12. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 1:29.559 + 1.462 13. Adrian Fernandez Chevrolet 1:29.575 + 1.478 14. David Ragan Ford 1:29.641 + 1.544 15. Ron Hornaday Chevrolet 1:29.705 + 1.608 16. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 1:29.727 + 1.630 17. Steve Wallace Chevrolet 1:29.738 + 1.641 18. Carl Edwards Ford 1:29.822 + 1.725 19. Scott Wimmer Chevrolet 1:29.912 + 1.815 20. Ruben Pardo Dodge 1:30.045 + 1.948 21. Rafael Martinez Ford 1:30.256 + 2.159 22. Michel Jourdain Jr Toyota 1:30.362 + 2.265 23. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 1:30.368 + 2.271 24. Mike Bliss Chevrolet 1:30.418 + 2.321 25. Kelly Bires Ford 1:30.559 + 2.462 26. Jose Luis Ramirez Dodge 1:30.655 + 2.558 27. Mike Wallace Toyota 1:30.665 + 2.568 28. Brian Simo Chevrolet 1:30.686 + 2.589 29. Kyle Krisiloff Dodge 1:30.706 + 2.609 30. Jason Leffler Toyota 1:30.968 + 2.871 31. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 1:31.114 + 3.017 32. Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 1:31.245 + 3.148 33. Chris Cook Chevrolet 1:32.067 + 3.970 34. Kevin Lepage Ford 1:32.089 + 3.992 35. DJ Kennington Dodge 1:32.287 + 4.190 36. Kevin O'Connell Chevrolet 1:32.325 + 4.228 37. Scott Gaylord Ford 1:32.602 + 4.505 38. Kertus Davis Chevrolet 1:32.767 + 4.670 39. Robert Richardson II Chevrolet 1:32.951 + 4.854 40. Stan Barrett Chevrolet 1:33.128 + 5.031 41. Larry Gunselman Chevrolet 1:33.643 + 5.546 42. Joe Fox Chevrolet 1:34.253 + 6.156 43. Landon Cassill Chevrolet 1:34.518 + 6.421 44. Brett Rowe Chevrolet 1:34.621 + 6.524 45. Morgan Shepherd Dodge 1:35.200 + 7.103 46. Alex Garcia Chevrolet 1:35.211 + 7.114 47. David Reutimann Toyota 1:42.649 + 14.552
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