The NASCAR Busch Series made it's second appearance at the Autodrome Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. The Telcel-Motorola 200 was at the road course in Mexico City. Being on a road course changes the usual NASCAR strategy, especially pit stops. Also, along with the NASCAR regulars, we get the road course specialists like Boris Said, Chris Cook, Canadian Ron Fellows & Belgian Marc Goossens. And in this race we get the Mexican hometown favourites led by former CART driver Adrian Fernandez. These are all really good road course drivers that could win the race.
Boris Said-#9 Ingersoll-Rand Dodge won the pole with Denny Hamlin-#20 Rockwell Automation Chevy beside him in the front row. Said led the early part of the race. A lot of the leaders pitted early when Stacy Compton-#59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford blew an engine on lap 4. The idea is you get back to the front when everyone else pits later. Said was looking to pit during the green but a caution came out on lap 25 and he had to pit. That put Said in the back but he'd come back later.
This put Kyle Busch-#5 Lowe's/Hitachi Power Tools Chevy up front. The turning point of the race was when Michel Jourdain Jr-#15 Roshfrans Ford stayed out after a caution for track position. Busch was looking to take the lead from Jourdain with fresher tires on lap 52 but messed up in turn 7 and crashed with Jourdain. Busch had a winning car and this killed him and Jourdain was out of the race. The Mexican fans booed Busch for taking out one of their local heroes and Busch apologized for the incident.
Kevin Harvick-#21 Coast Guard Chevy was penalized for jumping the ensuing restart. Car owner Richard Childress appealed. NASCAR looked at the video and rescinded the penalty and gave him back third position. Harvick admitted that he couldn't have passed leaders Kevin Hamlin & Boris Said anyway. Hamlin held off Said through several late race cautions to win his very first NASCAR race. Busch finished seventh but he blew a win here.
As for the Canadians, Paul Tracy-#4 Geico Dodge was heading to a top ten finish when in the aftermath of the Busch/Jourdain crash, he rear ended Adrian Fernandez-#57 Lowe's Chevy and broke the radiator and finished 35th. Fernandez was OK and finished 12th. Ron Fellows-#33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevy had early ignition problems that put him at the back. He had further mechanical problems and ended up 33rd.
Congratulations to Denny Hamlin and car owner Joe Gibbs. And a great career best second place for Boris Said. Also a great 9th pace finish for Belgian road racer Marc Goossens-#90 Citi Financial Ford in his very first NASCAR race. I think we may see him again later this year. The Busch Series will be in Las Vegas next Saturday.
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