The NASCAR Xfinity Series was at Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Saturday for the running of The Chilango 150, which saw Mexico's own Daniel Suarez win in a backup car.
How The Chilango 150 unfolded at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Connor Zilisch led the field to green for the 65-lap race around the 2.42-mile, 15-turn road course. Moments after Zilisch and Ty Gibbs got together battling for the lead in Turn 3 on Lap 2, causing Zilisch to fall back to fifth, Sam Mayer wheel-hopped and spun into the Turn 11 tire barrier a lap later while running 6th. Points leader Justin Allgaier dealt with a broken axle that ultimately forced him to go behind the wall on Lap 16.
In what has become commonplace at road courses, most of the leaders elected to pit before the conclusion of each stage to have the track position for the ensuing restart. As a result, Carson Kvapil inherited the lead and won the opening stage. Christopher Bell began smoking and entered pit road on Lap 37 while running third. While his race ended prematurely, Stage 2 went caution-free with Sammy Smith getting the stage win.
The turning point in the race came on the Lap 47 restart when multiple run-ins occurred. Zilisch got turned sideways and made contact with Mayer and Smith while Gibbs got together with Suarez. Other notables involved include Kvapil, Sheldon Creed, William Sawalich, Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg.
Suarez was able to escape the carnage while the race's dominant duo, Zilisch and Gibbs, lost all their track position. The final caution for Jesse Love's spin with eight laps remaining set the stage for a four-lap dash to the finish.
Daniel Suarez wins in front of home crowd
Despite going off track in Turn 2 after contact with Taylor Gray on the race's final restart, Suarez held off Gray in the closing laps to win the first Xfinity Series race in Mexico City since 2008. Although a hard crash into the Turn 11 tire barrier during his qualifying lap forced Suarez to start the race from the rear, he would go on to lead 19 laps and pick up the emotional win. Austin Hill rallied from a flat right front tire on Lap 31 and a spin in Turn 4 on the final lap of Stage 2 to salvage a third-place finish while Zilisch overcame the restart pileup to finish fifth.
Full finishing order and points results
The Chilango 150 finishing position | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
Winner | Daniel Suarez | 0 |
2nd | Taylor Gray | 53 |
3rd | Austin Hill | 41 |
4th | Christian Eckes | 39 |
5th | Connor Zilisch | 34 |
6th | William Sawalich | 31 |
7th | Austin Green | 30 |
8th | Jeb Burton | 31 |
9th | Harrison Burton | 28 |
10th | Sammy Smith | 37 |
11th | Sheldon Creed | 34 |
12th | Dean Thompson | 29 |
13th | Daniel Dye | 29 |
14th | Ty Gibbs | 0 |
15th | Alex Labbe | 23 |
16th | Matt DiBenedetto | 24 |
17th | Kris Wright | 20 |
18th | Jesse Love | 27 |
19th | Carson Kvapil | 28 |
20th | Josh Williams | 17 |
21st | Anthony Alfredo | 16 |
22nd | Thomas Annunziata | 15 |
23rd | Sam Mayer | 14 |
24th | Josh Bilicki | 13 |
25th | Brandon Jones | 24 |
26th | Brad Perez | 11 |
27th | Blaine Perkins | 10 |
28th | Kyle Sieg | 9 |
29th | Ryan Sieg | 8 |
30th | Andres Perez | 0 |
31st | Nick Sanchez | 15 |
32nd | Ryan Ellis | 5 |
33rd | Sage Karam | 8 |
34th | Justin Allgaier | 3 |
35th | Parker Retzlaff | 2 |
36th | Jeremy Clements | 1 |
37th | Ruben Rovelo | 1 |
38th | Brennan Poole | 1 |
39th | Christopher Bell | 0 |
Allgaier remains the points leader, but only by 54 points over Hill after his disappointing 34th-place finish and Hill's rally to third. Allgaier, Hill, Zilisch, Smith, Love and Jones remain the only full-time drivers in the series to visit Victory Lane this season, putting them atop the playoff leaderboard.
The Xfinity Series shifts its focus to Pocono Raceway for the running of the Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 on Saturday, June 21 (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Current Cup Series competitor Cole Custer is the defending race winner.