“Wild Thing” Does It Again
The Sprint Cup Series was off this week, but that didn’t stop the Nationwide Series from running their most highly anticipated race of the season as they headed to Mexico City for their annual running of the Corona Mexico 200 for the fourth year in a row.
In the closing laps of the race, Kyle Busch – who had won the two previous Nationwide races this year – was riding on race leader Scott Pruett – who got turned around in the closing laps of last year’s race by his teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya, as those two raced for the win. This year, Busch was also getting annoyed by the tough blocking of Pruett and advised his team over the radio that he would get dumped again if he kept it up.
So, with only nine laps remaining, Pruett finally let Kyle by him, as the no. 18 Toyota cruised on to Busch’s third consecutive Nationwide win, and the first NASCAR road course win of his young career. Pruett was eventually passed by Marcos Ambrose as well for second, and Pruett came across the line in third after leading 36 of the 80 laps. Carl Edwards finished 4th and Patrick Carpentier settled in at 5th.
Marcos Ambrose knocked road course specialist, Boris Said, out of the race with 28 laps left on the ticker. Following the race, Said was not very happy with Ambrose and vowed that he would settle that score with him on the track in the future, though Ambrose was quick to apologize and said that if he had it to do over again, he would.
Clint Bowyer maintained his points lead in the series with a 6th place finish, but now leads Carl Edwards by only 9 points, and the charging Kyle Busch by 66.
Complete Results (from nascar.com):
| FIN |
ST |
CAR |
DRIVER |
MAKE |
SPONSOR |
PTS/BNS |
LAPS |
STATUS |
| 1 |
6 |
20 |
Kyle Busch |
Toyota |
Doosan Infracore |
190/5 |
80 |
Running |
| 2 |
4 |
59 |
Marcos Ambrose |
Ford |
Kingsford Hickory Charcoal |
170/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 3 |
2 |
40 |
Scott Pruett |
Dodge |
Fastenal |
175/10 |
80 |
Running |
| 4 |
3 |
60 |
Carl Edwards |
Ford |
Scotts Water Smart |
165/5 |
80 |
Running |
| 5 |
6 |
9 |
Patrick Carpentier * |
Dodge |
Auto Value |
160/5 |
80 |
Running |
| 6 |
8 |
2 |
Clint Bowyer |
Chevrolet |
BB&T |
150/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 7 |
21 |
29 |
Scott Wimmer |
Chevrolet |
Holiday Inn / Holiday Inn Express |
151/5 |
80 |
Running |
| 8 |
28 |
88 |
Brad Keselowski |
Chevrolet |
U.S. Navy |
142/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 9 |
24 |
1 |
Mike Bliss |
Chevrolet |
Miccosukee Resort & Gaming |
138/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 10 |
12 |
66 |
Steve Wallace |
Chevrolet |
Atreus Homes & Communities |
134/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 11 |
33 |
99 |
David Reutimann |
Toyota |
Aaron’s Dream Machine |
130/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 12 |
19 |
7 |
Mike Wallace |
Toyota |
GEICO |
127/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 13 |
11 |
12 |
Sam Hornish Jr. |
Dodge |
Penske Truck Rental |
124/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 14 |
32 |
5 |
Adrian Fernandez |
Chevrolet |
Lowe’s |
121/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 15 |
17 |
64 |
Max Papis |
Chevrolet |
Atreus Homes & Communities |
118/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 16 |
13 |
27 |
Brad Coleman |
Ford |
Carino’s Italian Grill |
115/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 17 |
9 |
111 |
Jason Keller |
Chevrolet |
America’s Incredible Pizza Company |
117/5 |
80 |
Running |
| 18 |
16 |
22 |
Ruben Pardo |
Dodge |
Bombardier Learjet / Telcel |
109/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 19 |
26 |
28 |
Kenny Wallace |
Chevrolet |
Reel Deal “Card Games” on Phantom EFX |
106/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 20 |
15 |
37 |
Rafael Martinez |
Ford |
Scotiabank Inverlat / Canel’s |
103/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 21 |
36 |
38 |
Jason Leffler |
Toyota |
Great Clips |
100/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 22 |
22 |
6 |
David Ragan |
Ford |
Discount Tire |
97/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 23 |
41 |
4 |
Landon Cassill * |
Chevrolet |
Miccosukee Resort & Gaming |
94/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 24 |
42 |
161 |
Kevin Lepage |
Ford |
Specialty Racing |
91/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 25 |
30 |
81 |
D.J. Kennington |
Dodge |
MC2 Energy Drink / NPPL |
88/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 26 |
14 |
17 |
Erik Darnell |
Ford |
CitiFinancial |
85/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 27 |
37 |
198 |
Alex Garcia |
Chevrolet |
Dixien / OmniSource Corp. |
82/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 28 |
27 |
24 |
Brian Simo |
Chevrolet |
Hefty |
79/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 29 |
25 |
41 |
Kyle Krisiloff |
Dodge |
Polaroid |
76/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 30 |
35 |
30 |
Stanton Barrett |
Chevrolet |
NOS Energy Drink / 4caring.org |
73/0 |
80 |
Running |
| 31 |
18 |
47 |
Kelly Bires |
Ford |
Clorox |
70/0 |
79 |
Running |
| 32 |
15 |
33 |
Ron Hornaday |
Chevrolet |
RoadLoans.com |
67/0 |
78 |
Running |
| 33 |
3 |
16 |
Colin Braun |
Ford |
3M |
69/5 |
76 |
Running |
| 34 |
10 |
186 |
Antonio Perez |
Dodge |
Telmex / Chivas Racing |
61/0 |
75 |
Running |
| 35 |
5 |
25 |
Boris Said |
Ford |
No Fear / Team Smithfield / Advance Auto Parts |
58/0 |
54 |
Running |
| 36 |
20 |
32 |
Michel Jourdain Jr. |
Toyota |
Visit Durango / Visit Mexico |
55/0 |
39 |
Running |
| 37 |
34 |
109 |
Kevin O’Connell |
Chevrolet |
Gen’l Environmental Mgmt / Taleo Grill |
52/0 |
32 |
In Pit |
| 38 |
38 |
331 |
Kenny Hendrick |
Chevrolet |
INTERUSH / GrandStay.net |
49/0 |
30 |
In Pit |
| 39 |
39 |
184 |
Jose Luis Ramirez |
Dodge |
The Perfect Game / Rayere |
46/0 |
28 |
Out of Race |
| 40 |
31 |
90 |
Chris Cook |
Chevrolet |
Drifting Mexico |
43/0 |