Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

MEXICO CITY — Daniel Suarez stood outside the infield medical center Saturday morning and declared: “I’m going to put on a show for you guys.”

Daniel Suarez and crew celebrate in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series The Chilango 150 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez

He sure did. And he hopes to put on one more Sunday afternoon to delight the fans of his home country even more than he did Saturday, if that is even possible.

Suarez, the only Mexican driver to win a Cup Series race, rallied from the rear of the field by winning the Xfinity Series event in a backup car at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The Mexican fans waved flags. They chanted Suarez’s name. They held signs that said “Vamos Suarez.”

“I have never experienced what I experienced today,” said Suarez, the 2016 champion of the series, NASCAR’s version of a triple-A baseball. “When I took the lead, I was able to hear people like they were right next to me. … It was unbelievable.

“I got goosebumps. I felt so blessed. I never had that feeling in my life. And then I had to tell myself, ‘Daniel, don’t get distracted.’”

The 33-year-old Suarez won’t get much time to celebrate. He starts 10th in the NASCAR Cup Series event Sunday, the first Cup points race outside the United States in 67 years.

Starting 10th in the Cup race for Trackhouse Racing will be much better than what Suarez had to face on Saturday, after he wrecked in Xfinity qualifying, which required JR Motorsports to pull out a backup car.

“Right now, I feel like this gives me a lot of confidence,” Suarez said. “When I crashed in Xfinity qualifying, I went into Cup qualifying a little bit down.

“I was good, but I was not 100 percent because I just crashed. … But the feeling I had in my [Cup] car in qualifying, I was very happy with it. I think my car was capable of winning the pole position.”

FINAL LAPS: Daniel Suárez wins The Chilango 150 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez

When watching the team prepare the Xfinity backup, Suarez appeared confident and relaxed, taking selfies with fans as he walked to driver introductions and addressing the crowd.

It has already been a busy five days for Suarez, who made several appearances in the city promoting the race with a trail of media and a documentary crew following just about every move.

All for a driver who is on a 49-race winless streak in Cup. His last win came in the second race of the 2024 season at Atlanta. And he sits 28th in the standings.

“I’ll go out there tomorrow and have fun and enjoy it,” Suarez said. “That’s what I did today. Today, I just enjoyed the moment.

“My goal wasn’t to win the race. My goal was to maximize the potential of the race car.”

Trying to maximize the potential hasn’t been easy on the Cup side this week. 

His race team had travel issues Thursday and he operated with a skeleton crew for practice Friday as NASCAR put Cup cars on the 2.42-mile 15-turn road course for the first time. The rest of his crew made it on Saturday, with his engineers just about a half-hour before qualifying.

“I love adversity,” Suarez said Friday. “I love it. You put me against the wall, I’m going to come at you swinging. And our team is the same way.  … This is just going to be a better story when we win on Sunday.”

Suarez faces incredible pressure in Mexico City, as he is fighting to keep his ride at Trackhouse Racing with up-and-comer Connor Zilisch running well enough in Xfinity to potentially be elevated to Cup.

Zilisch, also driving for JR Motorsports, dominated the race until a restart with 19 laps remaining when he entered the first turn on the inside of a three-wide situation with Ty Gibbs in the middle and Suarez trying to make a move on the outside.

Zilisch slammed into Gibbs, who hit Suarez, but Suarez was able to survive and take the lead, never relinquishing it the rest of the way.  Zilisch took the blame for the accident.

It wasn’t totally easy the rest of the way for Suarez. On the final lap, Taylor Gray, battling Suarez for the lead, forced him off the course. Gray checked up to allow Suarez to gather his car and Suarez retained the lead. Gray gave him another tap late in the final lap and Suarez crossed the finish line to huge cheers.

He will get more cheers on Sunday. 

“This race was very special,” Suarez said. “I know it’s Xfinity. The big one is tomorrow. But it is a very special race for me.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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MEXICO CITY — With his home country fans cheering, Daniel Suarez said he was “living a dream” as he went from last in a backup car to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

The crowd roared when Suarez took the lead with 19 laps to go after Ty Gibbs and Connor Zilisch crashed racing for the lead and triggering a 13-car crash.

“In more than 20 years of my career, I have never experienced what I experienced today,” Suarez said. “When I took the lead, I was able to hear the people like that they were riding right here (with him). Not just in the stadium. The stadium was huge but also in corners one and two and three. It was unbelievable. I got goose bumps and I felt so blessed.”

The crowd in the stadium section of the 2.42-mile course cheered every time he drove his black No. 9 for JR Motorsports — it was supposed to be a green No. 9 but he wrecked that car in qualifying earlier in the day — by them in the lead.

“There were people jumping on the fence for Daniel,” runner-up Taylor Gray said of the atmosphere. “It was wild. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

But Suarez had to refocus for the final laps.

“I had to really talk to myself and say, ‘Hey, focus, don’t get distracted because you saw (the) people, Mexican flags everywhere, Daniel’s Amigos everywhere … people with signs ‘Vamos Suarez (Let’s go Suarez). I really had to work on myself not to get distracted.”

When Suarez crossed the finish line, the fans erupted.

It was his fourth career series win. He started last in the 39-car field, the deepest starting position for a road course winner in the Xfinity Series.

Behind Suarez and Gray were Austin Hill in third, Christian Eckes and Zilisch.

In all his high hopes and hard work over the last year to promote NASCAR’s return to his home country of Mexico, even Daniel Suarez could not have imagined the amazing story of his dramatic win in Saturday’s The Chilango 150 – coming from last place on the grid in a back-up car and charging to Victory Lane.

After victory burnouts, the 33-year old from Monterrey, Mexico climbed out of his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, stood on the car’s roof, pounded his chest and pointed upward to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez grandstands – shouting to the thrilled crowd in his native Spanish and thanking his loyal fans for their support.

“It’s everything I was looking for, just a special day,” said an emotional Suarez, the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, who led a race best 19 of the race’s 65 laps and beat Taylor Gray to the checkered flag by 0.598s in a back-up car the team rebuilt after he crashed in the morning qualifying session.

“A very special day – very, very special to be here in front of my people, all these people that have supported me for many, many years and known me since my NASCAR Mexico days. Now I’m fighting with the big boys,’’ said Suarez, who was forced to use the “international provisional” starting position after his incident in qualifying.

Even after diligently working his way through the entire 37-car field, Suarez had to “earn” this win – by every definition. The NASCAR Cup Series full-timer went door-to-door with Gray on a restart with three laps remaining ultimately pulling away – only to have to fend off a fast-approaching Gray again on the final stretch of the very last lap.

Suarez first took the lead Saturday in similarly dramatic fashion, prevailing on a three-wide re-start with 19 laps remaining.

He emerged out front after going door-to-door-to-door with the race’s early leaders, rookie Connor Zilisch and fellow NASCAR Cup Series regular Ty Gibbs. Polesitter Zilisch, who led 17 laps, wheel-hopped taking the opening corner under those crowded circumstances on the restart, spun and then hit his JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil as the pile-up behind began.

Gibbs, who led 18 laps, moved forward from the initial contact and then also made contact with Kvapil’s Chevy on the next turn. The ensuing pile-up affected 13 cars in varying degrees.

Suarez drove through the melee and you could hear the crowd’s massive cheers over the sounds of the roaring stock cars – the Mexican fans stood on their feet, arms raised, Mexican flags in the air.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill finished third, Kaulig Racing’s Christian Eckes was fourth and Zilisch recovered to finish fifth in another of the day’s more remarkable drives.

After that incident with 17 laps remaining, Zilisch fell back to 28th place with damage to the right side of his Chevy, only to move through the field at an amazing pace – up 14 positions in the three laps after the restart. He was 10th place with 10 laps to go and then earned that top-five finish.

“I’m proud of my team for their effort,’’ said Zilisch, who leaned against his car alone on pit road, obviously disappointed with the outcome after such a strong afternoon.

“Obviously the finish isn’t what we wanted. We probably had a better car than fifth place, but we got caught up in an incident on that last restart. Just proud to be able to come here and get a decent finish.

“Congrats to Daniel [Suarez], it’s awesome to see him win here in his hometown. That’s super big for him. Really proud of JR Motorsports and we’ll get it next week.”

As for the incident, Zilisch conceded, “Still don’t know what I really could have done to get the to the front quicker. Probably could have been a little cleaner on that last restart and gotten by guys quicker … really proud to finish top-five after day like that.’’

William Sawalich, Austin Green, Jeb Burton and his cousin Harrison Burton and Sammy Smith rounded out the top 10.

There were seven lead changes among six drivers with Kvapil winning the first stage and Smith winning stage two.

NASCAR Xfinity Series championship leader Justin Allgaier had to take his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet behind the wall for repairs before the end of the first stage, ultimately settling for a 34th place finish – 15 laps down to the winner. Fortunately for the reigning series champion, he held a 92-point advantage over Hill atop the points standings heading into Mexico City. He now leads the championship by 54 points.

The series moves to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway for next Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RESULTS to come

NASCAR is going international for the first time in decades this weekend.

Front Row Motorsports’ Speed May Make Noah Gragson a Decent DFS Option

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June 15, 2025

Noah Gragson qualified 35th for Sunday’s Mexico City race. This marks his worst starting position in over a year, and he only outqualified Ryan Truex and Katherine Legge, two drivers with next to no experience with the Next Gen chassis. Having said that, Front Row Motorsports clearly has some speed, as Gragson’s teammate Todd Gilliland impressively qualified seventh and posted the fastest lap in practice. Gragson did earn his first top-10 finish on a road course in the NASCAR Cup Series this year at Austin, the other Formula One track on the NASCAR schedule, so he seems like a decent long-shot option for this race, especially since he only costs $6,200 in DFS. However, when so many perennial road-course contenders like Christopher Bell, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Chris Buescher also qualified poorly, Gragson is probably only worth starting to save money elsewhere.—Sean Wrona – RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

NASCAR fans have grown accustomed to seeing speed, throttle and braking on broadcasts for years. There has been one measurement, though, that has eluded networks and viewers for years.

Until now.

Viewers of the Prime Video races have been able to see fuel usage with the introduction of the Burn Bar. Race teams have measured burn rates and fuel levels down to the last ounce for years, but the methodology has been kept secret for competitive reasons.

Prime Video, though, developed an AI tool using car data available to broadcasters and teams that can measure miles per gallon. The Burn Bar made a brief appearance during Prime’s first broadcast, the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25. It has been used more frequently the past two weeks and will be deployed again on Sunday during the race in Mexico City.

NASCAR on Prime analyst Steve Letarte, a former crew chief for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., contributed to the development of the Burn Bar and sees it as the first step in taking race analysis to a new level.

“It’s the first true tool that is taking information off the car, making calculations and then displaying to the fan a calculation or measurement that is being used in the garage. And it does affect the team,” he said. “There’s not a sensor on the car giving us miles per gallon. It’s a mathematical calculation of other cars performances.”

The AI model analyzes thousands of performance data per second, including a range of in-car telemetry signals, RPMs, throttle and optical tracking of each car’s position. The model then evaluates each driver’s fuel consumption and efficiency throughout the race.

Letarte worked with Prime Video “Thursday Night Football Prime Vision” analyst Sam Schwartzstein and Amazon Web Services during the process. They came up with four methodologies that were tested during the first part of the season, which was broadcast by Fox. Schwartzstein and Letarte would then get the data from teams after races to see how close they were until they picked one that worked the best.

The Burn Bar received its toughest test during last week’s race at Michigan as the final 48 laps were run without a caution flag. Most teams made their final pit stops with 50 laps to go, meaning teams were going to be down to the end of their fuel runs at the checkered flag.

“We projected William Byron to run out, which he did, and then we were on the razor’s edge for Denny Hamlin. And then watching the truck push him back into victory lane at the end, knowing he was as close as we thought he was. What a cool way to see this feature come to life and elevate NASCAR broadcasts,” Schwartzstein said.

Alex Strand, Prime Video’s senior coordinating producer for live sports, also sees the Burn Bar as the first tool of many that Amazon and Prime Video can develop for its coverage. Prime Video is in the first year of a seven-year agreement to carry five races per season.

“It’s really cool to live in a world where it shows us that anything is possible. We’re starting with something that we’re really excited about, but it’s setting us down a path that will open up new doors for us,” he said. “I think that’s what we’re really excited about is to say, ‘OK, we’ve had success in Year 1 on a feature that’s resonated with fans right out of the gate.’ It raises the table for our offseason.”

After Sunday’s race in Mexico City, Prime Video’s coverage for this season wraps up with the race at Pocono on June 22.