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June 14, 2025
By HOLLY CAIN NASCAR Wire Service
Photo Chris Graythen/Getty Images
MEXICO CITY – 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 spinouts, the 33-year old from Monterrey, Mexico native 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 .598-second in a back-up car the team re-built after he crashed in the morning qualifying session.
“It’s 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.
And 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. The polesitter Zilisch, who led 17 laps, wheel-hopped taking the opening corner under those crowded circumstances on the re-start, spun and then hit his JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil as the pile-up behind began.
Gibbs, a NASCAR Cup Series regular 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 finishing position.
“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 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).
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – The Chilango 150
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
Mexico City, Mexico
Saturday, June 14, 2025
- (39) Daniel Suarez(i), Chevrolet, 65.
- (8) Taylor Gray #, Toyota, 65.
- (7) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 65.
- (34) Christian Eckes #, Chevrolet, 65.
- (1) Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 65.
- (11) William Sawalich #, Toyota, 65.
- (14) Austin Green, Chevrolet, 65.
- (18) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 65.
- (22) Harrison Burton, Ford, 65.
- (5) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, 65.
- (13) Sheldon Creed, Ford, 65.
- (26) Dean Thompson #, Toyota, 65.
- (29) Daniel Dye #, Chevrolet, 65.
- (2) Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, 65.
- (21) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 65.
- (17) Matt DiBenedetto, Chevrolet, 65.
- (27) Kris Wright, Chevrolet, 65.
- (10) Jesse Love, Chevrolet, 65.
- (4) Carson Kvapil #, Chevrolet, 65.
- (32) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 65.
- (38) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 65.
- (23) Thomas Annunziata, Chevrolet, 65.
- (6) Sam Mayer, Ford, 65.
- (28) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 65.
- (15) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 65.
- (37) Brad Perez, Chevrolet, 65.
- (24) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 65.
- (36) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 65.
- (30) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 65.
- (16) Andres Perez De Lara(i), Chevrolet, 65.
- (9) Nick Sanchez #, Chevrolet, 64.
- (25) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 61.
- (20) Sage Karam, Toyota, Accident, 52.
- (12) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 50.
- (35) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, Accident, 46.
- (19) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 43.
- (31) Ruben Rovelo, Chevrolet, 43.
- (33) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, Suspension, 40.
- (3) Christopher Bell(i), Toyota, Engine, 36.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 69.278 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 16 Mins, 14 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.598 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 17 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Gibbs(i) 1-18;C. Kvapil # 19-23;C. Zilisch # 24-38;S. Smith 39-43;T. Gray # 44;C. Zilisch # 45-46;D. Suarez(i) 47-65.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Daniel Suarez(i) 1 time for 19 laps; Ty Gibbs(i) 1 time for 18 laps; Connor Zilisch # 2 times for 17 laps; Carson Kvapil # 1 time for 5 laps; Sammy Smith 1 time for 5 laps; Taylor Gray # 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 1,54,2,21,48,20,53,99,27,07
Stage #2 Top Ten: 8,54,00,20,16,10,26,48,88,19
