In what can only be described as NASCAR’s most tequila-fueled fever dream in decades, the Cup Series staged a race south of the border outside the U.S. for the first time in over sixty years—and it did not disappoint. Unless you were Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, or anyone who doesn’t enjoy their motorsports with a side of torrential rain, flaming stomachs, and spinning Fords.
Saturday had already crowned Daniel Suárez the national hero of Mexico after he won the Xfinity race, and by Sunday night he had been joined by a man who arrived on the grid with two suitcases, a helmet, and what might have been a stomach bug from Hades: Shane van Gisbergen. The New Zealander shrugged off rain, altitude, a dodgy belly, and Chase Elliott breathing down his neck to cruise—his word, not ours—to his second career Cup Series win.
“I felt pretty rubbish today leaking out both holes. That wasn’t fun,” van Gisbergen admitted after the race, instantly becoming both a legend and a cautionary tale for travelers skipping bottled water.
But never mind his digestive gymnastics. The Kiwi was clinical. He started from the pole, led 60 of 100 laps, and when it counted, took the lead for good on Lap 69 before calmly announcing, “I’m going to cruise for a while.”
That turned out to be the understatement of the decade.
He finished 16 seconds ahead of Christopher Bell, which in NASCAR time is like lapping someone in a drag race. Bell, who came from 31st on the grid, was fast but never had a chance once the SVG freight train got rolling.
“Ultimately it was just a third-place day,” Bell said. “Ty [Gibbs] was really good, so the yellow flag bit him and we walked away with second.”
Indeed, it was Gibbs who looked to have the car to beat, especially early on. He easily dispensed with van Gisbergen by lap 5, just before the race’s first caution.
But it would all come down to who had to wait longer for gas during the final round of stops with van Gisbergen pitting first on lap 62. Gibbs who was back in the lead still needing to pit held on.
A yellow courtesy of Carson Hocevar, who spun on Lap 65 in Turn 14 and stalled his car like a teenager learning to drive stick in a grocery store parking lot. It forced NASCAR to throw the sixth and final caution, which utterly nuked Gibbs’ fuel strategy and handed the race back to van Gisbergen, who by then was questioning if his left-rear wheel was even still attached.
It was.
Back to green with 32 laps to go, SVG tore off like a madman late for his flight home. Alex Bowman—nursing a back injury from the week prior—briefly flirted with second before Bell wrestled it away with 14 to go. Behind them, Chase Elliott scrapped and clawed his way into third on the final restart and held it until the end.
“I was super excited about having tires and getting ourselves to — we got in front of the 54 and I thought, to be honest, that was going to be the race for the win,” Elliott said. “But I didn’t have anything left. I was kind of cooked after that.”
And what a recipe this race was—equal parts waterpark, demolition derby, and international incident. Rain began falling just before the green flag, triggering NASCAR’s new “damp race” policy, which basically means “everyone panic and bolt on the wets.”
By Lap 7, Kyle Busch had spun into Justin Haley, who then cannonballed into Kyle Larson, who pinballed into AJ Allmendinger. Meanwhile, Zane Smith took evasive action, spun himself, and smashed into Chase Briscoe for good measure. Busch became the first DNF, which feels like par for the course in a season that’s turning into a slow-motion disaster movie for him.
Things calmed—barely—by Lap 12 when the rain let up. Track position became king, pit strategy turned into poker, and Stage 1 ended with Ryan Preece somehow winning a stage, which must have felt like waking up to find out your cat has done your taxes.
SVG’s strategy came into focus at the end of Stage 2 when he didn’t pit while everyone else did, snagging the stage win and keeping track position just as the skies decided they weren’t finished yet. From there it was a balancing act—SVG versus Bell versus the possible monsoon and tire wear.
The final pit cycle cracked the race wide open. Bell pitted on Lap 61, van Gisbergen on 62, Gibbs tried to stretch it—and then Hocevar’s spin and the caution blew it all up.
The race behind the leaders was a road course version of lucha libre—wrestling moves, flying car parts, and drivers spinning out in ways that will haunt them on film study day. Among those taking solo embarrassing twirls: Ross Chastain, Todd Gilliland, Preece (who’d won a stage, remember), and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ryan Truex, subbing for Denny Hamlin, spun twice, which seems like a fair trade for becoming a father this week.
And in the kind of footnote that would only matter in NASCAR, Larson—39 laps down—managed to come back out and turn the fastest lap of the day, collecting one single, solitary championship point. The same margin he lost the title by last season. Somewhere, karma just shrugged.
Daniel Suárez, Saturday’s darling, finished 19th. But for Mexico, it didn’t matter. The people had their hero. And their Kiwi.
SVG’s drive was dominant, stylish, and just on the right side of ridiculous.
“That last stint, man, what a pleasure just ripping lap after lap and watching them get smaller in the mirror,” he said. “Unreal.”
Mexico City gave us rain, chaos, heartbreak, heroics, and a Kiwi puking his way into the playoffs.
The Cup Series now returns stateside for Pocono, where Ryan Blaney is the defending winner. All we can hope for is half the drama—and maybe some dry socks.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.