Martin Truex Jr. wins first ever Busch race in Mexico

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Truex Jr. dominates inaugural Mexico event
Mastery on pit road helped defending series champ claim win


Martin Truex Jr. proved he was the king of Busch Series racing in the United States by winning the championship in 2004.

On Sunday, he proved he could do just fine outside the United States, too.

Truex Jr. dominated the historic Telcel Motorola 200 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, leading 45 of the 80 laps en route to winning the first Busch Series race ever contested on foreign soil.

"It's been an incredible week," Truex Jr. said. "I'm so proud to be the first winner here. There were so many drivers in the race -- some of the best in the world. To beat those guys makes me really proud.

"This is a huge win -- to be the first time the series has raced out of the country and the first time NASCAR has been in Mexico.

"To beat all these great Mexican drivers and road race drivers makes it one of the biggest wins in my career."

Truex Jr. won six times en route to a runaway title victory over Kyle Busch. Interesting, Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet appeared to be the only match for Truex Jr., but on Sunday, it was driven by Adrian Fernandez.

Fernandez and Truex Jr. swapped the lead midway through the 80-lap race at the 2.52-mile road course, but Truex Jr. took control with a bit of a lucky break just past halfway when he made a pit stop as the leader moments before a caution waved.

The pit stop was legal, and after the remaining leaders pitted, Truex Jr. moved up to fourth.

"As soon as we went to pit road I thought, 'That was perfect,'" Truex Jr. said. "It wasn't planned. I didn't know the caution was coming out. We planned on pitting on that lap some five or 10 laps prior to that.

"We caught a break there and got a little bit lucky. But when we got in the front, we had a good enough car to stay there and that was the key today."

Fernandez and some others weren't so lucky. Fernandez was moved to the rear of the field for entering pit road illegally. Still, the Mexico City native and fan favorite rallied to 10th.


Truex Jr. scored his seventh career win. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

"I was fighting with Martin Truex," Fernandez said. "I made a great pass on him and then he passed me back and my tires were going off at that point. I went to the back again and that was a little bit frustrating. Then I got into the rhythm again."

But no one was a match for Truex Jr. on this day, as he pulled out to as much as a five-second lead late in the race.

Kevin Harvick passed Carl Edwards with three laps to go to finish second, with Edwards coming home third.

Shane Hmiel was fourth, with Boris Said fifth. Rusty Wallace ended up sixth, with Clint Bowyer seventh, Kenny Wallace eighth, Ashton Lewis Jr. ninth and Fernandez 10th.


The front row of Robby Gordon (left) and Jorge Goeters pose before the green flag. Goeters led the first 24 laps. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Harvick was hoping for a late caution flag to catch back up to Truex Jr.

"I thought he was too far out to get to him," Harvick said. "If we had a caution or a green-white-checkered, there wouldn't have been any question -- or there would have been a big wreck or whatever. Who knows?

"But I think we had a good car and we did what we could do. We stuck to our strategy and that's all you can ask for. You can go back and play Monday morning quarterback when you get home.

"But the circumstances are something you can't control, and our pit window was the next lap. So that's what we stuck with and it just worked out one spot short."

Polesitter Jorge Goeters led the first 24 laps before a slow entrance to his pits and then a slow stop relegated him to 25th.

Goeters later spun but worked his way to the top 15 before the engine blew in his Brewco Motorsports' No. 66 Ford.

Another Mexican driver, Michel Jourdain Jr., slammed a concrete barrier to bring out the race's fourth yellow. Under that caution, David Stremme -- suffering from a stomach illness -- got out of the No. 14 Dodge and was replaced by J.J. Yeley.