NASCAR México Series Finished Their Regular Season At Puebla

Eder Lozada

The Top-Mexican motorsports series, NASCAR México, held their 8ht and final round of the regular season at Autódromo Miguel E. Abed. The cut-off race defined the 10 drivers classified to the Chase on the main category and at Challenge division.

Rodrigo Rejón and his team, ProRally, surprised the field taking an early pit stop to cycle to the front and reach his maiden win at NASCAR México top series; Emiliano Richards took his fourth win on the Challenge division.

Mixed start

Stage 1 of the race named ‘Puebla 110’ was caution-free and had four lead changes. Poleman German Quiroga —who needed to outscore José Luis Ramírez by three points to enter the Chase— lost the lead on the first corners of the race. Max Gutierrez took over the lead but it changed hands again to his teammate Rubén García on lap 7.

Another lead change took place on lap 33: Xavi Razo gained momentum and reach the top spot. The No. 7 stock from Tame Racing grabbed the Green-White chequered flag on lap 50 followed by García Jr and Quiroga on the points paying spots at the end of the segment.

Before the end of Stage, Rodrigo Rejón made his mandatory pit stop for fuel. The No. 95 team was the only one to make this call, lost ground but took advantage of the lucky-dog rule on the Stage brake caution to get back on the lead lap.

Tame Racing got a double Stage 1 win: Giancarlo Vecchi, driver of the car No. 75, took over the lead of the Challenge division on lap 19 and stood firm in said place until the end of the Stage followed by Emiliano Richards and Gerardo ‘Chispa’ Rodríguez.

Outcome

The final segment of the ‘Puebla 110’ started with one certainty: all of the field —apart from car No. 95— was yet to make their pit stop.

The first racing casualty was the No. 22 driven by Santiago Tovar, who suffered a front-left puncture taking him out of contention to enter the Chase.

Pit cycle started on lap 70, during green flag period. Meanwhile, Rodrigo Rejón crabbed his way through the field while everyone else stopped for their mandatory fuel recharge. No. 95 took the lead gaining an enormous gap —over 28 seconds— to to second place.

A debris caution on lap 92 ended the reign of the No. 95 machine. Only eight cars remained on the lead lap after the pit cycle.

Restart on lap 95 saw Rodrigo Rejón defending from Quiroga, who grabbed 2nd place thanks to the choose rule.

Quiroga chances to make the cut for the Chase ended on lap 105 because of a contact with the No. 88. The Car Motion MotorSport No. 69 machine made contact on the outside wall of turn 4, damaging the front-right wheel.

The last, Overtime, restart was all for Rodrigo Rejón who led confidently to the chequered flag. Max Gutierrez returned in the order to grabbed the 2nd spot. Irwin Vences climbed from 16th place at the start to 3rd at the finish line.

“We’re a new team on the series, only a-year old. Even tough we have experience on another championships, we’re still growing here. Because of that, this win feels like a championship for us!” mentioned Rodrigo Rejón after the podium.

The Challenge division had the same fate as the main series as all the field still needed to complete the mandatory fuel-pit-stop.

After the pit cycle, Mateo Girón established himself as the driver to beat. The rookie from the No. 05 lead the field into the last restart heading into his first win. A last-lap shootout changed the outcome of the Alessandros Racing driver.

Girón led into the last lap followed closely by Richards, Vecchi and Jorge de la Parra. On the last turn the No. 05 car was bumped-out of the way by No. 55 car. Richards took the lead rapidly, followed by cars No. 29 and No. 75.

“Yesterday was tough but as always JV Motorsports gave me a great car for Sunday. At the end we had to push on the Green-White-Chequered. I’m really happy: we won the regular season on my rookie season but now we start from zero the Chase,” said Richards after his win.

The Top-10 from the drivers championship that classified to the Chase on NASCAR México are:

And from NASCAR Challenge, the contenders for the Chase are as follows:

Comebacks

Trucks México Series opened the action on Sunday at the Amozoc, Puebla, venue. The 2.06 kilometer (1.28 miles) oval also set the field for the Chase of this championship

Stage 1 showed from the start the stronger trucks that were set to fight for the win: Santiago Cruz from the No. 26, Roberto Espinosa —drivers championship leader— from the No.96 and Carlos Novelo at the wheel of the No. 18 exchanged the lead before the first caution.

Strategy was also a factor on the 8th round of Trucks México Series: most of the field entered pit lane during yellow flag on lap 18 to make their mandatory tire change. Dynamic Motorsports drivers, Espinosa and Sebastian Rodríguez took a different approach and opted to stay out to grab Stage points.

Espinosa stood on the lead at Stage finished and Rodríguez ended 3rd. Novelo returned to the second spot; Dynamic Motorsports drivers made their tire change pit stops during Stage break. Cruz also had to stop on pits again because of a tire puncture.

Novelo led the field into the final Stage follwed by trucks No. 27 and No. 7 from Valeria Aranda and Jan Philipp Krüll, respectively. Espinosa didn’t waste any time and set out to cut the gap to the leaders; he managed to reach the tail of the No. 18 while he separated the leaders group only leaving himself and Novelo to fight for the victory.

The vehicle No. 96 followed Novelo during the last 20 laps. Before the White-Flag was waved, Espinosa set his manoeuvre to take the lead: he left a bit of a gap to take the slingshot into Turn 1, made it work and ran side-by-side, trading paint, with Novelo on the last lap. The gap between both trucks was 0.007 seconds on the finish line in favor of the championship points leader.

“It was an intense race. We knew we had a fast truck and worked well with Carlos Novelo. I congratulate him for the clean fight we had, it was a close finish and we took the win,” mentioned Espinosa after his win.

Top-7 of this race took the spots of the ‘Chase 2026’ from Trucks México Series:

NASCAR México Series will return in a fortnight, on Sptember 4th and 5th for ther 9th Round of the season -and 1st race of the Chase- that will be held at Autódromo Monterrey in Monterrey, Nuevo León.

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