Winners, losers from NASCAR weekend in Mexico City
MEXICO CITY — A look at the winners and losers from Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
WINNERS
Shane van Gisbergen — His rookie Cup season has been a struggle on the ovals but van Gisbergen did what he was hired by Trackhouse Racing to do — he won a road course race and put himself in a playoff spot. He did it easily, leading a race-high 60 laps and winning by 16.567 seconds — the largest margin of victory since Texas in November 2009 (25.686 seconds) and the largest margin of victory on a road course since Riverside in 1979 (32.9 seconds).
Nate Ryan,
Hendrick Motorsports — Placed three of its cars in the top 10. Chase Elliott was a season-best third, Alex Bowman fourth and William Byron ninth.
Christopher Bell — He finished second, giving him seven top-three finishes in 16 races this year. He has three wins, three runner-up results and a third-place finish.
Michael McDowell — His fifth-place finish was his best of the season. He has placed in the top 10 in four of the last six road course races.
John Hunter Nemechek — His sixth-place finish is his third top 10 in the last six races and gives him a career-high five top 10s on the season.
Cole Custer — After travel snafus led to him and a few others from Haas Factory Team to drive from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Atlanta so they could fly to Mexico early Friday, he placed a season-best eighth Sunday.
Daniel Suarez — While he finished 19th in Sunday's Cup race, his victory in Saturday's Xfinity race in his home country was an electric and emotional moment he won't forget.
#NASCAR … Crowd reaction when @Daniel_SuarezG won the Xfinity race pic.twitter.com/PCui0X99MY
LOSERS
Carson Hocevar — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. confronted Hocevar after their second on-track incident in the last three races. Also, Hocevar's spin led to the final caution that came in the middle of a green-flag pit cycle and impacted the race for some drivers. On top of that, Hocevar finished 34th. He has finished 25th or worse in four of the last five races.
Dustin Long,
Kyle Busch — He entered the race tied for the last playoff spot (but outside the playoffs due to a tiebreaker). He crashed in the opening laps and finished last in the 37-car field. Busch now is 50 points out of the final playoff spot with 10 races left in the regular season.
Kyle Larson — His car was damaged in Kyle Busch's incident and lost several laps for repairs. Larson finished 36th. He has finished 36th or worse in two of the last four races.
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