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 Suárez 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 backup car and charging to Victory Lane.
After victory spinouts, the 33-year-old native from Monterrey, Mexico climbed out of his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, stood on the car’s roof, pounded his chest and pointed upward to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez 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 Suárez, the 2016 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 seconds in a backup car the team rebuilt 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 Suárez who was forced to use the “international provisional” starting position after his incident in qualifying.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Mexico City
And even after diligently working his way through the entire 39-car field, Suárez had to “earn” this win — by every definition. The Cup Series full-timer went door-to-door with Gray on a restart with four 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.
Suárez first took the lead Saturday in a similarly dramatic fashion, prevailing on a three-wide restart with 19 laps remaining.
He emerged out front after going door-to-door with the race’s early leaders, rookie Connor Zilisch and fellow Cup Series regular Ty Gibbs. The polesitter Zilisch, who led 17 laps, wheel-hopped taking the opening corner under those crowded circumstances on the restart, spun and then hit his JRM teammate Carson Kvapil as a pile-up behind began.
Gibbs, 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.
Suárez 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 in 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 [Suárez], 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 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.”
WATCH: Zilisch thinks he ‘probably had a better car than fifth’
William Sawalich, Austin Green, Jeb Burton, Harrison Burton and Sammy Smith rounded out the top 10.
There were seven lead changes among six drivers, with Kvapil winning the first stage and Smith winning stage two.
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 Raceway for next Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 at 3:30 p.m. ET (The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Xfinity Series post-race inspection in Mexico City is complete, confirming Daniel Suárez as the race winner. The No. 54 Toyota was found with one loose lug nut, which will result in a monetary fine.