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Perfect Timing! Pérez Claims First NASCAR Mexico Championship

MEXICO CITY - Antonio Pérez's bad luck turned into his good fortune, and the end result was his first NASCAR Mexico Series championship.

Pérez had to pit on lap 34 of Sunday's season finale - the Pennzoil 200 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez - because of a flat left rear tire on his No. 1 Telmex-Red Bull Dodge, and went a lap down. As Pérez was on pit road, though, Jorge Arteaga spun to trigger a multi-car pileup that collected points leader Germán Quiroga. Pérez was the free pass car on a lap 47 caution to get his lap back and worked his way up to finish second, while Quiroga lost 15 laps in the pits. Quiroga eventually returned and passed enough cars to finish 19 laps down in 31st. 

The end result was Pérez edging his teammate Quiroga by 29 points for the championship.

"It's unbelievable," said the 22-year-old Pérez of clinching first NASCAR championship. "This is just so special. This moment is the most important moment in my life. My entire team pushed all season long to get here. To this moment."

Carlos Pardo kept Pérez from making it a clean sweep Sunday, holding off a last-lap pass attempt to claim the victory in front of 26,943 fans. It was Pardo's ninth career win and first since Sept. 3, 2006.

"I thought is was over," Pérez said. "But my team - all the time - was pushing me to do my best."

Pérez briefly passed Pardo on the final lap as the race reached its 1 hour, 40 minute time limit, but Pardo got back by for the win by .110 seconds. The race concluded after 92 laps.

Jorge Goeters finished third, followed by Luis F. Montaño and Freddy Tame.

Quiroga entered the race with a 46-point lead over Pérez, and could have clinched his first championship with a finish of eighth or better.

However, bad luck followed Quiroga all weekend. He was forced to run the No. 51 Telcel Ford when he was involved in an accident in his primary car on lap 2 of Saturday's first practice. He lost track position during Sunday's first caution when he inadvertently followed race leader Homero Richards onto pit road when it was closed. That put him in position to be involved in the ensuing wreck. Richards, who won his record-tying seventh pole position during Saturday's qualifying, was also involved as they tried to go around the spun car of Arteaga.

Pérez won a series-high five races en route to his championship. He had finishes of 25th and 30th in two of the season's first four races and spent the entire year digging himself out of that hole.

The 2006 NASCAR Mexico Rookie of the Year, Pérez finished fifth in points last year.

As the NASCAR Mexico Series champion, Pérez earned a secure spot in the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown. The Showdown will be Jan. 23-24, 2009 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Calif.). Last year, Pérez finished 31st in the prestigious postseason event.

Pérez is in the process of finalizing plans to run a full season in the NASCAR Camping World Series East in 2009, in addition to select NASCAR Nationwide Series events. Pérez ran a limited NASCAR Camping World Series East schedule this year and won the Coors Light Pole Award at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in August.

"The performance I got in NASCAR Mexico is going to help me next season," Pérez said.

Pérez finished with 2182 points to Quiroga's 2153. Defending champion Rafael Martínez was third with 2046. Homero Richards and Pardo rounded out the top five.

It was the second straight runner-up finish for Quiroga, who lost the title in 2007 by four points to Martínez.

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Below is Quiroga's car following Sunday's race: