Once again the odds were against veteran driver Carlos Contreras and the FCV Racing/IDN Team at the very facility where last year Carlos lost one of his closest friends. "This race is especially difficult because we lost Carlos Pardo here and so we race in his memory" Contreras commented. With qualifying rained out and a shortened practice session for the #14 Dodge Charger Contreras was relegated to the 18th starting position with precious little time having been devoted to dialing in the chassis.
The facility located in one of the most scenic parts of Mexico began under cloudy skies with the threat of rain looming, yet after only 7 laps on the twisting road course the sun began to shine and Carlos began his drive to the front. On the 28th circuit of 72 running in the 9th position the crew called the #14 to pit road as the field re-started from a prior caution. "It was a risky call but my crew chief said we were in our fuel window and so we made the Gamble. The payoff soon came as some 2 laps later the caution flag waved. By lap 52 Contreras had raced his way to the fourth position and was closing on the third place car of Rogelio Lopez only to see the yellow flag to fly with some 7 laps remaining, the red flag was then displayed as the track crews cleaned up the front staightaway. Soon upon restarting the IDN Charger began experiencing carburation problems at low RPM, despite the problems Contreras used his considerable road racing skills to hang on for a seventh place finish.
"We'll take this one, we really needed a good finish and despite it all we had a good point day" Carlos commented. Next the team heads to the fast Tri-Oval in Guadalajara, basically a 1 mile version of the Pocono Raceway on August 8th. Carlos Contreras is the only Mexican driver to have run full seasons in both the Nationwide and Truck Series for Richard Petty and Armondo Fitz.
