XFINITY: Caution doesn’t fall for Christopher Bell’s smoking Toyota during intense last-place battle in Mexico
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT: CW Sports
Christopher Bell picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s The Chilango 250 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez when his #24 Mobil 1 Toyota lost the engine after 36 of 65 laps.
The finish, which came in Bell’s 81st series start, was his first of the season and first in a XFINITY Series race since June 29, 2019 at Chicagoland, 198 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 12th for the #24, the 170th for Toyota, the 411th from engine trouble. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 42nd for the #24, the 425th for Toyota, and the 1,158th from a blown engine.
When Bell was last featured for a last-place finish in the XFINITY Series, he’d become the first driver classified last by disqualification in the series since 2005, the result of a rule change for post-race inspection that’s still in effect today. It also came during Bell’s last full season in the series, where he stormed to eight wins but only finished 3rd in the championship race. After a tumultuous rookie season in Cup with the closing Leavine Family Racing team during the COVID-affected 2020 season, Bell has since been the driver of Joe Gibbs Racing’s #20, where he's currently won all 12 of his series wins and been a frequent, though overlooked, championship challenger. Coming into Saturday’s race, Bell already has three Cup wins in 2025 - which came in consecutive races at Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix - plus last month’s All-Star Race in North Wilkesboro.
Saturday’s race in Mexico City would mark just the seventh time since 2019 that he’s competed in a XFINITY Series race. Still with fleet JGR equipment, Bell has won three of those seven – two at Loudon and one just last fall in Darlington. But for the first time in his entire XFINITY career, Bell would this time drive for a sister team at the Toyota camp in Sam Hunt Racing. He’d pilot SHR’s part-time #24 entry, joined by full-time rookie contender Dean Thompson in the #26. Mobil 1, Bell’s backer for his Cup ride, would sponsor both cars. On Friday, where the Cup Series preliminaries were moved up, Bell ran 13th and 11th in practice, then qualified a disappointing 31st. His XFINITY car on Saturday was much better, placing 3rd in practice with a best lap of 93.546 seconds (93.131mph), then defending that 3rd spot with a lap of 92.953 seconds (93.725mph).
The preliminary entry list for Sunday’s race showed 39 drivers entered for 38 available spots. However, NASCAR made a rule change allowing for an “international provisional” that would grant drivers who didn’t qualify the chance to race, but without points or prize money. Surprisingly, the driver who took this provisional 39th spot was Daniel Suarez, the result of a brutal crash in practice where his #9 Quaker State Chevrolet ran head-on into a barrier during his qualifying lap. Suarez was uninjured, but since XFINITY’s track activities were condensed to a single day due to travel issues for much of the field, the JR Motorsports team had precious little time to prepare the flat black backup Chevrolet.
Suarez made it to the grid, where he incurred a redundant tail-end penalty for Saturday’s race, joined by the unapproved adjustments penalties handed to 16th-place Andres Perez de Lara in the #91 Telcel Chevrolet, 23rd-place Thomas Annunziata in the #70 Bayshore Mortgage Chevrolet, 33rd-place Brennan Poole in the #44 Midas / Hackett Truck Sales Chevrolet, 34th-place Christian Eckes in the #16 Celsius Chevrolet, and 38th-place Anthony Alfredo after an accident of his own following a brake failure on the #42 Dude Wipes Chevrolet. Alfredo’s crew at Young’s Motorsports were able to repair the car in time for the race.
When the green flag dropped, Suarez had already climbed to 37th, 7.604 seconds back of the lead and just over a second back of 36th-place Eckes, 6.545 behind. The 39th and last spot now belonged to the penalized Annunziata, 14.071 behind the leader, with 38th held by local driver Ruben Rovelo, the 2020 champion for the NASCAR Mexico Series, in Joey Gase Motorsports’ #35 Skarch Chevrolet. Rovelo was 8.265 seconds back of the lead at the start, a half-second back of Suarez but nearly six full seconds ahead of Annunziata. This was unusual as during the pace laps, Suarez’ crew told him to let Annunziata move ahead of him, but the #70 ended up trailing both he and Rovelo by open track. A replay shown by TheCW showed Annunziata nearly collect Suarez coming to the green flag when Annunziata spun at Turn 15 exiting the stadium section.
By the start of Lap 2, Annunziata was still in last, 13.805 back of the lead, but had now closed to within eight-tenths of Rovelo. On Lap 3, Annunziata had climbed to 37th, passing Rovelo, who had also cleared Kyle Sieg, the new last-place runner, in the #28 Trigon Combat Ford. That time by, Sieg’s crew alerted him to a car smoking near the front as Sam Mayer locked the brakes on his #41 Audibel Ford and careened into a barrier at Tur 11, bending the left-front and left-rear of his car. Mayer made it to pit road, taking last on Lap 4, then returned to the track under the ensuing caution to stay on the lead lap.
During this caution, Parker Retzlaff pitted his #4 Funkaway Beads! Chevrolet, one of the few drivers to make a stop under this early yellow. There, he incurred at least one penalty which was later rescinded by NASCAR, but only after he lost a lap to the leaders and took over last place on Lap 5. This penalty was not reflected on NASCAR’s Penalty Report. On the Lap 6 restart, as a frustrated Retzlaff tried to understand what had happened, Jeremy Clements was battling just outside the Top 10 when his #51 Alliance Driveway Solutions Chevrolet erupted in smoke heading into Turn 2. His transmission, which had popped out of third gear, suddenly failed, sending him to pit road. On Lap 8, Clements took over last from the lapped Retzlaff, and the crew looked under the hood of the #51 before deciding to bring him back to the team’s hauler. With so much of the race still to be run, the crew would replace the transmission.
Next to find trouble was Justin Allgaier, whose #7 Brandt Chevrolet was adorned with graphics of agave plants in conjunction with the company’s agricultural business. Allgaier was about 11 seconds back of the lead on Lap 15 when he suddenly slowed in the stadium section of the track and pulled onto pit road, also complaining of a transmission issue. The crew diagnosed this as a left-rear axle issue and pushed his car forward into the garage, joining Clements behind the wall. Back on track, Mayer’s damaged car was trailing the pack along with Austin Green, who had pitted his #32 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet during Mayer’s caution. Both remained on the lead lap when Stage 1 ended on Lap 22, earning Retzlaff his lap back.
It was during this caution that Rovelo either collided with another car or otherwise suffered a suspension failure in the rear of his car, his left-rear wheel rubbing against the fender enough to cut the tire as the car drove diagonally down the track. He made it to pit road for an extended stop along with Ryan Sieg, whose #39 Sci Aps Ford was in for another issue. Rovelo then went behind the wall by the Lap 26 restart, joining Clements and Allgaier.
On Lap 28, Clements’ crew prepared to return to the track, expecting the caution to be thrown when Kris Wright’s #5 Wright Automotive Group Chevrolet spun at one end of the track. By Lap 29, the #51 was back on track, now showing 23 laps down, eight behind Allgaier. Allgaier’s crew also monitored what was happening on track until about Lap 35, when they estimated they’d be 15 laps down, then after taking the wave-around would not be able to pass any other cars after Lap 51. By Lap 38, both Allgaier and Clements were back on track, the two separated by about eight laps. Allgaier was by now catching Rovelo, whose crew was also making repairs to the #35. But still another driver had found trouble.
This was where Bell entered the last-place battle. This was where Bell entered the last-place battle. After challenging for the lead in the opening laps, then nearly backing into the wall during a spin, Bell was still among the leaders when his car began pouring smoke from the exhaust pipes though Turn 15. He pulled onto pit road along with William Sawalich, then made a hard right turn just past the entrance at a gap in the pit wall. While pit stops were underway, NASCAR didn’t throw the caution for Bell, who remained in the smoking car for some time before he climbed out, still under green. In his interview with TheCW, Bell made clear he didn’t miss a shift on the H-pattern gearbox, an adjustment from the sequential shifters in the Cup Series’ NextGen car. His day was done, the first retiree from the race.
On Lap 40, Allgaier climbed past Rovelo into 37th, and Clements was now within seven laps of dropping Rovelo’s #35 into last place. But on Lap 42, during the caution that ended Stage 2, Rovelo’s crew said they were close to getting back on track. With Bell out of the race and already six laps down on Lap 43, this meant Bell would take over last place if the other three finished the race under power. On Lap 45, Rovelo re-fired his engine and returned to the track, where his crew said, “Okay, bud, you’re racing for fun now.” At least one other of his spotters spoke Spanish, but it was unclear whether he served as translator or provided additional information.
On the Lap 47 restart, Rovelo was in tight traffic when Connor Zilisch’s dominant #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet spun at the front of the pack, triggering two separate pileups. Rovelo was swept up in the one to driver’s left, which also collected Ty Gibbs’ equally strong #19 Monster Energy Toyota. Just moments after returning to the race, Rovelo now limped to pit road with nose damage, and was told by his crew to monitor his water and oil temperatures. As he did, Rovelo was still 38th, just one lap ahead of Clements. On Lap 49, Rovelo took over last place, and said he only slid his tires a little bit in the crash. Rovelo and Clements were now each 22 laps down, but now just 10 laps back of the now 36th-place Bell.
For the Lap 50 restart, Rovelo was told by his team to lag back at least 10 carlengths to avoid any further incidents, and to focus on finishing under power. On Lap 53, Allgaier dropped Bell to 37th, and on Lap 60 – just as Jesse Love’s spin in the #2 Whelen Chevrolet brought out another caution – Bell fell to last place behind both Clements and Rovelo. By the checkered flag, both Clements and Rovelo had also passed Brennan Poole, who snapped an axle on his #44. But neither could catch Retzlaff, who after returning to the lead lap was swept up in the Zilisch wreck, leaving him 35th.
Suarez one-ups Chastain’s worst-to-first performance in front of home crowd
Incredibly, the race was won by Daniel Suarez, who had not only started last in a backup car after his brutal qualifying wreck, then was nearly wrecked again by Annunziata’s spin coming to the green flag, but took the lead for good with 19 laps to go and won in front of his countrymen. Following Ross Chastain’s “worst-to-first” performance in the Coca-Cola 600 just last month (Chastain, incidentally, was in the broadcast booth for this race), Suarez may well be the first driver in NASCAR history to have won a race where he failed to qualify. It’s also interesting to note that, in years past, NASCAR did have some races where “alternates” who didn’t qualify for a race remained on standby if one of the starters failed to fire their engine – however, there’s no record of any of those alternates winning that particular race.
Also running well was Austin Green, who in the final laps climbed from 13th to 7th in the #32 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet. This was a return to form for Green, who has struggled to both qualify and race in his recent attempts on the ovals – perhaps unsurprisingly as Green boasts a strong background in road courses. This was a strong double top-ten day for Jordan Anderson Racing as teammate Jeb Burton came home 8th in the #27 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #24 in a XFINITY Series race since April 22, 2023, when Parker Chase’s own run in Sam Hunt Racing’s #24 Ontivity Toyota ended due to the “Damaged Vehicle Policy” after 37 laps at Talladega. The number had never finished last in the four previous XFINITY races at Mexico City from 2005-2008.
*The 36 laps Bell completed were the most by a XFINITY Series driver at Mexico City. The previous four races saw the last-place finisher complete no more than 3, which were completed by Stacy Compton’s #59 Kingsford Sure Fire / Bush’s Beans Ford on March 5, 2006. Two others saw the last-place finisher turn just one lap while Rafael Martinez, last in the 2005 inaugural, didn’t turn any before a first-lap engine failure.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
39) #24-Christopher Bell / 36 laps / engine
38) #44-Brennan Poole / 40 laps / suspension
37) #35-Ruben Rovelo / 43 laps / running
36) #51-Jeremy Clements / 43 laps / running
35) #4-Parker Retzlaff / 46 laps / crash
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Kaulig Racing (4)
2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing (3)
3rd) Sam Hunt Racing (2)
4th) Alpha Prime Racing, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, JR Motorsports, Our Motorsports, SS-Green Light Racing, Young’s Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (10)
2nd) Toyota (5)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
