For much of Sunday’s race, Ty Gibbs appeared to be the only driver capable of giving Shane van Gisbergen a run for his money in Mexico City.
SVG eventually cruised to a dominating victory at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the New Zealand native claiming the victory in the NASCAR Cup Series’ first points race outside the United States since 1958. But statistics provided by NASCAR Insights prove that Gibbs was a real factor before a caution in the final stage disrupted his strategy and relegated him to an 11th-place finish in the Viva Mexico 250.
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According to NASCAR Insights, Gibbs was the day’s top driver on restarts while also ranking second in both speed and defense. The only car on track ranked faster than Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota was SVG’s No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. In many ways, it was a banner day for the sophomore Gibbs, who ranks just 19th on restarts, 21st on speed and 29th on defense for the whole of the 2025 season.
Gibbs’ day was unraveled, however, by a Lap 65 caution for Carson Hocevar, who spun in Turn 15 and was stuck broadside while trying to refire. SVG and other leaders pitted on Lap 64 ahead of the caution, but Gibbs, Michael McDowell, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott and others had yet to receive service. That necessitated a visit to pit road under caution, relinquishing track position while those who previously pit were able to stay out and cycle back to the front of the field.
And while Gibbs had speed in his car, he wasn’t able to carve through the field as well as others on the same strategy, evidenced by ranking seventh in Passer Rating. Elliott rushed to finish third as the day’s second-best passer, and McDowell finished fifth, ranking as the day’s sixth-best passer.
“Sometimes life just doesn‘t work out for you. You just have to keep digging,” Gibbs said.
McDowell’s top five brought him slightly closer to the provisional elimination line to make the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but SVG’s vault from 33rd in the standings to a playoff berth via his victory has destabilized the hunt to make the postseason on points. Exiting Mexico City, McDowell sits 18th, two spots outside the provisional 16-driver grid by 43 points. Just 10 races remain in the regular season.
MORE: How SVG’s victory rattles playoff picture | Regular-season standings
Other notables from Sunday’s race:
— Cole Custer earned his first top-10 finish of 2025 in the No. 41 Haas Racing Factory Ford, finishing eighth, ranking fourth in Restart Rating and ninth in Defense Rating.
— Daniel Suárez, the home-country hero, ranked second in Restart Rating in his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet despite a 19th-place finish.
— Ryan Blaney came home 14th but ranked higher than that in every metric: third in Passer Rating, fifth in Defense Rating, sixth in Restart Rating, eighth in Pit Crew ranking and 11th in Speed Rating.
— Despite crashing out on Lap 7 and finishing 37th, Kyle Busch was ranked fifth in Speed Rating for Sunday’s race.
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