Mexico City, Mexico – It was an exciting weekend as the NASCAR Busch Series moved outside of the country for its points event on soil other than the United States. The race team’s transporters loaded up from California Speedway and headed down to Mexico City for the 1^st annual Telcel 200. With Denny Hamlin competing in his first road course race, the #20 team was cautiously excited to see his performance.

The teams arrived early Thursday and prepared the cars for inspection. Friday was spent as a practice day as teams worked on setting their cars up to turn left & right. This gave Hamlin a chance to work with road course expert and driving coach Bill Cooper on figuring out the best line around the 13 corner track. The morning practice turned out to be a challenge getting the handle on the #20 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet, but by the afternoon the car was dialed in and running in the top 15 on the speed chart. During qualifying, Hamlin carried way too much speed into turn one and was forced off the course. His time of 90.200 seconds was only good enough for the 34^th starting position.

With over 100,000 fans pouring into the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to watch an all-star race that featured in addition to the regular Busch Series field, several Nextel Cup Drivers, several road racing experts and several drivers from Mexico including Mexico City native and Champ Car standout, Adrian Fernandez. When the green flag dropped, all drivers showed incredible patience as they worked their through the first corner and settled into line.
Coming from the back, crew chief Trip Bruce reminded Hamlin the importance of being patient and concentrate on racing the racetrack and not the other competitors. Road Courses enable pit strategy to become even more important as teams can pit under green flag conditions without going a lap down. As the laps began to click off, so did the positions as Hamlin started moving to the front. By the lap 10, Hamlin had moved into the top 25. By his first pit stop on lap 28, Hamlin was running in the 16^th position. Reporting that the car was just a tick loose, Bruce called for four tires with a minor air pressure adjustment. With their current fuel mileage, Hamlin would only require one more stop to finish the race.

The final planned stop came on lap 47. Hamlin followed the leaders for four tires & fuel with no adjustments. Several cars chose not to pit or only take two tires, Hamlin returned to the track in the 11^th position with his sights set on a top ten finish. As the laps wound off and Hamlin drove into the top ten, he was eagerly picking off positions. Setting up a pass on Tim Fedewa, Hamlin drove to the bottom of the corner. After realizing that Hamlin had the preferred position, Fedewa turned right and drove into the side of the #20 car forcing Hamlin off the race track and spinning into the grass. Hamlin would get the car turned around and back on track in the 34^th position with 28 laps to go.

Hamlin would make a final pit stop on lap 58 and then begin his final assault to the front. Coming from the 33^rd position, Hamlin would make several daring passes as he worked his way back into the top 25. After several long cautions slowed the field, Hamlin would benefit from on track incidents and mechanical failures while passing additional cars to secure the 15^th finishing position, his best so far this season.