First, the regulars. Many of the NASCAR Nationwide Series fixtures have excelled at the 2.518-mile road course – surprising considering Mexico City is one of only three road courses on the schedule.

Watch for strong runs from Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch and Marcos Ambrose. Ambrose maybe the most intriguing of the bunch, as he comes into the race with a background in road course racing from his Australian V8 Supercar days.

Below are the career Mexico City race logs for the four regulars (all driver race logs can be seen at NASCARMedia.com):

Carl Edwards at Mexico City
Date   Finish  ARP  FLR   LT15     DR
3/05    3         11      0       76.3%    104.0
3/06    8         16      0       53.8%     87.0
3/07    4          6       0       97.6%    112.0
Total  5.0       11.0   0       76.0%     101.0
ARP: Average Running Position
FLR: Fastest Laps Run
LT15: Percentage of Laps in the Top 15
DR: Driver Rating

Clint Bowyer at Mexico City
Date     Finish    ARP    FLR    LT15      DR
3/05      7            12       0         81.3%    97.6
3/06     16            18       0        40.0%    76.9
Total   11.5          15.1    0        60.6%    87.3

Kyle Busch at Mexico City
Date    Finish   ARP    FLR    LT15      DR
3/06     7           11.8    11       70.0%    110.0

Marcos Ambrose at Mexico City
Date    Finish    ARP    FLR    LT15      DR
3/07     8           10.5     0         80.5%    104.6

The second angle – the ringers. There are a number of road-course aces in Sunday’s field and all have previous success at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Most notable of those are Adrian Fernandez, Scott Pruett and Boris Said. Below are the combined stats from those three:

Selected Drivers at Mexico City
Name                   Races   Avg. Fin.   ARP     FLR    LT15     DR
Adrian Fernandez   3          10.3            15.7     10      59.1%    88.4
Boris Said             3           3.3              7.1      12      88.8%    117.2
Scott Pruett           1           5.0             4.2       13      93.9%    124.8

Finally, a wild card. A quick glance at the stats might suggest Brad Keselowski has little chance for his first win coming Sunday – he finished 43rd at Mexico City last year, his only trip to the track. But his engine blew after one lap that race, and he wasn’t yet with JR Motorsports. Plus, he’s been solid this season, racking up 100+ Driver Ratings in four of the last five races. Below is his race-by-race log since his sixth-place finish at Atlanta:

Brad Keselowski – Last Five Races
Track      Finish   ARP     FLR     LT15       DR
Atlanta     6           8          6         97.0%     104.0
Bristol      4           9          6         98.8%     100.7
Nashville   4           7          4         100%      105.2
Texas      15          10        1          83.5%     89.7
Phoenix   12          10        8          86.6%     101.0