Among them were open-wheel star Adrián Fernández, Jorge Goeters, Mara Reyes (a female driver), Carlos Contreras, and Michel Jourdain Jr. who had just moved to NASCAR from Champ Car.

The home crowd roared loudly when he was displaced by Mexico native Adrián Fernández, who led for several laps before giving up the lead to Truex, who went on to win the race.

Road-course ringer Boris Said made another fine visit to take second place after providing Hamlin with his stiffest challenge.

Kyle Busch had looked like a victory contender but angered the home crowd, when he hit local driver Michel Jourdain Jr. following a rash move into turn eight.

Defending race winner Denny Hamlin seemed to be the only one who could give the Colombia native a run for his money and settled for second.

Third went to road course ace Boris Said; in fourth was new points leader Carl Edwards (due to Kevin Harvick not being in the race), and Pruett would come back from the 17th position to round out the top five.

On his final scheduled pit stop at lap 44, a failure in the overflow valve in the refuelling system prevented his team from filling his fuel tank, requiring an additional stop on lap 54 to repair the problem and top off the fuel tank, with his returning to the track in 19th place.

Montoya then took advantage of his having fresher tires than anyone else to move up to second place within fifteen laps, despite his advance being slowed by a number of full-course cautions, putting him in position to pass Pruett, leading to the incident mentioned above.

Because of the unique layout of the course, road course ringers were prominent in the field, such as Scott Pruett, Boris Said, Patrick Carpentier, Adrian Fernandez, DJ Kennington, Michel Jourdain Jr., Chris Cook, and Kevin O'Connell.