Rubens Barrichello achieved the promised land after he scored his first NASCAR Brasil victory at Interlagos, Rubinho’s first win at the venue since 1991.
Rubens Barrichello has finally broken his infamous curse at Interlagos. After more than 31 years of bad luck, unfortunate retirements and countless heartbreaks, the Formula One legend has finally scored the one win that he’s missing in his illustrious career.
Barrichello achieved this dream victory in NASCAR Brasil Series’ first visit to the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in the 2025 season.
It must be said that this was not Barrichello’s first win at Interlagos, as series commentator Luc Monteiro brought up in the broadcast. Barrichello won at Interlagos back in 1991, when he was still in his F3 days.
However, he had never won here ever since he made it to F3000 in 1992. With 19 fruitless attempts at the Brazilian Grand Prix and 12 years of nothingness from his Stock Car Pro Series stint, the victory in NASCAR Brasil demonstrates just how special it is for Barrichello to finally win once again at his home track.
“Rubinho” duelled hard with teammate Thiago Camilo, both of whom traded the lead throughout the Saturday race. This set the stage for an epic finish where they collided on the run to the checkered flag.
The collision sent Camilo’s No. 21 entrepay Ford into a wheelie as he and Barrichello both crossed the line. It marked Barrichello’s first career victory in his No. 91 Fini Ford – now carrying a pink and yellow livery.
“Look, it’s Interlagos, it’s always my home right?” said an emotional Barrichello in Victory Lane. “It’s very emotional. I was going to fight with all my strength for the win.”
“I’m sorry to Thiago, I need to talk to him to find out because these cars give a lot of slipstream. You get a little lost because we were doing it like a cadet race.”
“Obviously with two laps to go we were going to fight for the win. I hope he thought it was OK because when he went inside, there wasn’t much space. I even tried to move as little as possible. But, I feel like the kids must be seeing this and go ‘Dad, I love you!’.”
Cayan Chianca took advantage of late caution to overtake Galid Osman in the overtime. This secured Chianca’s first points finish of 2025, finally breaking his duck after two rounds full of misfortunes.
Osman had to settle for fourth ahead of Witold Ramasauskas, beating Vitor Genz and Léo Torres for the top-5. Cacá Bueno drove from last to eighth after he got disqualified in Qualifying. Bueno was disqualified as a result of his mechanics touching Bueno’s No. 0 Camaro during a red flag period.
Felipinho Tozzo came from behind to win the Challenge battle in ninth. Tozzo is also the only Challenge driver to score in the overall championship.
Victor Andrade, Gabriel Casagrande and Alex Seid completed the points-paying positions in 10th, 11th and 12th respectively.
Jorge Martelli was on course for scoring another Challenge victory only for the final caution to thwart his plans. Martelli dropped out of the overall points, but still took runner-up in the Challenge classifications in 13th overall. Gabryel Romano completed the Challenge podium in 14th position.
The event drew controversy from the involvement of infamous politician Pablo Marçal, who competed in a one-off at the No. 37 team. Marçal grew to notoriety from his work in personal development coaching, but it was a “fame” that was strewn with controversy.
Financial scams, poor treatment of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, approving fake news, suspicions of money laundering and omission of assets are among some of the controversies that Marçal had been involved in his life so far.
Marçal’s antics were notable enough to cause fellow political José Luiz Datena to strike him with a chair live on air during a debate for the 2024 São Paulo mayoral election.
His participation drew criticism from social media, who lambasted NASCAR Brasil for approving his entry to the race.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.