NASCAR will travel south of the border next season for an event at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.
It’s the first time in the Modern Era that a race at the highest level with be contested outside of the United States. It will be joined by both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Mexico Series for a two-day tripleheader on Jun 14-15.
The only previous race to count towards points in what is now the Cup Series took place at Stamford Park in Ontario, Canada in 1952 but it predated the modern format in which the schedule was not streamlined and races were optional when it came to competing for a championship.
The Xfinity Series previously contested events at this venue from 2005 to 2008, races that were won by Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch.
This is the same venue Formula 1 races at each season, which features a 2.674-mile road course, and NASCAR will partner with co-promoter OCESA, which promotes the international racing event each season. NASCAR will use most of the F1 layout, skipping turns 5 and 6, turning right instead of left in Turn 4.
OCESA is the largest music and events promoter in Mexico.
The announcement was made at the circuit on Tuesday afternoon with NASCAR EVP Ben Kennedy and current Cup Series contender Daniel Suarez, a dual Mexican and American citizen, both on-hand and conducted press conferences afterwards.
Schedule diversity
Since retiring as an active driver, Kennedy, who is the great grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France has pushed schedule innovation as an executive. He focuses both on returning to traditional venues like North Wilkesboro Speedway and Bowman Gray Stadium while also expanding to untapped markets like Downtown Chicago, Los Angeles and Mexico City and on diverse layouts like street courses and football fields.
Several tracks that have had two dates have lost one of them so that NASCAR could try new figurative arenas while also serving traditional fans.
For example, Bowman Gray is in the Greensboro-Winston Salem market, which is actually NASCAR’s top television audience each week. Meanwhile, Los Angeles and Mexico City represent demographics NASCAR wants to bring into the fold, taking advantage of a 38-event schedule each year.
The key takeaways from the press conference can be found below.
Why Mexico City?
Ben Kennedy: “It’s huge. When we talk as a leadership team about where we feel like our biggest growth opportunities as a sport is, international is always one of the first things that comes up. … We brought the Craftsman Truck Series to Canada for a number of years, we’ve had the Xfinity Series in Mexico. This is a monumental moment for our sport in the sense that this is our first step of really taking the Cup Series internationally, and I think it could set us up for the future in potential new markets. I think we’ve been honest about our interest in taking our Cup Series abroad, whether that’s north of the border or south of the border, and then as we talk about some of our other races, there are opportunities for us to take the Cup Series even further than that.
“So, it’s going to be a big project for us. There’s a lot of questions that we have. I’m sure that the industry will have some questions as well, but excited to take this on, and to go to one of the biggest markets — not just in the country, but in the world — is going to be huge for our sport.”
This is about expanding NASCAR’s base
Ben Kennedy: “Certainly, the U.S. is always going to be kind of our mainstay. … It’s important [to be here] as we certainly think about our fan base, but then also think about the future pipeline of drivers, crew chiefs, engineers, making sure that we give them a pathway from the NASCAR Mexico Series into our national series and potentially even our Cup Series, to create the next generation of our sport.”
Richmond losing second date
Ben Kennedy: “We’re still committed to Richmond. It’s an important track, important market, as we think about where our NASCAR fans are today. We’ve seen some exciting storylines certainly come out of that track over the past few years.”
Kyle Busch’s 2023 Mexico gun possession arrest
Busch was detained in January 2003 while trying to leave the country with a hand gun in his bag, which he says he forgot was in there, and had a permit to carry in the United States. He agreed to plead guilty and was adjudicated under a section of Mexican law that allows any prison sentence to be commuted if it is under four years while paying a $1000 fine and an undisclosed bond.
Ben Kennedy: “We’ve had some communication, certainly with the team, and the issues have been resolved and we don’t foresee any challenges there. I’m sure Kyle is excited to be down here in Mexico City next year.
Team travel and safety logistics
Ben Kennedy: “Work has already been done on the ground and a lot of work we’ll have over the next 10 months. I think the great part about it is that we’re working with a great company in Mexico (OCESA) that is used to putting on major live events, the Formula 1 race. We’re going to be coordinating with them and a logistics and transportation company to make sure we can get all the equipment from Charlotte, North Carolina or wherever the team is coming from down to Mexico City and back. We’re going to be coordinating with them to make sure everyone gets in town too. We’ve already begun that process. A lot of work to do because we’re a massive industry with thousands of people, and a lot of equipment for our 38 weeks a year. So we want to make sure that when everyone gets here that Thursday and Friday, that we’ll be ready to go and ready to put on a good show.”
Driver reaction
Chase Elliott: “I’ll give them a lot of credit — they’ve been really trying to switch it up over the last few years,” said 2020 Cup champion Chase Elliott. “And I don’t think all of it’s gone great, and that’s totally okay but they’ve been willing to try. And I think that that is something that that we should all admire and appreciate is the effort to go to different places and try new things. … To get outside of the country and just to go do something different, I think will be fun.”
Daniel Suarez: “It’s a dream come true. To me, winning a race there would be as big as winning a championship. I’ve never raced the road course. I won there on the oval configuration but never the road course. I know a little about it from the Formula 1 races. Very fast, long straightaway, track. I think we’re going to see a lot of passionate fans when we go there.”