NASCAR Cup Series to make history with Mexico City event in 2025
NASCAR officials announced Tuesday that the Cup Series will race in Mexico next season, adding the first international points event in the division’s modern history to the 2025 schedule.
The historic race is scheduled Sunday, June 15, at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, the nation’s capital. A companion race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is scheduled for the preceding day. The Cup Series event will air live on Prime Video while Saturday’s Xfinity Series tilt will air live on The CW.
“This has been on our radar for a long time,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer. “We’ve been talking about the continued iteration of our schedule, right? You can go back a few years, went to new markets like Nashville and Austin, Texas. We went to the Coliseum for the Clash. … We went to our first street race in downtown Chicago, and this is going to be another first for us in a lot of ways. This is going to be certainly a monumental event for us, the first time we’re going south of the border.”
Although a points-paying Cup Series event in Mexico will be a first, NASCAR has long held a position in the country. The Hermanos Rodriguez circuit hosted four races in the Xfinity Series from 2005-08, and three current Cup Series stars are among its winners — Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
Although a points-paying Cup Series event in Mexico will be a first, NASCAR has long held a position in the country. The Hermanos Rodriguez circuit hosted four races in the Xfinity Series from 2005-08, and three current Cup Series stars are among its winners — Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
NASCAR has also sanctioned the NASCAR México Series since its formation in 2004, and the Hermanos Rodriguez course will be the site of this year’s season finale on Nov. 3. Mexican-born Cup Series driver Daniel Suárez — who won the series’ season opener at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in February — is among those who have emerged from that tour.
“I’ve been racing in NASCAR already in the United States for 12 years, and since year number one, I’ve been dreaming about that, you know?” Suárez said during Chicago Street Race Weekend. “And to be able to run over there and be competitive and have a shot to win the race, that would be, to me personally, it would be like winning a championship, you know? It’s in that caliber.”
The expansion of the Cup Series’ footprint outside the United States borders marks the latest innovative step taken by NASCAR’s schedule makers in recent seasons. The Cup Series held two races in Canada in its earliest years — a 1952 event won by Buddy Shuman at Stamford Park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and a 1958 meet at the Canadian Exposition Stadium in Toronto where Lee Petty prevailed and his son, Richard, made the first of his record 1,184 Cup starts. The series also held a series of exhibition races in Japan from 1996-98.
Kennedy said returning the sport’s top division to the global stage has long been a priority.
“It’s huge,” Kennedy said. “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.”
The Mexico City track — which has road course and oval configurations — has hosted various series since its construction in 1959. The historic road course is 2.674 miles long, boasts 17 turns and sits at an elevation of 7,342 feet. The track was named in honor of racing brothers Ricardo Rodríguez and Pedro Rodríguez. The circuit was remodeled in 2015 and has hosted eight Formula 1 Grand Prix’s since then, becoming one of the most popular international racing circuits in the world.
Kennedy said NASCAR will partner with OCESA, which promotes the Mexico City Grand Prix for Formula 1 and has organized other large-scale entertainment events in the country.
“At OCESA, we are dedicated to entertaining people, and this has positioned us as the most powerful live events platform in Mexico and Latin America, as well as one of the most important globally,” said Alejandro Soberón, Founder and CEO of OCESA. “The arrival of the NASCAR Cup Series to our country reflects the significant growth that motorsports has experienced in Mexico, an achievement in which Escudería Telmex has played a major role by promoting the NASCAR Mexico Series and supporting drivers like Daniel Suárez.”
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