On June 14th, one of our sources in the Cup Series garage sent me a text. “NASCAR told us to get our passports ready for next season.” he hinted it was to be Mexico. I made sure that was posted quickly. Well today, Mexican born NASCAR Champion Daniel Suarez made the announcement official. On June 15th, the NASCAR Cup Series will be racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico’s capital city.

In 2025, the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series will be racing in Mexico City June 14-15th making it the first international point paying race in the sport’s top division in the modern era. The Xfinity Series raced in Mexico City from 2005-2008 when the United States and the rest of the world went into a recession.

In 1952 and 1958, NASCAR took what is today the Cup Series north of the border into Canada racing in Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1952 and Canadian Exposition Stadium in Toronto in 1958 marking the last times points were paid outside of the United States. Most recently in 1996, 97 & 98, NASCAR ran exhibition races in Japan.

Two of NASCAR’s full-time Cup drivers in 2025 will have already claimed victories in Mexico. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch both won in the Xfinity Series at the track. On top of the American based Xfinity Series, NASCAR has the NASCAR Mexico Series that has been operated by the sanctioning body since 2004.

As for broadcasts next season, the CW holds exclusive rights to the Xfinity Series and this inaugural event will be featured on another big new thing for the sport, the race will be broadcast via Amazon Prime Video. More Americans have streaming services in 2024 than Cable/Satellite or antenna TV therefor representing the largest potential audience possible for the sport.

NASCAR Executive Vice President Ben Kennedy said “This has been on our radar for a long time,” adding, “We’ve been talking about the continued iteration of our schedule, right? You can go back a few years, we 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 Chicago, and this is going to be another first for us in a lot of ways. This is certainly a monumental event for us, the first time we’re going south of the border.”

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was constructed in 1959. The track is 2.674 miles long with 17 turns. The course sits 7,342ft above sea level and was named in honor of racing brothers Ricardo & Pedro Rodriguez. The course hosts not only NASCAR’s Mexico Series, but has seen massive success with the Formula E and Formula 1 racing series.

NASCAR will partner with OCESA which promotes the Mexico City Grand Prix and has organized other large-scale events in the country.

Image: Simon Galloway/ Formula E Media