NASCAR finally made what had long been speculated, the NASCAR National Series returning for a race weekend in Mexico City, official on Tuesday. While the NASCAR Xfinity Series competing in Mexico City is nothing new as the series raced there from 2005 to 2008, this will mark the first NASCAR Cup Series international points-paying race since the 1958 season.
If you have your calculator at the ready, that means it’s been 67 years since an international event factored in the season point standings in the NASCAR Cup Series. Additionally, it will be the first NASCAR Cup Series international event of any kind since the 1998 NASCAR Thunder Special at Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway in Motegi City, Japan.
With Tuesday’s announcement, I can’t help but think about Bill France Jr., who led NASCAR after his father Bill France Sr., handed the reins of the company to him in 1972 until 2000. You have to imagine that France Jr. would undoubtedly be proud of the move to Mexico City in 2025, and the overall recent shifts within the NASCAR schedule which have become increasingly bolder and bolder with each passing season.
France Jr. was integral in NASCAR evolving from a Southeastern regional sport to becoming a nationwide juggernaut by the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was France, who toyed with the notion of street racing in the 1980s and spearheaded the exhibition events in Japan in the late 1990s.
Fast forward to 2024, the NASCAR Cup Series just wrapped up its second Chicago Street Race last month, and now, they’re heading international in 2025. It’s just like Bill Jr. drew it up.
While this announcement feels like a cool harkening back to the Bill France Jr. days, the overall impact of the Mexico City race can’t be understated. Racing at Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez provides a path to bolster interest in NASCAR in Mexico, and in other Latin countries in the short term, and long term it opens the sanctioning body to compete on the international stage in additional countries.
NASCAR, which has been the premier form of motorsport in the United States since the 1994 split between CART and the Indy Racing League, could really benefit massively by gaining inroads globally. If successful, international expansion for the NASCAR Cup Series could give NASCAR a legitimate path to potentially rival Formula One globally someday if it plays its cards right. But if that is the eventual goal, it can only be achieved one way, by leaving the United States, which NASCAR will do next June in Mexico City.
When asked about the potential of additional international events past the 2025 season, Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer, didn’t deny the possibility, in fact he sounded very open to it.
“Yeah, I think so,” Kennedy said when asked if NASCAR could host multiple international events per season in the future. “You know, I think as we talk about all of these changes we’ve made to the schedule. We’re going to new markets, we’re going to new venues. Some of these events, we’re promoting ourselves. Some of these events, like this one, we’re going to have partners and promoters that are going to be putting it on. As you think about international expansion, this is certainly a big move for us. It’s a bold move for our sport. Certainly comes with a lot of bandwidth and resources.”
Kennedy continued by expressing how important making the Mexico City event a success is.
“It remains to be seen what the future of our international plans look like, but I can tell you for now, the next 10 months we’re going to be really focused on making this an incredible event,” Kennedy said.
While Formula One has a vast global following, it trails NASCAR in popularity in the United States. You have to imagine a lot of the reason is tied to the fact that NASCAR racing is seen as much more competitive overall. And that isn’t an objective point of view.
For instance, F1’s Monaco Grand Prix has had just one on-track lead change since 1988. That’s it. One. Could you imagine the uproar if any NASCAR event went 36 years with just one on-track lead change? If we expand out to lead changes of any kind, including passes while cars are on pit road, F1 has averaged just 3.8 lead changes per race this year, while the NASCAR Cup Series is averaging 23.4.
The question is if NASCAR could ever work itself into being in front of the international viewer consistently, would they prefer NASCAR over F1? At first, I’m not sure. But long term, I truly think NASCAR could reign supreme.
In addition to having more lead changes, NASCAR races also feature more close calls on track, scuffles off track, and even a photo finish or two along the way. Those components alone make NASCAR primed to take hold of the international motorsports following if the sanctioning body ever decides to go all-in on pursuing the international market.
And with NASCAR’s Playoff Format, there is no runaway championship winner in NASCAR like in Formula One, where Max Verstappen holds a 70-point lead over Lando Norris with nine races remaining. While Verstappen has encountered a five-race losing skid, his point lead has actually grown by one point over that five-race span.
The championship battle, at this point, is a mere formality 15 races into the F1 season. Meanwhile, NASCAR’s standings are about to be reset, and 16 drivers will once again be in the thick of the battle for the point lead, and then over the final 10 races, the points will be reset in a series of rounds, and then, in the final race, four drivers will battle for the NASCAR Cup Series title in a winner-take-all championship race at Phoenix Raceway.
For F1 fans suffering from burnout by a championship race being essentially over, NASCAR’s championship format may be a breath of fresh air at the end of each Summer. And who knows, if they fall in love with the action of NASCAR, it could slowly supplant F1 as their preferred form of motorsport.
But it all hinges on whether NASCAR has the long-term goal of an international push, or if the 2025 Mexico City event is simply an event to help NASCAR bolster its efforts with its NASCAR Mexico Series, which will share the race weekend at Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez with the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series next year.
