NASCAR finalizes deal for Mexico City race in 2025

NASCAR will add a Cup Series race in Mexico City in 2025, an event that will mark the sport’s first points race outside of the United States in 67 years, NASCAR officials announced Tuesday.

“This is going to be certainly a monumental event for us, the first time we’re going south of the border,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue and racing innovation officer.

The race will be held on June 15 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City, which is also home to the Mexico City Grand Prix F1 race. An Xfinity race will be held on June 14.

“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,” said Kennedy, explaining that the Mexico event has been a long time in the making. 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.”

The Cup Series race will be aired live on Prime Video, with the previous day’s Xfinity race airing on The CW.

The race would come at the expense of Richmond Raceway losing one of its two races, The Athletic reported Monday.

The race would mark the first international event since NASCAR’s top circuit raced in Toronto in 1958.

–Field Level Media