Cup Series Adding Mexico City Race To 2025 Slate

MEXICO CITY – The NASCAR Cup Series will head south of the border next summer for its first international points race in nearly seven decades.

Historic Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez – the internationally renowned 2.674-mile, 17-turn circuit in Mexico City – will welcome the top stock car drivers in the world on June 15 for the first-ever Cup Series points event in Mexico.

It will mark the first points-paying Cup Series race outside the United States since a July 18, 1958 race at Canadian Exposition Stadium in Toronto, won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Lee Petty, though three Cup Series exhibition races were held in Japan from 1996-’98 – two at Suzuka Circuitland (’96-’97) and one at Twin Ring Motegi (’98).

The NASCAR Mexico Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series will join the racing card on June 14 to make up a milestone tripleheader weekend in the Mexican capital.

Announced Tuesday during a press conference at the venue, those in attendance included NASCAR Executive Vice President & Chief Venue & Racing Innovation Officer Ben Kennedy, OCESA Head of Commercial Partnerships Federico Alaman, NASCAR Mexico Series CEO Jimmy Morales, and Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez, the only Mexican-born driver currently racing fulltime in the Cup Series.

“This is a historic moment for our sport, and specifically for the NASCAR Cup Series, in being able to expand our footprint to Mexico,” said Kennedy. “We’ve been bold about our intentions to grow on a global scale, and there isn’t a better place to take the next step in that journey than at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez road course in Mexico City.”

“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," added Alejandro Soberón, the founder and CEO of OCESA, Mexico's leading live entertainment company. “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.”

Built in 1959 and named in honor of racing brothers Ricardo Rodríguez and Pedro Rodríguez, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez got its name three years after opening when Ricardo Rodríguez was killed during practice for the inaugural Mexican Grand Prix, run to Formula One rules but not part of the world championship at that time. Pedro Rodriguez lost his life behind the wheel as well, nine years later.

The facility, which sits at an elevation of 7,342 feet, has hosted numerous major auto racing series in its past, including the IMSA GT Championship, the Trans-Am Series, the FIA World Endurance Championship, and Indy cars during the CART and Champ Car World Series eras.

Since being remodeled in 2015, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez has hosted the last eight editions of the Formula One Mexican Grand Prix, with no race run in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, it will welcome the Cup Series in a blockbuster event, one that has Suárez as excited as anyone.

“To get where we are going, we must go to where we have never been,” said Suárez in a video announcing the news.

“It’s been unbelievable,” he added during a national media teleconference. “There are a lot of people excited here in Mexico. It’s a day that we will remember forever, a very long time. We were talking last night at dinner, that today we are making history. Today we are bringing the biggest [stock car] series in the world to Mexico City [for] a points race for the very first time in the modern era.

“I feel very, very humbled and blessed to be part of this announcement and I cannot tell you how many people there are downstairs recording and taking pictures. The energy was unbelievable, and we are still a lot of months away from the race.”

Though next year will mark the Cup Series’ first foray into Mexico, NASCAR has a long history with the country, dating back nearly 75 years to when NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and Curtis Turner participated in the 1950 La Carrera Panamericana road race across Mexico.

The Xfinity Series raced at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez four times from 2005-’08, with two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch winning the last race there 16 years ago.

In addition, the NASCAR Mexico Series has been the premier stock-car racing series in the country, with 17 seasons held under the NASCAR banner. It launched Suárez’s career and in recent years has fostered rising talents like current Drive for Diversity class members Eloy López, Regina Sirvent, and current ARCA Menards Series point leader Andres Pérez de Lara.

The Mexico Series competed in the United States for the first time in February, when it joined the Cup Series during the Busch Light Clash weekend at the Los Angeles (Calif.) Memorial Coliseum. That race was, fittingly, won by Suárez.

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez’s date on the Cup Series schedule will take the place of one of the two Richmond (Va.) Raceway weekends. It marks the fifth straight season a new venue has been added to the premier series calendar.

“This has certainly been a journey for us on the scheduling front," Kennedy noted. “Our next opportunity was to expand internationally, and we said we’ve wanted to do this for a long time … but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box.

“To be in one of the biggest cities globally – over 20 million people that live in the city – is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.”

Of note, Brett Moffitt won the most recent international race in one of NASCAR’s three national divisions, a Craftsman Truck Series stop at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in 2019.

NASCAR Mexico City Race Weekend takes place June 14-15, 2025, with the Xfinity Series race on June 14 airing on the CW Network and the Cup Series event on June 15 streaming live on Prime Video.

Fans can register online to receive event and ticket information at www.nascarmexico.com.