NASCAR Confirms History-Making Move For 2025 Cup Series Calendar

NASCAR has officially announced its groundbreaking decision to host the first international points event in Mexico City during the 2025 season.

Set to take place on Sunday, June 15, 2025, at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the race will follow a companion NASCAR Xfinity Series race, scheduled for June 14, and will be broadcast live on Prime Video, with the Xfinity event airing on The CW.

Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s executive vice president, commented on the new addition to the calendar, as quoted by NASCAR.com:

“This has been on our radar for a long time. 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.”

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is not new to NASCAR or to global motorsports, having hosted Formula 1 and four Xfinity Series races between 2005 and 2008—events that featured now-prominent drivers like Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch.

Mexican-born Cup Series driver Daniel Suárez shared his enthusiasm, describing the event as “a dream come true.”

“This, for me, is like a dream. This is really a dream come true. Exactly 10 years ago, I was here racing NASCAR Mexico in 2014, and I won a race here before leaving NASCAR México and moving full-time to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015, and I knew that some, some years before my time, the NASCAR Xfinity Series had the opportunity to come to Mexico for a few years and I remember thinking what a dream it would be for me to race the NASCAR Cup Series one day in my country. I remember thinking that, and fast forward now nine years later, and here we are in Mexico City.”

The race will be in partnership with OCESA, a major promoter for the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix. Alejandro Soberón, CEO of OCESA, also commented on the news.

“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.

“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.”

Kennedy’s commentary on NASCAR’s international aspirations didn’t stop at Mexico.

“It’s huge. 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.”

He added:

“We’re still committed to Richmond. It’s an important track, an important market certainly, as we think about where our NASCAR fans are today. We’ve seen some exciting story lines certainly coming out of that track over the past few years and excited to continue to be there next year, put on a great event for our fans, and put a lot of that energy and resources into that event.”