Challenging circuit, local buzz welcome NASCAR’s arrival to Mexico City
MEXICO CITY — NASCAR’s arrival in Mexico City has been hard to miss, even in a metropolis with a population of 22.5 million people. If you weren’t close enough to hear the Cup Series haulers blaring their horns as they wound their way into the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit Thursday afternoon, the seemingly omnipresent billboards and colorful advertisements around town heralded the news.
The preparations for the first points-paying race for NASCAR’s top series outside of the United States in 67 years entered their final stages on the eve of Friday’s first on-track action. Thursday also brought a sneak peek of the 2.42-mile circuit that will host Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), courtesy of a bus tour with Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain providing commentary along its 15 turns in a driving rainstorm.
The Cup Series garage will officially open in earnest Friday morning, marking one of the later phases in the logistical dance to bring the NASCAR industry’s operations to a foreign country. The venue that Thursday’s early arrivals found is a sprawl of grandstands and stadium elements for fans, unique challenges for the drivers and rich history for those nostalgia-minded buffs.
Notices about the event mixed in amidst the murals along the bustling city streets, frequently featuring the face of national sports hero Daniel Suárez. The series’ only Mexican-born driver unveiled his specially painted helmet for the race weekend, sporting a design that reflects his home country’s culture in festive colors. The local media were there in force, an extension of the publicity that’s been rampant on Spanish-speaking sports networks in the days leading up to this debut weekend.
Chastain, Suárez’s Trackhouse teammate, was asked how much of the local culture he’d been able to soak up and if he knew the Spanish word for watermelon, a product he grows and promotes diligently from his farm in Florida. “Sandía!” Chastain replied, noting he’s known the word since childhood.
Learning the local race track may be another matter. A slow lap of the track in a double-decker bus took off from the main straightaway, which at 3,937 feet ranks as the longest frontstretch in NASCAR — a straight shot topped only by the 4,000-foot superstretch at the back portion of Talladega Superspeedway.
The Hermanos Rodríguez straight ends in a quick right-left-right series marking Turns 1 through 3, a prime opportunity for passing and potential calamity.
“Definitely a long straightaway to think about a lot of things and then decide how late we could brake, and there’s not a lot of penalty,” Chastain said. “There’s a lot of grass and runoff areas. That’s nice. I do better when I have runoff so I can spin out in practice. I fully plan to go off track a couple times to find the limits.”
MORE: At-track photos: Mexico City
If there’s trouble at the other end of the track, it will come in front of the most densely populated sections for fans. The Estadio GNP Seguros stadium section once hosted Taylor Swift for a four-night residency, but this weekend it will be a desirable vantage point for a compact series of Turns 10 through 14, the lowest-speed portion of the circuit.
As the bus made its way through the technical curves before exiting through a cutout in the U-shaped Foro Sol grandstand, Chastain — through the windshield wipers’ swipes — was reminded of a historic course closer to home.
“Right there, it felt like Bristol,” he said, making a nod to the “Last Great Colosseum” seating. “Like I couldn’t see out, the stands were so high, so that’s what it felt like.”
The audience and publicity will likely only rise when the engines fire to life Friday. For that and the main event ahead, Chastain has high hopes.
“I’m proud to be one of the drivers to take the green flag for the first international points race here for the Cup Series on Sunday,” he said. “It’s really cool. It’s going to go down in our history, and I think the history of Mexico.”
The preparations for the first points-paying race for NASCAR’s top series outside of the United States in 67 years entered their final stages on the eve of Friday’s first on-track action. Thursday also brought a sneak peek of the 2.42-mile circuit that will host Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), courtesy of a bus tour with Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain providing commentary along its 15 turns in a driving rainstorm.
The Cup Series garage will officially open in earnest Friday morning, marking one of the later phases in the logistical dance to bring the NASCAR industry’s operations to a foreign country. The venue that Thursday’s early arrivals found is a sprawl of grandstands and stadium elements for fans, unique challenges for the drivers and rich history for those nostalgia-minded buffs.
Notices about the event mixed in amidst the murals along the bustling city streets, frequently featuring the face of national sports hero Daniel Suárez. The series’ only Mexican-born driver unveiled his specially painted helmet for the race weekend, sporting a design that reflects his home country’s culture in festive colors. The local media were there in force, an extension of the publicity that’s been rampant on Spanish-speaking sports networks in the days leading up to this debut weekend.
Chastain, Suárez’s Trackhouse teammate, was asked how much of the local culture he’d been able to soak up and if he knew the Spanish word for watermelon, a product he grows and promotes diligently from his farm in Florida. “Sandía!” Chastain replied, noting he’s known the word since childhood.
Learning the local race track may be another matter. A slow lap of the track in a double-decker bus took off from the main straightaway, which at 3,937 feet ranks as the longest frontstretch in NASCAR — a straight shot topped only by the 4,000-foot superstretch at the back portion of Talladega Superspeedway.
The Hermanos Rodríguez straight ends in a quick right-left-right series marking Turns 1 through 3, a prime opportunity for passing and potential calamity.
“Definitely a long straightaway to think about a lot of things and then decide how late we could brake, and there’s not a lot of penalty,” Chastain said. “There’s a lot of grass and runoff areas. That’s nice. I do better when I have runoff so I can spin out in practice. I fully plan to go off track a couple times to find the limits.”
MORE: At-track photos: Mexico City
If there’s trouble at the other end of the track, it will come in front of the most densely populated sections for fans. The Estadio GNP Seguros stadium section once hosted Taylor Swift for a four-night residency, but this weekend it will be a desirable vantage point for a compact series of Turns 10 through 14, the lowest-speed portion of the circuit.
As the bus made its way through the technical curves before exiting through a cutout in the U-shaped Foro Sol grandstand, Chastain — through the windshield wipers’ swipes — was reminded of a historic course closer to home.
“Right there, it felt like Bristol,” he said, making a nod to the “Last Great Colosseum” seating. “Like I couldn’t see out, the stands were so high, so that’s what it felt like.”
The audience and publicity will likely only rise when the engines fire to life Friday. For that and the main event ahead, Chastain has high hopes.
“I’m proud to be one of the drivers to take the green flag for the first international points race here for the Cup Series on Sunday,” he said. “It’s really cool. It’s going to go down in our history, and I think the history of Mexico.”