NASCAR’s Brad Moran addresses rumors about Mexico City race

NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran just addressed the rumors of the Mexico City race possibly not happening this year. On Tuesday, Moran appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and said the Mexico City race is still on.

“We have a big drive on going global, and we’re definitely doing it,” Moran said. “We’re definitely going. Everything’s set up. I’ve been there myself once. We’ve had teams that have been there for probably eight months or so, putting everything together.

“…There’s been a lot of energy put into this. And again, like I said, we’ve got great partners with (concert promoter) OCESA, and we’re going to be there on June 13-15th in Mexico City and ready to go.”

The NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico City is set to take place on June 15 at 3 p.m. ET on Prime Video. This will be the first international points event for the Cup Series since 1958 when Lee Petty won a race in Toronto.

Rumors of NASCAR canceling the event and racing on the Daytona Road Course began in the early stages of the season. “There have been rumors for several weeks that the Mexico race won’t happen, even though NASCAR brought drivers to Mexico last week and had Mexican media at COTA this past weekend. I talked to NASCAR this morning. They are adamant that the Mexico race is good to go,” Bob Pockrass or FOX Sports wrote on X.

Why the NASCAR Mexico City race could be called off

Pockrass noted that the rumors likely stem from the ongoing political battle between the United States and Mexico. “Rumors of Mexico race not happening likely stem from the current state of relations between the two countries,” Pockrass tweeted. “And there are some in the garage who have anxiety about going (just like there was some, maybe not to same extent, about racing in Chicago). I fully expect it to happen.”

In August, NASCAR announced the Mexico City race, which will take place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. There will also be an Xfinity Series race at the track on Saturday, June 14.

“This has been on our radar for a long time,” Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer, said at the 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.”