NASCAR to have podium celebrations for Cup, Xfinity Series races in unprecedented Mexico City move

NASCAR will have podium celebrations for the Cup and Xfinity Series races at Mexico City, per Dustin Long of NBC Sports. This is very rare in NASCAR, as it only had podium celebrations in the Cup Series during the Clash race from 2022 to 2024 in Los Angeles.

NASCAR will have podium celebrations for the top three finishers in its Cup Series and Xfinity Series races at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on June 14-15. “For this historic weekend, it felt appropriate to recognize the heritage of Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and give a nod to the traditional international motorsports celebrations,” NASCAR stated to NBC Sports. “There are currently no plans for podium-style celebrations following the Mexico City event.”

Long mentioned that Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson have the most top-three finishes this season, with six. Denny Hamlin and William Byron have five top-three finishes, and Ryan Blaney has three.

NASCAR is looking forward to the Mexico City races

NASCAR will have its first international Cup points race since 1958 when the drivers compete in Mexico City later this month. The official announcement was made in August.

“This, for me, is like a dream,” NASCAR driver Daniel Suárez said at the time. “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.”

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