NASCAR Is Making A Smart Call And Heading South Of The Border Next Season

NASCAR is about as American as you can get, and much like the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL have all staged games abroad in recent years in hopes of growing their international footprint, NASCAR is going to be doing the same.

On Tuesday, NASCAR announced that it will hold the Cup Series' first points-paying international race in over half a century next year when the series travels down to Mexico City on June 15 for a race around the famous Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

That's the track that hosts Formula 1's Mexican Grand Prix. It has both road course and oval layouts but they will reportedly use the road course layout (which I would assume is the Grand Prix layout, not the tighter, twistier Formula E layout). It features some long, fast straights, heavy braking zones, some flowy sections, and even some corners inside of Estadio GNP Seguros (formerly known as Foro Sol) which will be incredible with stock cars.

They'll also deal with one of F1's iconic corners in the Peraltada which is a very fast, sweeping right-hander that serves as final corner on the Grand Prix layout.

"This has been on our radar for a long time," NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer Ben Kennedy said. "We’ve been talking about the continued iteration of our schedule, right? You can go back a few years, and 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 NASCAR Xfinity Series will also race in Mexico City on June 14. Interestingly, the Xfinity Series has previously held races at the circuit from 2005 to 2008, and of those four races three were won by current Cup Series drivers: Martin Truex Jr. (who plans to retire from full-time competition after this season), Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

NASCAR is headed to Mexico City next season for a points race.    (Photo by Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)

NASCAR Is Making The Right Move Here

NASCAR held some points races in Canada, but that was back in the 1950s. More recently — the late ‘90s, but that’s still 25+ years ago — NASCAR held some exhibition races in Suzuka and Twin Ring Motegi.

So, the series was long overdue for a trip abroad, and Mexico has been the logical place for a long time, especially given the fact that one of the most popular drivers in the series right now is Mexico's own Daniel Suarez.

NASCAR appears to be acutely aware of the importance Suarez's involvement has to this event because the driver of the No. 99 is front and center on the first promotional images for the event (as he should be).

This is a perfect time to push NASCAR as an international product and I think this is a great first step. Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a great circuit and it'll be a cool event.