{"id":52739,"date":"2025-06-12T10:55:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T15:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=52739"},"modified":"2025-06-12T16:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T21:28:14","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/12\/nascar-weekend-preview-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Aut\u00f3dromo Hermanos Rodr\u00edguez"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Mexico City welcomes the NASCAR Cup Series for the first time<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

MEXICO CITY \u2013 Amid much anticipation from fans and NASCAR teams alike, the NASCAR Cup Series has arrived in Mexico City for the series\u2019 first points-paying international race in seven decades, Sunday\u2019s aptly-named Viva Mexico 250 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (3 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Executive Vice President & Chief Venue & Racing Innovation Officer, joins NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suarez to announce that the NASCAR Cup Series will race in Mexico City for the first time next year at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on August 27, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Manuel Velasquez\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The industry has long been preparing for this inaugural visit to the renowned 2.42-mile, 15-turn road course in the middle of bustling Mexico City. And perhaps no one is more eager for NASCAR\u2019s Mexican arrival than Trackhouse Racing\u2019s Daniel Suarez, who has made multiple visits to his home country in support of the event, excited to show the world-class facility NASCAR\u2019s brand of Cup racing.<\/p>\n

“I’m super excited, regardless of what happens on Sunday,” said the Monterrey, Mexico-native Suarez, who has competed \u2013 and won three times \u2013 on the track\u2019s oval-configuration while racing in the NASCAR Mexico Series, which will also be competing this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m super excited for the event. I’m super excited to live in the moment because the first time is going to only happen once. I’m really trying to be as present as possible; enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that’s not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez, who scored his first NASCAR Cup Series win on a road course at Sonoma, Calif. in 2022, has been a vital supporter of this initiative. For months, the popular driver has starred in the NASCAR commercials promoting the Mexican race \u2013 the script depicting him trying to teach fellow racers how to speak in Spanish.<\/p>\n

“At first, I thought man, I don’t know if this is going to work out, like, I don’t think this is going to be funny,” Suarez said smiling. \u201cAnd honestly, it turned out amazing. I give a lot of credit to NASCAR for trying all these different things. I think people are liking it. Drivers are embracing it. And, obviously, I’m having fun with it. I’m the one teaching the language, so for the first time, I feel like I\u2019m in my zone, so that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez is certainly among the group of drivers hoping a new venue may produce different results on the season. The driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet is ranked 28th in the championship with 11 regular season races remaining to set the 16-driver Playoff field.<\/p>\n

Others traditionally considered road course aces similarly see this as a big opportunity to punch a Playoff ticket. Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman, Kaulig Racing\u2019s A.J. Allmendinger, Spire Motorsports\u2019 Michael McDowell and Suarez\u2019 Trackhouse teammate Shane Van Gisbergen are all some of the most talented road racers in the sport and all are still looking to earn a victory this season. Many still well below the 16th place Playoff cutoff line.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, six of the 14 regular season races in the Next Gen Era have been won by drivers ranked 16th or worse in the standings at the time of their victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone expects us to perform on road courses,” said the New Zealand-native Van Gisbergen, who made the ultimate NASCAR debut winning at the Chicago street race two years ago in his very first start.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that we have been hanging out for it (road courses), but the ovals have been a big learning process the last couple of months. It will be nice for sure to have a bit of a break and races on the types of courses I’m used to which means turning right.”<\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports has won at eight different road courses \u2013 the most in NASCAR history. And four of the remaining 11 races will be on road courses.<\/p>\n

Hendrick\u2019s William Byron continues to lead the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings \u2013 up by 41 points on his teammate Kyle Larson heading to south of the border \u2013 and both are also considered favorites this weekend. Hendrick drivers \u2013 Byron (two), Larson (two) and Bowman (one) – have won five of the last eight road course races. If Elliott wins this weekend he would tie NASCAR Hall of Famer for second most road course wins all-time (eight).<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s race winner, Denny Hamlin claimed his first career Xfinity Series win at the Mexico road course in 2006. He, Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Kyle Busch (who won the 2008 Xfinity Series race) and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing\u2019s Brad Keselowski are the only drivers to have raced at the circuit \u2013 competing in the Xfinity Series there.<\/p>\n

RFK\u2019s Chris Buescher, who finished runner-up to Hamlin last week at Michigan, boasts the best road course average finish (8.7) in the Next Gen cars.<\/p>\n

Busch Light Pole Qualifying is set for Saturday at noon ET (Amazon Prime, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

NASCAR Xfinity Series is set to return to Mexico<\/b><\/p>\n

The NASCAR Xfinity Series marks its return to Mexico with Saturday afternoon\u2019s The Chilango 150 (4:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The series has held four previous races at the famed Autodrome Hermanos Rodriquez \u2013 the last in 2008 won by Kyle Busch.<\/p>\n

This is the second of seven road course races on the schedule. Series rookie, JR Motorsports\u2019 Connor Zilisch won at Circuit of The Americas from pole position.<\/p>\n

Reigning series champion, JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier earned his third win of the season in the series\u2019 most recent race, two weeks ago at Nashville. It marks the fifth time in the last eight years, the veteran has scored at least three victories in a season. He holds a 92-point advantage in the championship standings over fellow three-race winner, Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Austin Hill.<\/p>\n

The Illinois native has answered his first career title run with another top-shelf season in the No. 7 JRM Chevrolet.  He leads all drivers in laps led (638) and top-10 finishes (10). He\u2019s only eight top-10 finishes from 300 in his career \u2013 a feat never before accomplished in the series.<\/p>\n

With 12 regular season races remaining and six Playoff spots still to be claimed, Mexico City certainly presents all the makings of an ultra-competitive weekend.<\/p>\n

Sam Mayer and Ty Gibbs have the most road course wins (four) in this weekend\u2019s field. Interestingly, nine of the series\u2019 last 11 road course races have been won by just three drivers (Mayer, Shane Van Gisbergen and Zilisch). And Mayer, who is ranked third in the standings, is still looking for his first win of the year.<\/p>\n

Gibbs (No. 19 Toyota) is among three NASCAR Cup Series regulars \u2013 also Suarez (No. 9 Chevy) and Christopher Bell (No. 24 Toyota) \u2013 racing Saturday. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rookie, Andres Perez De Lara will be making his Xfinity Series debut.<\/p>\n

Kennametal Pole Qualifying is slated for 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday (CW App) and historically has proven very significant on road courses with the polesitter winning 10 of the last 18 road course races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Mexico City welcomes the NASCAR Cup Series for the first time MEXICO CITY \u2013 Amid much anticipation from fans and NASCAR teams alike, the NASCAR Cup Series has arrived in Mexico City for the series\u2019 first points-paying international race in seven decades, Sunday\u2019s aptly-named Viva Mexico 250 at Autodromo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":52737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[1105,16],"class_list":["post-52739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2169080651.jpg?fit=2535%2C1690&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dID","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52739"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52741,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52739\/revisions\/52741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}