NASCAR Cup will host its first race outside of the United States in Mexico City for the 2025 season.
Mexican driver Daniel Suarez said he’s “living the dream,” by getting to compete in his home country.
“The last time I raced here [Mexico] was 10 years ago with NASCAR Mexico, to get to come here 10 years later is incredible”, said Suarez for Motorsport Latinoamerica.
But, Suarez is not the only Mexican driver who wished to partake in a race in his country.
Pato O’Ward, IndyCar driver for Arrow McLaren, showed his discontent with the IndyCar Series for not fighting enough for a race in Mexico.
“They beat us to the cake,” O’Ward said for ESPN. “I strongly believe that we’re not only late, but I strongly believe that there isn’t more room in Mexico City. Like, not only did they beat us there, but now that is not an option for IndyCar. You need to understand that these people save up their money to go to these events.“
The Mexican was not the only one who felt they could have done more, several IndyCar drivers also spoke up.
“It’s like, everybody is overtaking us, like left, right, left, right”, said Alex Palou for ESPN.
“One-hundred percent, we should have been [in Mexico City]. It doesn’t make much sense for me. But for Pato, he’s been growing, so I think we’re like five years too late, and now NASCAR overtakes us“, Said Palou.
Last month, Mark Miles, IndyCar and Penske Entertainment CEO, said in a small press conference before the Milwaukee Mile race, regarding conversations he had with Corporacion Interamericana de Entretenimiento (CIE).
“They said, ‘If you want us to rent you the place, we’ll rent you the place, but we don’t want to partner because we think it’s too early. You’re not well enough known yet to be in Mexico City’,” Miles said about his conversations with CIE three years ago.
“What that means is they have a view that we’re not well enough known, nor is [O’Ward] yet, to populate an event at that track.”
“I will say it’s pretty clear that Pato isn’t as famous as the last previously famous Mexican driver [Adrian Fernandez],” Miles continued.
“[O’Ward] is gaining ground, and he’s actually on some billboards now. He’ll probably complain that I haven’t dragged him [into conversations] and that he should be the guy to go in and make the deal.”
O’Ward replied to Miles’ claims, and he was not very happy about it:“And that’s not the point, saying that I’m not famous enough to pack up a whole place,” he said.
“That’s just throwing your series under the bus, because you should want to go to Mexico, you should want to go international because you believe in your series, not because you believe just in one of your 27 drivers. And I’m just trying to do my part in the best that I can”, said O’Ward for NBC Sports.
Several drivers, including O’Ward’s teammate, Alexander Rossi, came for Miles after claiming the Mexican is “not as famous as Adrian Fernandez.”
Reasons I can think why @PatricioOWard is actually as famous as he thinks he is while I’m sitting on couch.
1. Has fan bases so loud that when they chant we can’t actually complete an engineering debrief. In Portland of all places.
2. Needs his own merchandise tent because…
— Alexander Rossi (@AlexanderRossi) August 31, 2024
O’Ward alone has 27k more followers than the official IndyCar Instagram account.
Last week IndyCar announced they will have a new street race in Dallas from the 2026 season onwards.
No further information has been given, and a representative for Penske Entertainment refused to comment on the event.
Should IndyCar be focusing on getting more races inside the United States, or expand further, say Latin America?
A month before the Dallas race was announced, O’Ward said something along the lines of this.
“To me, Latin America should be the focus of where we go,” O’Ward said. “But I think the way they [IndyCar leadership] do things is not with urgency. At some point, I get it. If you’re impatient, you could end up being too antsy getting to where you want to go”.
“But the series has moved way too slowly”, he also added for ESPN. “That’s the reality. You’d at least want to see we’re getting somewhere, but as an outsider looking in, it seems like a no-brainer that we’re already three years late”.
It will be a matter of time to see if IndyCar will listen to their fans and drivers about where they want to go and be seen.
