NASCAR goes to Mexico for new fans ... in U.S.

The event is hosted by a Mexican promoter, held on a Mexican road course, and attended by thousands of Mexican fans. But that's about all Sunday's Busch race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez has to do with Mexico.

It's a fine gesture by NASCAR, an intriguing -- if exorbitantly expensive -- departure for the Busch Series, and a good way to back up the sport's honest yet still fledgling diversity efforts. But let's not be too naive. For all the pride Mexicans rightly take in hosting and competing in this race, it's not about spreading goodwill south of the border.

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It's about making new fans north of it.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the United States, a group that's projected to make up a quarter of the nation's population by 2050. That's why NASCAR broadcasts its events on Spanish-speaking radio. That's why NASCAR officials tout the arrival of Juan Montoya every chance they get. And that's why NASCAR is holding a Busch race this weekend in Mexico City.

Mexicans aren't the target demographic. Mexican-Americans are.

"I don't think the real objective is making fans in Mexico," said Jon Ackley, a management professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, who has taught a course on the business of NASCAR for the past three years.

"I think it's nice, it highlights the relationships that we have. But I found out that Adrian Fernandez is going to drive for Lowe's. One asks, are there Lowe's outlets in Mexico? I don't really know. But clearly there are a lot of Lowe's outlets in the U.S., and there are a lot of Hispanic and Latino people across the U.S. that shop at home-improvement stores. What better place?"

Incidentally, there aren't any Lowe's stores in Mexico, and there won't be until 2009. But there are plenty in the southwestern U.S., a region with a strong Hispanic presence and five Nextel Cup weekends. Of the 43 cars currently entered for the Telcel Motorola 200, only three cars -- those of Montoya and Mexican drivers Rogelio Lopez and Antonio Perez -- will drive cars with Mexican sponsors. The rest will bear the logos of familiar U.S. companies, written in English, and beamed by television cameras to viewers north of the Rio Grande. (Continued)