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.

"It makes sense that if you're running a race in Mexico City, there's got to be interest in Mexico. Obviously, Mexico has a varied history in terms of supporting motorsports of all types," Ackley said.

"But when you think about who you have in the United States, and you look at the proximity, when you look at Texas and Arizona and Southern California and South Florida, you possibly have a very large Hispanic and Latino fan base. Going into Mexico and running a race not only energizes any interest in Mexico, but also carries over to those Mexican-Americans living in the United States."

There are plenty of shrewd business minds within NASCAR. They see population trends. They see that Homestead-Miami Speedway had to put up additional seating after Montoya announced that the 2006 season finale would be his Nextel Cup debut. They know that if NASCAR hopes to remain successful well into the future, it has to secure a foothold within the fastest-growing minority group in America. They know that diversity, in addition to being the right thing to do ethically and morally, can also be profitable.

Montreal is no different. Yes, it further helps set the globetrotting Busch Series apart, it gives the sport a presence in another internationally renowned city where a foreign language is spoken, and it helps satisfy the six million fans NASCAR claims to have in Canada. But it also helps establish more of a presence in the northeast United States, where NASCAR's lone outposts are tiny Loudon, N.H., and Watkins Glen, N.Y., and where plans for a New York City track were smothered by red tape and local opposition.

Attendance for the Busch race in Mexico City dropped precipitously, from 94,229 for the debut event in 2005 to 74,428 last season. It may very well fall again this year. But this is one of those rare occasions in NASCAR where grandstand numbers don't really matter. What does is whether the race is making an impact on Hispanics in the United States.

Is that happening? "I don't know. I don't see the numbers," said Fernandez, the former Champ Car driver who was born in Mexico City, now lives in Arizona, and appears in Spanish-language television commercials for car sponsor Lowe's. Saturday's race will be his ninth in the Busch Series during the past three years.

"But when I see a lot of fans in the United State that follow us, I would say 50 percent of them, when I see them, they know what I've done in NASCAR and what I'm doing right now with the Le Mans series. I always say that continuity is the best thing that can happen for a sport. If there's continuity in the Mexican race, we'll be successful and we'll get to be known."

The key, as with any good relationship, is commitment. Running a few races in Mexico City and then bagging the operation would send a message exactly opposite of the one NASCAR is trying to convey. Many in the sport still remember the ill-fated exhibition events in Japan, a three-year experiment which took place before NASCAR developed a comprehensive international strategy, and did little to raise the circuit's profile on either side of the Pacific.

Mexico is different. NASCAR has sunk resources into an office and a developmental touring series. To make new fans of Mexican-Americans, NASCAR has to become a part of the Mexican sports culture. And that won't happen overnight.

"I don't think NASCAR plans to go in, do three years and pull out. That won't cultivate the fan base," Ackley said. "So I think they're going to be in Mexico for quite some time, just as I think they're going to be in Canada for quite some time."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.