Posted on by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 14, 2025) – NASCAR and Riverhead Raceway have postponed this Saturday’s scheduled NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event one day to Sunday as a forecast for inclement weather impacts the area.

The race will now begin at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 15.

Earlier this week, NASCAR released the next set of 10 drivers included in the 40 greatest NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour drivers, selected based on their accomplishments on the Tour beginning in 1985.

On that list is four-time Tour champion Justin Bonsignore, who sits second on the all-time wins list at 45. Bonsignore will be racing at this home track this weekend, which was also the site of his first career Tour win.

Also on the list is the namesake of this weekend’s race, Steve Park, who finished second in the Tour standings twice before making the jump to race for Dale Earnhardt in the No. 1 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series.

The rest of the names added to the list this week are well known to fans in New York, and especially at Riverhead. The list is rounded out by Mike Ewanitsko, Wayne Anderson, Charlie Jarzombek, Timmy Solomito, Eric Goodale, Todd Szegedy, “Tiger” Tom Baldwin, and Mike McLaughlin.

For updated event information as available, fans may go to nascar.com/regional.

Posted on by Alex Cadavid

MEXICO CITY — It was evident when Daniel Suárez stepped off the bus before Friday’s practice and was greeted by a swarm of Mexican media, a mariachi band and a group of luchador wrestlers that the hero had returned home.

For Suárez, whose dreams of becoming a professional race car driver started some 567 miles north of Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Monterrey, it’s not just a homecoming weekend for the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing driver but almost a gigantic family reunion as he carries the pride of a whole country in Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“The entire week and up to now. It has exceeded every single expectation that I have had. … It has been a dream,” Suárez said.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

The moment has not been lost on him — even with the weight of expectation, a hectic media schedule and logistical setbacks for his crew, Suárez is choosing joy amid all the hullabaloo.

“I’m just enjoying. I’m like a kid on Christmas. That’s why you guys see me with a smile,” he said.

His smile hasn’t faded even in the face of real challenges. A flight delay kept many of his team members from arriving in time for opening practice, forcing the group to scramble just to get on track.

“I love the pressure. You put me against the wall, and I’m going to come back at you swinging,” Suárez said. “So I’m good with it. You know, this is just gonna be a better story. You know, we win on Sunday, and then we’re gonna be laughing about, ‘hey, we almost didn’t make practice.’ You know, it’s a shame that it happened, but we don’t blame anyone. We just find solutions.”

That resilient mindset is exactly what his team has been working to cultivate. His crew chief, Matt Swiderski, has seen growth in how Suárez handles these high-stakes environments.

“In the past, one of the issues he had was where he just put a ton of pressure on himself and he built these weekends up,” Swiderski said. “If we went to COTA and he had a bunch of fans there, the first little bump or hiccup we came to would completely deflate him. So we’ve worked on coming into the weekend with a neutral mindset. You know there’s going to be bumps in the road, and honestly, I think he’s done really well.”

“We didn’t start practice where we wanted to, we didn’t quite end where we wanted to, but we’ve made some gains, and he seems to be in a pretty positive mindset and pretty engaged. So he’s balancing it pretty well.”

That progress has Suárez cautiously optimistic about Sunday.

MORE: Suárez wins emotional Xfinity Series race on Saturday

“For me, it’s everything about execution. You know, I continue to improve our race cars,” Suárez said. “My car, the first practice, I was not happy at all with it, but second practice, I was OK with it. I’m happier. I’m not super happy, but I’m happier. So I’m OK with that. I’m OK starting here and making progress here. Now we have to continue to make that car a little better.

“I don’t believe that we fired off from out of the hauler as the best car, but I believe that we are slowly heading into that group of cars. So, once we get into that group of cars, it’s a free game. You know, it’s anyone’s race, and I feel like my job is to continue to push our group to continue to make these cars better and execute the best possible race that we can.”

Suárez will have to earn every spot on Sunday — no special treatment, even with the spotlight on him. But in a field full of hungry drivers, there’s also a collective understanding: you don’t mess with the country’s golden son in his own backyard, especially in front of a packed house of passionate fans.

“You do not want to spin out Suárez here, I can tell you that,” Michael McDowell said bluntly. “That is not a part of your strategy for the weekend.”

Shane van Gisbergen, a fellow Trackhouse Racing driver, joked: “If I spin out the 99, I’ll be hiding undercover, trying to get out of this place.”

Bubba Wallace put it even more directly: “There’s one goal this weekend — it’s to not wreck Suárez. … I’m definitely adopting that rule.”

That level of respect isn’t lost on his longstanding Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain, who’s watched Suárez thrive in the buildup to this weekend.

RELATED: Will Mexico City offer dream homecoming for Suárez?

“Daniel is already next level on road courses, but coming back here to Mexico, I’ve seen the pride in him,” Chastain said. “He told us about this race well before it was announced, and I’ve just been excited to be his teammate for a weekend like this.”

As the only Mexican-born driver in the field, Suárez stands at the center of something bigger than racing — a symbol of national pride, surrounded by support and fueled by passion. Whether he can cap it off with a win remains to be seen, but no matter what, he’s already the superstar of the weekend.

Posted on by Brandon White

RALEIGH, N.C. — On April 25, Tucker Haddock took part in his first full-bodied stock car race of any kind when he competed in Wake County Speedway’s Charger division.

He ended the evening in Victory Lane.

Haddock tried to keep his expectations reasonable prior to climbing into his family-owned No. 55 for his maiden Charger event. Facing plenty of other competitors well-versed with Charger competition at Wake County, his goal was to gain experience and bring the car back to the pit lane in one piece.

Instead, Haddock ended up celebrating a win with his crew and family, fulfilling a dream he possessed since watching his older brother Holden begin his own career.

“I’ve always spotted for [Holden] and figured I’d get into [racing] one day,” Tucker Haddock said. “I came up through iRacing a little bit and I got into the car a couple of times to practice it. We actually qualified third, came up through the field and ended up winning the thing.”

Along with Holden, many of Tucker’s friends are racers themselves. Knowing how much motorsports surrounded his life, Tucker Haddock always paid close attention to everything his peers were doing, eager to ascertain how he could potentially be a successful competitor himself one day.

Having iRacing at his disposal proved to be invaluable toward preparing Haddock for his debut outing. With how close iRacing replicates real world scenarios, Haddock uses the online simulation to log copious practice time and familiarize himself with the idiosyncrasies Holden and other drivers endure in the cockpit.

Aside from go-karts, the only competitive events Tucker participated in prior to his Charger debut at Wake County came on the iRacing servers. Despite this, the knowledge he acquired from iRacing was always prevalent whenever he was sharing ideas with Holden at the shop or at the track.

That expertise helped Tucker earn an opportunity to climb into Holden’s No. 55 for the first time, which eventually translated into him being able to race the car.

“One day we were out here testing, and the team was like, ‘How about you get in [the car] since you’ve been spotting all this time?’” Tucker said. “I figured I’d climb right in it. We were a little bit slower at first, but once we got settled in and figured it all out, we seemed to be pretty good.”

Even though Tucker boasted minimal real-world racing experience, Holden never doubted his brother’s ability to excel behind the wheel. The competitive laps Tucker had turned in practice only reinforced Holden’s confidence in him, but he wanted to see how Tucker would fair with other cars in race conditions.

Tucker navigated his Wake County debut like a veteran, which was a source of immense pride for Holden. Three years of competing at Wake County did not yield Holden any checkered flags in his No. 55, which is why he felt plenty of catharsis and elation when Tucker crossed the start-finish line first.

“I’ll be honest, [Tucker winning] was probably the happiest moment in my life so far in my racing career,” Holden said. “I wanted to get my brother in the seat because he’s proven to me he’s got what it takes to run with these boys. It meant more to me to see him get that win than it would for me to get a win.”

Tucker Haddock
Tucker Haddock prepared for his Charger debut at Wake County by relying on his iRacing experience and that of his older brother Holden. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR Regional)

The victory surprised many at Wake County that evening, including Tucker himself.

Among the drivers in the April 25 Charger feature at Wake County included accomplished short track racer Kyle Barnes and London McKenzie, who had just made his ARCA Menards Series East debut a month earlier. Tucker utilized the skills learned from his brother and iRacing to best all of them and add his name to the Wake County record books.

Tucker would have been pleased with finishing where he started that evening, third. His confidence about obtaining a victory gradually increased as the day progressed, culminating in a moment Tucker admitted still feels surreal to this day.

“I had joked around about winning, but knew we weren’t going to have a shot at it to be honest,” Tucker said. “It took a little while for [the win] to sink in and I didn’t really know we did it. Once we got in Victory Lane, it didn’t all seem real until it was real.”

Reality has altered drastically for Tucker since his days of being a spotter and solely an iRacing competitor. With a Charger victory on Tucker’s resumé, the two Haddock brothers are centering their focus on the championship at the end of the season.

Holden knows there will be a learning curve for Tucker as he continues his transition into being an active driver in the real world. Having taken a step back from being full-time himself, Holden is committed to providing Tucker everything he needs to earn a Charger title and kickstart a sustainable career at Wake County.

“We’re going to keep chasing those checkered flags,” Holden said. “He showed the speed he needs to win races. If Tucker gets a championship this year, we’re going to have to figure something out with getting him into a Late Model [Stock].”

For now, Tucker is focused on finishing the 2025 season at Wake County strong. Competitive fields in the facility’s Charger class are only going to challenge Tucker as the year progresses, yet he feels the combined experience from iRacing and the real world will cement him as a contender every week.

“All we can do is get better,” Tucker said. “Obviously, you can go backwards too, but I feel like we have a pretty good shot at going forward. My family doesn’t really have the money to move up in the game, so if we could win a championship, that would mean the world to me.”

Tucker set a high benchmark for himself by prevailing in his Charger debut at Wake County. Now he looks to build on that milestone by tallying more wins and establishing himself as the Charger title favorite.

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series are in action this weekend at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for a doubleheader in Mexico City. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on Prime Video. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information is available.

Tires: Three sets for practice, one set for qualifying and six sets for the race (including qualifying scuffs). Six sets of wet-weather tires will be available for the weekend if needed. 

Entry list
Qualifying Order
Practice 1 Results
Practice 2 Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Race day: Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information is available.

Tires: Six sets for the event. Four sets of wet-weather tires will be available for the weekend if needed. 

Entry list
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages 
Practice Lap Times 
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on by Holly Cain

MEXICO CITY — Four-time NASCAR Cup Series champ and current Hendrick Motorsports executive Jeff Gordon was recently asked on a Barstool Sports podcast about changes the sanctioning body is considering for the cars and he was ready with a well-considered answer.

He doesn’t think the answer is as simple as increasing horsepower and bolting on softer tires, however.

MORE: Mexico schedule | Cup standings

“If we thought as a team adding horsepower, adding softer tires, was going to be the fix-all … it’s not. Adding horsepower I think, at certain tracks like the mile tracks and half-mile tracks, I like — I think we’re too glued to the race track right now,” said Gordon, whose team drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson are ranked first and second in the championship standings. “So, adding power, I like. Adding as much power as I think maybe it takes would do two things: number one, cost, I hate bringing up cost but we’re talking about components that won’t last. Not just in the engine. So that’s one.

“And then the other is,’” he continued, “it might make the cars harder to drive and the drivers like it more but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a better race. Then on the Goodyear side of things they’re trying really, really hard. I’ve learned a softer tire doesn’t necessarily mean more fall-off and that’s what we want.

“We don’t need a softer tire; we need a tire that has grip and then falls off where the driver and team have to manage the tire wear.”

Posted on by Staff Report

For the first time in history, NASCAR Cup Series drivers turned laps at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City in two practice sessions.

Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland was quickest in Practice 2 at 93.181 mph over Ross Chastain (93.041 mph) and Ty Gibbs (92.865 mph).

RELATED: Practice 2 results | At-track photos: Mexico City 

Ryan Blaney (92.837 mph) and Chris Buescher (92.726 mph) rounded out the top five.

Ryan Preece (92.669 mph), Austin Cindric (92.651 mph), Joey Logano (92.641 mph), Daniel Suárez (92.633 mph) and Shane van Gisbergen (92.601 mph) completed the top 10.

After posting the fastest time in Practice 1, Michael McDowell (92.163 mph) was 25th-fastest in the second session.

Noah Gragson was the only driver who did not turn a lap in Practice 2 after Front Row confirmed on social media that he will go to a backup car for Sunday’s race after an earlier crash.

Practice 1

Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell topped the leaderboard in Practice 1 at 92.657 mph, besting Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Chase Briscoe (92.547 mph) and Ty Gibbs (92.542 mph).

Austin Cindric (92.528 mph) and Kyle Larson (92.439 mph) rounded out the top five.

Chris Buescher (92.427 mph), Joey Logano (92.401 mph), Ross Chastain (92.349 mph), Shane van Gisbergen (92.330 mph) and Todd Gilliland (92.276 mph) completed the top 10.

MORE: Practice 1 results

After being called up by JGR to replace Denny Hamlin for the weekend, Ryan Truex finished his first session in the No. 11 Toyota 36th-fastest with a speed of 90.946 mph.

As the learning process got underway, the 15-turn, 2.42-mile Mexico City circuit proved to be tricky for the drivers. Turn 4 was one of the most challenging spots as Cindric missed his braking point and Noah Gragson contacted the wall in the same area. Others had trouble slowing their cars down in time to make the corner.

Cup Series drivers get back on track Saturday at 2:05 p.m. ET for qualifying (Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Zack Albert

MEXICO CITY — Ryan Truex says he found out Wednesday evening that he’d be lacing up his racing shoes for Sunday’s first NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico, subbing in for Joe Gibbs Racing while Denny Hamlin is on paternity leave.

There’s plenty at stake for the 33-year-old driver: his first Cup start since 2014, a high-profile ride in the No. 11 Toyota, but also one other important factor. Thanks to brother Martin Truex Jr., he has his family reputation to uphold.

“I texted him this week when I found out, and he said, ‘you know, the Truexes are 1-for-1 in Mexico,’ so no pressure,” Ryan Truex said Friday, recalling his older brother’s 2005 win in what is now the Xfinity Series. “I’m glad he could throw that at me.”

Another NASCAR series will debut at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and just like 20 years ago, another Truex will be in it. Hamlin’s decision to skip Sunday’s race to remain home with his family after the birth of his third child opened the door for Truex to fill in. Hamlin, a three-time winner this year, requested and has been granted a waiver by NASCAR officials to retain his eligibility for the Cup Series Playoffs.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Hamlin to miss Mexico race

Truex has been a potential substitute for the No. 11 team the last three weekends leading up to the Mexico City event and was also a fill-in option in practice for Tyler Reddick of fellow Toyota team 23XI Racing during Coca-Cola 600 practice. But the tumult of navigating international travel one day after getting the call from JGR, Truex admits, has been a lot.

“It’s been a crazy few weeks — especially since Charlotte, I’ve been on standby,” said the younger Truex, who will be making his first national-series start since the Xfinity season opener at Daytona. “I’m glad it is at a track where I can practice and have time and know what to do. I found out on Wednesday night, so it has been kind of chaotic getting here and putting all of that together, but I’m just grateful for the experience and grateful to be here. Really just want to enjoy it. I don’t really have any set goals or expectations — I just want to enjoy the weekend. I’m driving a Cup car for Joe Gibbs at an international race — this is not something I ever dreamed of doing, (so) just want to take it all in and have a good time.”

Truex said that each time he received a text from No. 11 crew chief Chris Gayle in recent weeks, his heart jumped, wondering if his driving duties would be needed. When that moment came, Gayle and the team went about making adjustments to the car’s interior — pedal heights, especially — during Friday’s garage hours at the Mexico City circuit.

“It is really easy working with him, and for us, we’ve already had him in preparation for one of those other realities,” Gayle told NASCAR.com. “We had him in the car and said, ‘OK, what are our options? What do we need to do to get him to crawl in if Denny was getting out, or if he was running the whole weekend?’ So he saw us kind of work in the car this morning, kind of get the whole plan for, OK, Ryan’s around the whole weekend. Let’s get it closer to what he wants.”

Gayle said he has not served as Truex’s crew chief before, but there’s a level of familiarity with him. Truex has been a fixture in JGR’s simulator testing, plus he’s scored all three of his Xfinity Series career wins in Gibbs equipment in the last two seasons with the program.

“We did get one full day (of simulator time) in with him, which is kind of normal prep for a normal weekend with him this week before here, so that part’s been seamless,” Gayle said. “He’s been around for a while, we know him, obviously know his brother, all the rest. So it’s been pretty easy.”

MORE: At-track photos: Mexico City

The simulator experience promises to give Truex better footing on a road course that’s new to the majority of drivers in the field. It’s also an opportunity for a sense of redemption from his only past stint in the Cup Series — a handful of spot starts in 2013 before what was planned to be a full-season go for BK Racing the next year. That tenure came to a halt when the two sides parted company nine races before the season’s end after eight DNFs and otherwise subpar performance.

“My last time in Cup was not a fun experience. It didn’t go well for me. I didn’t enjoy it,” Truex said. “That was probably not the right move for me, career-wise, and I’ve kind of been fighting back since then. I enjoy everything I do at JGR. I’ve been able to race part-time the last couple of years, and do all of this stuff away from the track. It has been nice. It has been fun to race part-time and have some Saturdays at home, but it is also fun to be at the track, so I feel like I’ve had a good balance the last few years, and the Cup cars then are so different than what they are now. I have some experience now with the Gen-7 car with some testing and things and doing the sim stuff every single week — I feel like I’ve run a million laps here already the past month. I definitely feel like I’m ready.”

Ryan Truex was just two weeks shy of his 13th birthday when older brother Martin prevailed on the metropolitan road course in March 2005 while on the way to his second consecutive Xfinity Series championship. The younger Truex recalled the “super nervous” feeling of watching his brother leading, facing a stout challenge from home-nation star Adrián Fernández.

The Mexico City course layout has changed in the 20 years that have passed, but one thing that hasn’t is big brother’s direct nature when talking racing.

“He’s been good for advice,” Ryan Truex said. “I did ask him about Michigan — and he just said ‘a lot of throttle.’ That was his whole debrief with me — ‘a lot of throttle.’ What you guys see on TV, that is him. That’s how he is — short and to the point. If I ask him stuff, he will tell me, but I don’t know how much it will translate from 2005.”

If it does, Sunday could provide a sentimental Truex 2-for-2.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

An eye-opening stretch in the Cup Series calendar begins Sunday with the inaugural event at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the first points race in Cup outside the United States since 1958.

The trek to Mexico City is just the first of three road-course events (Chicago, Sonoma) to take place over the next five weeks, with the “Tricky Triangle” of Pocono Raceway and close-quartered drafting at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) sandwiched between.

It’s going to be a thrilling start to summer in NASCAR, which is bound to cause drama in the playoff picture. Let’s take a look at whose postseason fortunes can improve or worsen south of the border.

mexico playoff predictor
Playoff Probabilities provided by Racing Insights (entering Mexico)

RELATED: Mexico schedule | Cup Series standings

GREEN FLAG [Drivers in a great spot for Mexico]

Mexico’s Daniel Suárez immediately jumps out to have a fairy tale finish realized this Sunday. 2025 has been an incredibly trying year for the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing team. With a current playoff probability of 9.73%, according to Racing Insights, Suárez sits 28th in points, 68 markers off the elimination line. But all fortunes can flip for the ninth-year Cup veteran in his home country. His first Cup win came at the Sonoma road course in 2022, followed by his Atlanta victory last year in a three-wide tilt. Suárez has a flair for the dramatic when he runs up front, and while that hasn’t been the case on road courses recently (one top 10 in the last 13 events), the No. 99 team is bound to have some tricks up their sleeve this weekend.

If you are looking for certainty on Sunday, look no further than Chris Buescher. Coming off a season-best runner-up at Michigan, the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford saw his playoff probability skyrocket 14.31 points to 59%, the highest percentage change of all drivers after the trip to the Irish Hills. Over the next month, Buescher should be feasting for points and potential wins as he boasts an 8.72 average finish in the Gen 7 car on road courses.

YELLOW FLAG [Drivers in a good spot, but have poor road-course stats]

Putting Chase Briscoe back on the spot again. Two consecutive poles followed up with little to show for it. The weekend trends have flipped for the No. 19 JGR camp, which struggled on Saturdays but made up for it in races earlier in the season. Briscoe has finished outside the top 15 in back-to-back weeks, and his playoff probability dipped down over nine points to 69.96% entering this weekend. Sitting 41 points above the elimination line, Briscoe will either need to maximize stage points on pit strategy or qualify and stay up front, something that’s been easier said than done so far this month.

Ryan Preece is tethered right on the elimination line with Kyle Busch as the pair of drivers own the same amount of points heading to Mexico. I’m more confident in Busch’s chances this weekend, given his top-five run at Circuit of The Americas earlier this season. However, the No. 60 driver finished 33rd at COTA and has a best finish of just ninth in 24 road-course starts.

RACING INSIGHTS: Results projections for Mexico

RED FLAG [Drivers I’m concerned about heading to Mexico]

Bubba Wallace hasn’t hidden the fact that his road-course prowess isn’t up to par; he owns just three top 10s in 33 career road-course starts. His playoff probability increased by almost five points after Michigan to 87.96%. The No. 23 23XI Racing crew will likely try to pull off a similar strategy to COTA earlier this season, where they finished 20th but maximized on points, winning Stage 1 and finishing inside the top 10 in Stage 2.

The pressure is on the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team and Alex Bowman this weekend. Dropping 5.86 points in his probability (37.83%), Bowman is now the last driver projected into the playoffs, and there’s still over two months left before the 16-driver field is set. The Tucson, Arizona native is one of the better road-course drivers at the Cup level, and he’ll need every bit of it on Sunday. He won the Chicago Street Race last season and owns five top 10s in the previous nine road-course races.

Posted on by Staff Report

MEXICO CITY — Travel issues for teams leaving the Charlotte area have forced competition officials to alter the on-track schedule for this weekend’s NASCAR events at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

According to NASCAR officials, two aircraft issues grounded multiple race teams back in North Carolina on Thursday, delaying their arrival for the first race weekend featuring the Cup Series in Mexico City.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Paint Scheme Preview

The major adjustment will be a delay for the Xfinity Series, which will shift from two Friday practices (a 50-minute session plus a 25-minute stint) to one 50-minute practice Saturday at 11:05 a.m. ET. Qualifying, which will split the field into two groups, will begin Saturday at 12:10 p.m. ET. That prep time comes before the Xfinity Series’ The Chilango 150 on Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM Radio).

The Cup Series, which will hold the Viva Mexico 250 on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), will shift its two Friday practice sessions to 4:05 p.m. ET and 5:30 p.m. ET. The first session will last 50 minutes, with the second going for 25 minutes.

Sunday’s schedule for the Cup Series remains unchanged.

The pair of NASCAR Mexico Series events have also been rescheduled, with the first race now Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET and the second on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.

Posted on by Zack Albert

MEXICO CITY — NASCAR’s arrival in Mexico City has been hard to miss, even in a metropolis with a population of 22.5 million people. If you weren’t close enough to hear the Cup Series haulers blaring their horns as they wound their way into the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit Thursday afternoon, the seemingly omnipresent billboards and colorful advertisements around town heralded the news.

The preparations for the first points-paying race for NASCAR’s top series outside of the United States in 67 years entered their final stages on the eve of Friday’s first on-track action. Thursday also brought a sneak peek of the 2.42-mile circuit that will host Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), courtesy of a bus tour with Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain providing commentary along its 15 turns in a driving rainstorm.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Paint Scheme Preview

The Cup Series garage will officially open in earnest Friday morning, marking one of the later phases in the logistical dance to bring the NASCAR industry’s operations to a foreign country. The venue that Thursday’s early arrivals found is a sprawl of grandstands and stadium elements for fans, unique challenges for the drivers and rich history for those nostalgia-minded buffs.

Notices about the event mixed in amidst the murals along the bustling city streets, frequently featuring the face of national sports hero Daniel Suárez. The series’ only Mexican-born driver unveiled his specially painted helmet for the race weekend, sporting a design that reflects his home country’s culture in festive colors. The local media were there in force, an extension of the publicity that’s been rampant on Spanish-speaking sports networks in the days leading up to this debut weekend.

Chastain, Suárez’s Trackhouse teammate, was asked how much of the local culture he’d been able to soak up and if he knew the Spanish word for watermelon, a product he grows and promotes diligently from his farm in Florida. “Sandía!” Chastain replied, noting he’s known the word since childhood.

Learning the local race track may be another matter. A slow lap of the track in a double-decker bus took off from the main straightaway, which at 3,937 feet ranks as the longest frontstretch in NASCAR — a straight shot topped only by the 4,000-foot superstretch at the back portion of Talladega Superspeedway.

The Hermanos Rodríguez straight ends in a quick right-left-right series marking Turns 1 through 3, a prime opportunity for passing and potential calamity.

“Definitely a long straightaway to think about a lot of things and then decide how late we could brake, and there’s not a lot of penalty,” Chastain said. “There’s a lot of grass and runoff areas. That’s nice. I do better when I have runoff so I can spin out in practice. I fully plan to go off track a couple times to find the limits.”

MORE: At-track photos: Mexico City

If there’s trouble at the other end of the track, it will come in front of the most densely populated sections for fans. The Estadio GNP Seguros stadium section once hosted Taylor Swift for a four-night residency, but this weekend it will be a desirable vantage point for a compact series of Turns 10 through 14, the lowest-speed portion of the circuit.

As the bus made its way through the technical curves before exiting through a cutout in the U-shaped Foro Sol grandstand, Chastain — through the windshield wipers’ swipes — was reminded of a historic course closer to home.

“Right there, it felt like Bristol,” he said, making a nod to the “Last Great Colosseum” seating. “Like I couldn’t see out, the stands were so high, so that’s what it felt like.”

The audience and publicity will likely only rise when the engines fire to life Friday. For that and the main event ahead, Chastain has high hopes.

“I’m proud to be one of the drivers to take the green flag for the first international points race here for the Cup Series on Sunday,” he said. “It’s really cool. It’s going to go down in our history, and I think the history of Mexico.”