NASCAR Reportedly Not Headed Back To Mexico City In 2026

There have been some calls as of late to do away with some of the additional road courses and the one street race that the NASCAR Cup Series has added to the schedule over the last few seasons.

The first of these to get the axe, at least for 2026, was the Chicago street race, which was a neat experiment that was dominated by Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen, who won it two of three times it was held. 

Now, it's being reported that after one trip south of the border — which was also won handily by van Gisbergen — NASCAR will not travel back to Mexico City's Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in 2026

I mean, at a certain point, van Gisbergen is going to have to start taking these changes personally, right?

Mexico City is reportedly coming off of the NASCAR Schedule in 2026 but there's still hope for a return in 2027. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

The Athletic, citing multiple sources, reports that Mexico will not be on the schedule next season, while Chicago will.

But not the street race, it would be a return to Chicagoland Speedway, which hasn't been on the NASCAR schedule since 2019.

The report claims that the issue had to do with scheduling. The same June date that was used this year isn't going to work as Mexico City is one of the host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

Other options were explored, like moving the race closer to Easter or even doing a double-header with IndyCar — a series that has been thinking about heading down to Mexico and adding another international race to its calendar — but that didn't work out.

It's reported that while 2026 is off the table, NASCAR is still trying to lock down a date for 2027, meaning the event is not dead.

I'm a little bummed about this. I thought it was a cool event, and it was neat to see NASCAR hold a points race abroad, but if you can't settle on a date, there's not much you can do.