MOORESVILLE, N.C. (June 9, 2025) – When the NASCAR Cup Series arrives in Mexico City this weekend for Sunday’s inaugural Viva Mexico 250 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, it will mark the first time in nearly 67 years that NASCAR’s elite division has competed outside the United States.
Back in 1958, when NASCAR last raced internationally, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, a gallon of gas cost 24 cents, and color television was a rising technology. Streaming only referred to such tangible elements as water, tears and smoke.
So when Lee Petty beat Cotton Owens to win the Jim Mideon 500 on July 18, 1958 at the .333-mile Canadian National Exposition Stadium in Toronto, you really did have to be there.
While streaming in today’s brave new world is more aligned with television, where we can watch whatever we want, when we want, all in rich 5k resolution, both on small screens that can fit in our pocket and on mammoth home screens that fill an entire wall, it still means something to be there.
This is one of the main reasons NASCAR is racing in North America’s most populous municipality. It is bringing this people’s sport, rooted in raw speed and ingenuity, to the estimated 9.2 million people of Mexico City.
NASCAR’s people start arriving this week, with most arriving on Thursday ahead of the first batch of practice sessions on Friday. Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Arrowhead Brass Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing, is one of many descending upon Mexico City.
The 29-year-old racer from Greensboro, North Carolina, who will represent the U.S.-based manufacturer specializing in brass plumbing valves and irrigation products this weekend in Mexico City, came to the NASCAR Cup Series by way of road racing. It makes Ware immediately comfortable with the prospect of turning left and right on the 2.417-mile, 14-turn layout, despite never having competed at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
“Road racing is where I did a lot of my growing up and learning how to race,” Ware said. “There was a lot of back and forth between stock cars and GT cars and sportscars over the years as I found my place in NASCAR. So I’m always, ‘The more the merrier,’ when it comes to road racing.”
Ware won the 2019-2020 LMP2 championship in the Asian Le Mans Series with co-driver Gustas Grinbergas. In a prelude to that title, Ware was the 2014 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Rookie of the Year. In January 2024 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Ware piloted a Ligier JS P320 to a podium finish in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 class. Ware has also competed in Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup and the NTT IndyCar Series.
“There are a lot of things you can’t really learn about a road course until you’re in a car that’s really been built to attack a road course, and the current Cup car drives a lot more like a sportscar than they ever have before,” Ware said. “They’re somewhere in between a TA and a TA2 car in the Trans Am Series. Obviously, we have a lot more horsepower than a TA2 car, but not quite the downforce and maneuverability that a TA car has.”
The Cup car’s relative lack of downforce will be amplified this weekend in the thin air of Mexico City, which sits 7,218 feet above sea level. This environment will also affect the car’s cooling, impacting not only the engine, but also the car’s brakes, which drivers will use for approximately 25 percent of the race’s 100-lap duration.
“It’s a new variable and you need to pay attention to it, but it’s also the same for everyone. We all have to deal with it,” Ware said.
While teams will prepare their cars for the nuances of high-altitude racing, it’s up to the drivers to prepare themselves for the physical adjustment of competing with less oxygen.
“I actually raced in Mexico once before,” Ware said. “I ran the NASCAR Mexico Series race at a flat mile oval called Puebla. When I got off the plane and headed to the track, it reminded me of landing in Denver, where you feel a little out of breath at first and you have to acclimate.
“As a racecar driver, it’s always important to be physically fit, but especially when you’re in a new environment that’s already taxing because you’re not used to it. So, you take your cardio seriously so that you’re in shape, but also so that your heart health and lung capacity are where they need to be.
“There’s a lot of strength needed for driving a racecar, especially when it comes to braking. It takes a lot of brake pressure to extract 700-800 pounds of braking force into the corner. It’s about being on your game from start to finish, where you’re as good on the last lap as you were when you took the green.”
Speaking of green, all the drivers racing this weekend are green when it comes to experience at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Sure, some did get some experience at the track’s past iteration when the NASCAR Xfinity Series raced there between 2005-2008, but in preparation for Formula One’s return to the track in 2015 after a 22-year hiatus, the circuit was completely revamped.
Noted track designer Hermann Tilke penned the new layout, and it followed the general outline of the original course, which first hosted Formula One in 1963. The entire track was resurfaced, with new pit, paddock and spectator stands constructed. The most notable changes from the old layout to the current version were an added sequence of corners comprising turns one, two and three, along with a revised set of corners through the Foro Sol baseball stadium, which was built inside the famed and feared Perlatada corner, with the remnant’s apex serving as the track’s final turn.
“Anytime you get to race on a track with history like that, it’s super cool,” Ware said. “I’ve been lucky to race on other Formula One tracks like Shanghai and the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Anytime you get a chance to turn laps on a track where some of the legends of Formula One have competed is a really special opportunity.”
As special as it is, it also involves a good deal of preparation beforehand, most notably when visiting a track for the first time.
“The simulator is your lifeline. Without being able to get on the Ford sim, I don’t know what I’d do to even wrap my head around how to attack a lap,” Ware said.
“Getting into a rhythm before you even lay your eyes on the track is huge because you still only have so much time to figure out a place you’ve never been to before. To be able to start making adjustments immediately versus spending 30 minutes learning everything, it’s a night-and-day difference.”
With time on the simulator, Ware already has an understanding of the track’s layout, including the amount of runoff areas available.
“There’s a lot of paved runoff at the circuit, and in NASCAR, we tend to use a lot of runoff in the places where racecars typically aren’t supposed to be,” Ware said.
“We don’t have the FIA breathing down our necks when it comes to track limits, and I think NASCAR’s pretty fair with their approach to how they regulate things like that. We saw that earlier this year at COTA where they ratcheted up the enforcement but, overall, if there’s concrete or asphalt to drive on, we tend to use it.
“My biggest curiosity going into the race weekend is how NASCAR polices it. We’ve run the track properly on the sim, so what’s OK and what isn’t probably won’t be known until that first practice session on Friday.”
Friday delivers two open practice sessions, from 11:05-11:55 a.m. CST/1:05 p.m.-1:55 p.m. EDT and 1-1:25 p.m. CST/3-3:25 p.m. EDT, respectively. Qualifying takes place on Saturday from 10-11 a.m. CST/12-1 p.m. EDT. The Viva Mexico 250 begins Sunday at 1 p.m. CST/3 p.m. EDT. All of the action will be broadcast live by Prime Video and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
About Rick Ware Racing:
Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age 6 when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver’s seat and into full-time team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with his wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that competes full-time in the elite NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Progressive American Flat Track and FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX).
