NASCAR will not return to Mexico City in Nationwide Series
INDIANAPOLIS – NASCAR, citing that it had accomplished its goal of establishing a national touring series (the NASCAR Corona Series) in Mexico, will end a four-year experiment and not bring the Nationwide Series to Mexico City in 2009.
The race likely will be replaced by a domestic event, NASCAR Vice President of Operations Steve O’Donnell said Sunday.
While the 2009 sanctioning process is not over yet in determining the schedule, O’Donnell and NASCAR Vice President of Broadcasting/International Managing Director Robbie Weiss confirmed that NASCAR will not complete a sanction agreement with promoter OCESA.
“Everybody sat back and looked at all the pieces and at what we were looking to accomplish and where we were at and everybody weighed in and [the decision not to return] went from there,” said Weiss, adding, “We moved this army down there for four years, which was not an easy effort.
“I don’t have to tell you guys what it takes to run the season as it is and certainly that event was a lot of work. We looked at the schedule this year and sat with OCESA and did a look-around at the [NASCAR Corona] series, and we are really proud of where we are.”
OCESA is the promoter of the NASCAR Corona Series and used the Nationwide event to promote the local series, which now includes 14 races at nine tracks throughout the country. Weiss said crowds and car counts are at capacity for the Corona Series, and both OCESA and NASCAR should put all of their energy into the Corona Series.
“When we look at what we set out to do, we are now running by far the No. 1 and most significant national championship in the country – from a motorsports development process, we think that we have transitioned that market from an open-wheel market to a stock-car market in an amazing amount of time,” Weiss said. “We were coming in from the outside. We didn’t invent motorsports in Mexico. We brought stability. We brought structure.”
Attendance at the Nationwide race last April was significantly lower than that of the first year. NASCAR estimated the attendance at 94,229 for the first Mexico event in 2005, with attendance at 72,428 and 72,971 the next two years and then 57,324 in April.
“It was definitely a factor, but it’s not something that drove our decision making,” O’Donnell said. “The key was to build stock-car racing in Mexico. If we had 10,000 people in the stands and the [Mexican] tour wasn’t where we needed it to be, we would probably be [going back].”
Weiss said attendance figures weren’t necessarily indicative of general fan interest because many of the tickets were sold to companies and then distributed to customers or employees.
“It wasn’t just about a single event,” Weiss said. “The big idea and what we were attempting to do with them [at OCESA] was just really
strengthen the sport of motorsports in Mexico. … The idea came up [because] the NASCAR brand was somewhat really unknown in the market and in order to really make a lot of noise.”
