NASCAR just made that announcement that its long-rumored foray into the international racing space is becoming a reality in 2025, with both the Cup and Xfinity Series racing in Mexico City on June 14 and June 15 next season.
It isn’t the first event for the Xfinity series at the track. They have previously held races there from 2005 through 2008. There would certainly be potential for a race date to be added to the Cup schedule, taking it to 37 regular-season races, but that is not what is going to happen.
In order for the Mexico race to be placed on the schedule, Richmond Raceway is going to lose one of its two dates in 2025. It is a tough pill to swallow for the eastern Virginia facility, but unfortunately, they don’t have much of an argument to hang onto the date.
For fans who have been around the sport for a long time, basically since the early 1990s, this is something that has happened numerous times in the sport. Many times, the track losing the date was obvious, while other times it was a rough surprise that left fans heartbroken. Keeping a race date can sometimes be a simple process, while other times, there is nothing that a fan base can do.
Looking back over the years, let’s look at some of the moments where races changed venues and the stories around them. With the return of the Cup Series to North Wilkesboro recently, many fans were reminded of the time in the mid-1990s when the race dates were forcibly removed from the historic race track.
North Wilkesboro is one of two race tracks still in existence that had a date on the very first schedule for the NASCAR Cup Series. The facility was in poor condition in 1995 and the sport was exploding in popularity across the country. Bruton Smith and his SMI company, along with Bob Bahre and his New Hampshire Motor Speedway, came calling with bags of money and ultimately purchased the track from the two families, who were also the co-owners.
The two owners attempted to appease the local fans but, in reality, they were buying the track to move the race dates to their facilities in Texas and New Hampshire, respectively. As a result, the final race took place in 1996 and the track has not seen a points race since, although the All-Star Race did take place there in 2023 and 2024. The brutality of the 1996 loss of race dates for North Wilkesboro is that the track was popular and did not have a problem drawing fans to races. Other tracks have not had the same…
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