Becoming Homestead-Miami Speedway Track President in July of this year, Guillermo Santa Cruz will oversee his first NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck weekend when Homestead hosts the midpoint of the Round of 8. But many — Santa Cruz included — would love to see the track return to its old position as NASCAR’s season finale.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Santa Cruz expressed respect for NASCAR’s scheduling decisions, but still spoke on a desire to return the track to its former role.
“We would love to have the championship back,” Santa Cruz told Motorsport.com. “We make no bones about it. I’m very open about it and it takes a lot to bring a championship to any city. The fact that it was here for 18 years was obviously a plus because we have that tradition. We have the incredible weather that we typically have this time of year. We have the Florida Keys [a] 20 minute drive away. There’s a lot to offer here — not only for the drivers, but for the spectators and everybody who loves motorsports.
“Ideally in a perfect world, one day the championship will come back. And I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t working on that and wasn’t trying to make that happen. Yes, we want the championship to come back. That’s not a secret,” says Santa Cruz.
The last champion to be crowned at Homestead-Miami Speedway: Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry in 2019
Photo by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Images
Guillermo is new to the NASCAR world, but he brings with him an impressive resume in the sports media world. He’s worked in sports media for more than three years and has produced two FIFA World Cups on Univision, as well as the Olympics after moving to Telemundo. The bulk of his career was spent at IMG — a global sports and culture company company — spending 11 years there, where he even did some consulting for NASCAR. Motorsport.com was curious to learn why he chose to make this career change less than four months ago.
“I think one of the principle reasons why I took it is because I believe Homestead is really the future of south Florida,” explained Santa Cruz, a Miami native. “There’s so much happening here. There’s so much going on. The time was right to make a change. I’ve had a long career in sports and this was a new challenge. The direction NASCAR is going was another appealing factor about it.
“More than anything: One, the challenge and two, I knew it would be…
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