Daniel Suarez’s victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Chilango 150 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, delivered Mexico its long-awaited homegrown hero in national-series competition. Suárez battled back from a qualifying crash to start at the rear of the field and led the final 19 laps on a rain-affected, high-altitude 2.429-mile road course. Taylor Gray was on his bumper for those final few laps, but the Trackhouse Racing driver stuck to his task and bagged his first win of 2025, much to the delight of the fans who were rooting for him.

“It’s a very special day, very, very special to be here in front of my people, all these people that have supported me for many, many years and known me since my NASCAR Mexico days, now I’m fighting with the big boys,” Suarez said this in the victory lane. Most weekends, the likes of Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson are showered with love by the fans, but in Mexico, the popular driver was the homeboy.

There’s more to this success story for NASCAR’s international race beyond the logistical masterclass and ambition. Had it not been for Suarez’s influence and his success story, this project wouldn’t have materialized. Even NASCAR’s SVP of Racing Development and Strategy stated the significance of how the Mexican driver played a crucial role in making this event a success.

Ben Kennedy, a fourth-generation member of the France family and NASCAR executive on “The Teardown“ podcast, emphasized the emotional intensity of Suarez’s home win: “I will say, it was incredible watching people’s reaction to Daniel Suarez winning that race. I mean, they were jubilant coming into it. And as soon as he took the lead, like, the place just erupted. Even during caution, they would show his onboard for like 5 seconds in front of the stadium section, people would go nuts.”

Suarez’s story resonates with his home fans, a boy from Monterrey, Mexico, went on to win the Xfinity Series title in 2016. He became the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national series, but his journey didn’t stop there. He broke through the ranks in the Cup Series and has bagged multiple wins, the first one coming at Pocono and the next in Atlanta. Who can forget his iconic finish, three-wide battling against Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney coming on the start-finish line? So, his win on his home soil after 2008 was a monumental occasion.

Kennedy further drew a parallel, “If you rewind the clock back, you think about all the different personalities and different rivalries that we had in our sport. And I think back to Jeff Gordon down here. It’s the best example that we had. But people associated themselves with either Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt. And I think it’s beautiful that we can come to a place like this in Mexico City where we’ve had a driver that was born and raised in this country.” And credit to Kennedy, he highlighted what NASCAR has been missing in the modern era.

Back in the day, you had drivers who were larger than life. Apart from scaling heights and breaking records on the track, they were icons of their eras. Gordon used to feature on Saturday Night Live, had a cameo in the CARS movie with his voiceover, and who can forget his Rainbow Dupont car? He was the golden boy of the sport that elevated NASCAR’s presence, and Suarez did just that for NASCAR last weekend and exposed his home audience to the best of the stock car racing.

Well, Kennedy also spoke about the future of NASCAR’s visit back to Mexico, and he had an interesting reply to these questions while speaking to reporters after the conclusion of the event.

NASCAR is very hopeful to return to Mexico in 2026

While the weather played its role in NASCAR’s first-ever points race outside the USA since 1958, the Mexico event was largely successful. Home hero winning a race, SVG, another international driver bagging an inaugural race win, this was his second, and most importantly, NASCAR announced itself to new race fans. The objective was to create a splash and showcase that stock car racing isn’t just restricted to traditional ovals, and can compete with other prominent series.

With reports about a trip back to Canada or Brazil floating around, it is going to be tough for NASCAR to decide to make a trip south of the border again. However, if we are to go by Ben Kennedy’s words, a trip back to Mexico is more likely to happen over other bold proposals. “We’re hopeful to be back here in the future. We’ve been bold and we’ve been innovative, we’ve done races in downtown Los Angeles. First-ever street race in our sport in downtown Chicago and this was the next milestone moment for us, bringing the race internationally. Mexico is a great place to do it and I’d say, we’re very hopeful to be here long term.”

Now, Kennedy didn’t confirm that a trip to Mexico is on the cards for 2026, but rest assured, the Cup Series is going to be back in Mexico City as a part of their international project.