NASCAR insider had 'eye-opening' experience interacting with Mexico City race fans
A NASCAR insider covered the race at Mexico City this past weekend and enjoyed spending time with the fans. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic talked about how the fans in Mexico City are different from the American fans.
“I think we get all caught in a cycle of negativity,” Gluck said to co-host Jordan Bianchi and NASCAR VP Ben Kennedy. “It’s a weekly conversation in the sport about what needs to change, what should change what shouldn’t have changed, what’s next, what can be done, right? Rules, packages, schedule. You hear it all the time.
“It was so eye-opening for me this weekend. …I did an article on The Athletic about these longtime fans who were seeing for the first time. This one guy, he was like, ‘Oh, the NextGen car is just so beautiful in person. I’ll never forget the experience of the NextGen.’ It’s just all this criticism and all this hand-ringing and you just take a step out of our little bubble and see the people that just were so excited. I don’t even think that somebody winning by 15 or 16 seconds mattered to them. They were just jacked up to be there. I think that’s just a reminder of how it’s a big world out there. That’s what you guys are seemingly going for with this international step.”
More on the NASCAR fans at Mexico City
Fans in Mexico City got a treat as they saw Mexico native Daniel Suárez win the Xfinity Series race and Shane van Gisbergen win the Cup Series event. After Suarez won the Xfinity Series race, he talked about how special it was to win in his home country.
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“It’s everything I was looking for, just a special day,” Suárez said, per NASCAR.com. “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.”
Later in the podcast, Gluck and Bianchi talked about how NASCAR should return to Mexico City in 2026. That has yet to be determined, but it would make sense for NASCAR based on Gluck’s experience with the fans.