By Jerry Jordan, Editor
YES! The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) really will be racing at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City regardless of what fans are reading on Reddit, Facebook, Instagram and clickbait sites, including EssentiallySports and MotorcycleSports, to name a few.
Look, I am as critical of NASCAR on some issues as many of racing’s detractors but I cannot sit back and watch fans be swayed by the garbage they are reading about Mexico City. The local support for NASCAR coming in and having a Cup Series event is off the charts.
For those unaware, the following was posted on a supposedly often-accurate Instagram page and then picked up by media outlets that love to feed on negative energy. I am not very familiar with the Instagram account but I am familiar with EssentiallySports and this is exactly the type of trash I expect them to run with.
“Late night wild rumor post,” wrote NascarRumorNostalgia. “Around the Cup and Xfinity garage, the rumor is spreading quick that NASCAR may not be going to Mexico this year after all. Instead we could be seeing more racing on the Daytona Road Course that weekend instead of Mexico City. I’ve even heard that some teams are already looking to book hotel rooms in Daytona for that weekend.”
I reached out to my contacts at NASCAR, like real journalists do, and I asked a direct question: “Is NASCAR racing in Mexico City in June?”
The answer couldn’t have been more crystal clear. “Yes, we are unequivocally racing in Mexico City.”
Just a week ago, NASCAR drivers Christopher Bell, you know, the guy who has won the past two Cup Series races, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez, who probably has a better inside track on Mexico City than anyone in the sport, were all part of a promotional event at the racetrack.
When asked about the trip, each of them said they had a blast and can’t wait to go back and race there. In case people aren’t aware, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is also the site of the Mexico City Formula 1 event, so this isn’t some short track in the middle of West Virginia that has never hosted a major auto racing event. Additionally, the company that NASCAR has partnered with in hosting the event, OCESA, is a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment and Grupo CIE. OCESA was founded in 1990 and hosts major music festivals and live sporting events throughout Mexico.
According to the trade publication Food and Beverage Magazine, “OCESA is renowned for promoting over 3,000 events annually, drawing nearly six million attendees across Mexico. Its portfolio of venues includes the recently remodeled 65,000-seat Estadio GNP Seguros, which topped Pollstar’s 2023 Year End Worldwide Stadium Tickets chart; the expansive Centro Citibanamex, Mexico’s leading convention center with two million square feet of meeting and exhibition space; and a diverse collection of multi-use venues, theaters, arenas, festival grounds and stadiums.”
For a little background, at the original press conference announcing the race, there were over 250 media members present at the event. It was absolute madness, with anticipation and excitement not just for the media but the fans who showed their support.
Then, last week, when Bell, Elliott, Blaney and Suarez all went for another pre-event promotion, there were 150 individual media outlets and 180 media members on hand to cover it. That doesn’t sound like a lack of support for a NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico City to me.
So, why all of a sudden are fans being inundated with negative content about NASCAR cancelling the race in Mexico City? Let me explain.
With the current political climate, regardless of which side of the aisle you are on, tariffs and trade wars are a constant topic in the news. Despite there being zero indication from NASCAR or OCESA that a problem may exist, the rumors get people talking, and some people like to stir the pot. Those people might take a bit of truth, like NASCAR has a contingency plan, and spin it into rumors that the race is in doubt. Wait, that sounds like exactly what was said about The Clash at the LA Coliseum and Bowman Gray Stadium.
Here’s a little bit of “inside baseball” for you, NASCAR has a contingency plan for just about everything. It’s their job. They hold major racing events and it could rain, it could snow, there could be a tornado, hurricane or pandemic. For the record, all of these things have happened at NASCAR races I have covered. There is always a backup plan but that doesn’t mean an event is getting canceled. Maybe some team has rooms reserved in Orlando or Daytona Beach around the time of the Mexico City event, maybe they don’t. There are also some really twisted people in the world who want something bad to happen and would jump for joy if everything devolved into chaos, drug cartels took over the streets of Mexico City, taking hostages and killing everyone in sight. However, I seriously doubt that will happen. Did it happen last year when F1 was in Mexico City? Nope. Did it happen at any of the other events held at the facility? Nope.
If you think back, there were even major podcast hosts claiming drivers, fans, teams and reporters would need bulletproof vests to avoid being murdered at the first Chicago Street Course race. It didn’t happen.
Instead, the rumors caught the attention of beverage company Liquid Death and the following year, NASCAR fans were able to “murder their thirst” with water and tea from Liquid Death, the Official Iced Tea of NASCAR.
What fans are reading is nothing more than rumor and speculation that came about following the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and is now being “reported” as if it were true.
WHY? Because of money! Negativity sells and so does speculation. The more people click on Essentially Sports or other clickbait sites, the more money those company makes. Trust me, I wish I could get the clicks they get because they are making millions – yes, millions of dollars – by getting fans all worked up and clicking on their articles. And it’s not just this article, it is their entire business model. One finance site online puts EssentiallySports’s revenue at greater than $42 million annually.
According to Google AI, “The exact amount of money EssentiallySports makes per click is not publicly available but it likely falls within a range of a few cents to a couple of dollars depending on factors like the ad campaign, the user’s location and the type of content they clicked on; generally, most sports media websites earn revenue through a combination of display ads, affiliate marketing and sponsored content, where each click contributes a small portion to their overall earnings.”
EssentiallySports and its sister companies are based out of New Dehli, India, and bring in millions of dollars in revenue by, in many cases, pushing out rumor and speculation or ginning up angst among fans, who then take their articles as gospel.
There is a science to getting people to read and click on web content, and, as I have previously stated, EssentiallySports, among other sites, is good at it. But just because you can get people to click on your content doesn’t mean your content is legitimate.
And, yes, I reached out to EssentiallySports for comment and I have not received a reply.
See you in Mexico City, unless the rumor mill is right. Here’s where you can buy your tickets.