With the addition of Mexico City, Richmond will lose a NASCAR Cup date in 2025

With NASCAR’s announcement that it will hold its first Cup race in Mexico City next season, the sport’s premier racing series will feature at least one new points race for the fifth year in a row.

To make room on the Cup schedule for Mexico City, NASCAR will eliminate one of the two Richmond weekends, Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovation officer, confirmed Tuesday. The 2025 Cup schedule has not yet been released, but could be released later this week.

“We’re staying true to Richmond,” Kennedy said in response to a question from NBC Sports. “It’s an important track and an important market when we think about where our NASCAR fans are today.”

“We have experienced some exciting stories from this track in recent years. We are looking forward to being there again next year, offering our fans a great event and putting a lot of energy and resources into this event.”

Richmond has hosted two Cup races annually since 1959, with the exception of 2020, when the track hosted a Cup race weekend.

With the move to Mexico City, NASCAR, under Kennedy’s leadership, continues its efforts to shake up the schedule.

Recent changes include the addition of races at Circuit of the Americas (Austin, Texas), Nashville Superspeedway, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Chicago Street Race, Iowa Speedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Chris Buescher holds the final playoff spot ahead of Sunday’s Southern 500 on the USA Network.

NASCAR had previously announced that the Clash would move from Los Angeles to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, next year.

Such measures have resulted in some race tracks losing dates. Pocono, Dover, Texas, Richmond and California Speedway have all lost a date in the last five years.

“I have to give them credit for how far NASCAR has come. They’ve really tried to change things over the last few years,” said former Cup champion Chase Elliott. “I don’t think everything has gone well, and that’s perfectly fine.”

“They were willing to try, and I think that’s something we should all admire and appreciate, the effort to go to different places and try new things. It’s OK if everything doesn’t go perfectly or well, but I think it will definitely be fun to get out of the country and just do something different.”

A new driver makes it into the top 10 this week.

NASCAR has a multi-year deal to race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City starting next June, Kennedy confirmed. NASCAR will use 14 of the track’s 17 turns and a lap will be about 2.5 miles long.

Kennedy said he could imagine that there would be several international races on the Cup calendar in the future.

“When you think about international expansion, it’s certainly a big step for us,” Kennedy said. “It’s a bold move for our sport. It certainly brings a lot of bandwidth and resources and we want to make sure that this is successful and we can put on a great event for the sport here next year.”