The NASCAR Cup Series makes its historic debut in Mexico City at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The field will set the lineup for series’ first race in Mexico City, the first points-paying race since 1958 and first international race since 1998 when the series ran an exhibition at Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway in Japan.

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Denny Hamlin is coming off his third win in the June 8 race at Michigan but is not racing in Mexico City as he awaits the birth of his third child with his fiancée, Jordan Fish.

Qualifying is set to begin at 11 a.m. CT, follow the action with our live updates.

NASCAR Mexico City qualifying live updates

Qualifying for the NASCAR Mexico City race is one of the race weekends which falls under the expanded practice and qualifying procedure under NASCAR’s new rules for the 2025 season. There will be two groups of cars on track for separate 20-minute qualifying sessions for one round of qualifying in Mexico City.

NASCAR Mexico City entry list for Viva Mexico 250

• Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

• Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford

• Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

• Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford

• Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

• Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

• Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

• Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

• Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

• Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

• Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

• Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford

• AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

• Chris Buescher, No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

• Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

• Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

• Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford

• Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford

• Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota

• William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

• Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford

• Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota

• Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford

• Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford

• John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota

• Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota

• Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 HYAK Motorsports Chevrolet

• Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

• Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford

• Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

• Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford

• Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

• Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

• Katherine Legge, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet

• Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

• Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

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What channel is qualifying on today for the NASCAR Cup race at Mexico City?

• Qualifying time: 11 a.m. CT June 15

• Streaming: Amazon Prime Video; NASCAR.com and SiriusXM for audio (subscription required)

• Track: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (2.42-mile road course in Mexico City, Mexico)

NASCAR Mexico City news, stories

EXPERT PICKS: NASCAR Mexico City predictions 2025: Expert picks for Cup Series race

FROM LAST WEEK: NASCAR Michigan winners and losers: Denny Hamlin wins on 701st start, Carson Hocevar blows tire

CUP POINTS PICTURE: NASCAR points standings: Cup Series points update after Michigan race

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Mexico City qualifying live results: Cup Series starting lineup

Denny Hamlin will have all his playoff points in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs even though he’s missing Sunday’s race in Mexico City.

NASCAR granted Hamlin a waiver to keep his playoff eligibility Friday after he announced Thursday he would miss the race. Hamlin and fiancée Jordan Fish welcomed a son this week. The couple now has three children together.

Ryan Truex, the brother of former Joe Gibbs Racing driver and Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr., will drive Hamlin’s No. 11 for JGR in Mexico City.

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Hamlin had been open about missing a race if necessary for the birth of his son. Truex had been available as a standby driver in recent weekends as Hamlin and Fish awaited their third child’s arrival.

NASCAR tweaked its playoff waiver rules ahead of the 2025 season and said a driver who skipped a race and made the playoffs wouldn’t be able to keep the playoff points he accrued in the regular season. However, the birth of a child is listed as a reason NASCAR would give a waiver. If, for example, Kyle Larson missed the Coca-Cola 600 for a second straight season after racing in the Indianapolis 500, he would have been forced to start the postseason without any playoff points.

Hamlin won last week’s race at Michigan for his third win of the season. He previously won at Martinsville and Darlington. Hamlin is currently third in the regular-season standings behind William Byron and Larson and has scored 18 playoff points through 15 races. Only Larson, with 23, has more.

Sunday’s race in Mexico City will be the first Cup Series race in the country. The race is held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the same track where Formula 1 annually hosts its grand prix. However, the Cup Series will compete on a slightly modified track with a different section around Turn 4.

NASCAR fans have grown accustomed to seeing speed, throttle and braking on broadcasts for years. There has been one measurement, though, that has eluded networks and viewers for years.

Until now.

Viewers of the Prime Video races have been able to see fuel usage with the introduction of the Burn Bar. Race teams have measured burn rates and fuel levels down to the last ounce for years, but the methodology has been kept secret for competitive reasons.

Prime Video, though, developed an AI tool using car data available to broadcasters and teams that can measure miles per gallon. The Burn Bar made a brief appearance during Prime’s first broadcast, the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25. It has been used more frequently the past two weeks and will be deployed again on Sunday during the race in Mexico City.

NASCAR on Prime analyst Steve Letarte, a former crew chief for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., contributed to the development of the Burn Bar and sees it as the first step in taking race analysis to a new level.

“It’s the first true tool that is taking information off the car, making calculations and then displaying to the fan a calculation or measurement that is being used in the garage. And it does affect the team,” he said. “There’s not a sensor on the car giving us miles per gallon. It’s a mathematical calculation of other cars performances.”

The AI model analyzes thousands of performance data per second, including a range of in-car telemetry signals, RPMs, throttle and optical tracking of each car’s position. The model then evaluates each driver’s fuel consumption and efficiency throughout the race.

Letarte worked with Prime Video “Thursday Night Football Prime Vision” analyst Sam Schwartzstein and Amazon Web Services during the process. They came up with four methodologies that were tested during the first part of the season, which was broadcast by Fox. Schwartzstein and Letarte would then get the data from teams after races to see how close they were until they picked one that worked the best.

The Burn Bar received its toughest test during last week’s race at Michigan as the final 48 laps were run without a caution flag. Most teams made their final pit stops with 50 laps to go, meaning teams were going to be down to the end of their fuel runs at the checkered flag.

“We projected William Byron to run out, which he did, and then we were on the razor’s edge for Denny Hamlin. And then watching the truck push him back into victory lane at the end, knowing he was as close as we thought he was. What a cool way to see this feature come to life and elevate NASCAR broadcasts,” Schwartzstein said.

Alex Strand, Prime Video’s senior coordinating producer for live sports, also sees the Burn Bar as the first tool of many that Amazon and Prime Video can develop for its coverage. Prime Video is in the first year of a seven-year agreement to carry five races per season.

“It’s really cool to live in a world where it shows us that anything is possible. We’re starting with something that we’re really excited about, but it’s setting us down a path that will open up new doors for us,” he said. “I think that’s what we’re really excited about is to say, ‘OK, we’ve had success in Year 1 on a feature that’s resonated with fans right out of the gate.’ It raises the table for our offseason.”

After Sunday’s race in Mexico City, Prime Video’s coverage for this season wraps up with the race at Pocono on June 22.

AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

What’s Happening?

This week, NASCAR returns to racing abroad as the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series head south of the border into Mexico City. NASCAR has raced outside the United States in the past. In fact, the first time NASCAR left the States was all the way back in 1952 when the Grand National division ran a temporary course in Ontario, Canada. Since then, NASCAR has held events abroad off and on across its many divisions. With NASCAR returning to Mexico City this weekend, and with talk about having next year’s Clash in Brazil, we here at The Daily Downforce thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the instances when NASCAR raced outside of the country on an international stage.

So, buckle up! Here are some of the times NASCAR raced abroad.

Twin Ring Motegi (1998)

The site of Danica Patrick’s lone professional racing win, NASCAR once raced at the now-defunct Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Japan. Twin Ring Motegi is a motorsports park that includes a road course and, yes, the only oval racing circuit in Japan. The oval track is an egg-shaped speedway, similar to Darlington, with turns three and four being much tighter than turns one and two. NASCAR’s only race at the track happened on November 22, 1998. The race was the Coca-Cola 500 and was most notable for being the first race in which the father-son duo, Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced against one another. Both sponsored by Coca-Cola, Junior and Senior drove the number 1 and number 3 Coca-Cola Racing Family Chevrolets, respectively.

Jeremy Mayfield claimed the pole for the race and led the opening lap. Jeff Gordon took the lead from him on lap 2 and led until lap 28. In the laps that followed, Mayfield, Gordon, Sterling Marling, Jeff Burton, and Mike Skinner swapped the lead. Dale Earnhardt took the lead on Lap 103. It was a highly competitive race. However, at the end of the day, Mike Skinner in the RCR number 31 Lowe’s Chevy won the race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. went on to finish 6th in his very first Winston Cup Series start, besting his father, who crossed the line in 8th. The three-year deal to race in Japan concluded after this event and NASCAR did not return there for the 1999 season.

Twin Ring Motegi continued to be a fixture on the IndyCar schedule until 2011. For the 2011 running of the race, the race was moved over to the road course circuit as the oval had been damaged by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Following 2011, IndyCar never returned to Motegi.

NASCAR Thunder Special in Suzuka (1996-1997)

I started this list with the Twin Ring Motegi race because that track was a more typical/traditional oval circuit. It fit NASCAR best. But, as referenced in that entry, it was the last race as part of a three-year deal with the Government of Japan to hold one NASCAR race a year in the country. Prior to going to Motegi, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series had a two-year stint in Suzuka.

The Suzuka circuit in Japan has held many races over the course of its long and storied history. Perhaps most famously, it’s the site of the Japanese Grand Prix of Formula One. But it did host a pair of exhibition NASCAR Cup races in 1996 and 1997 on an abbreviated course. The first running of the event was held on November 24, 1996, and it saw Rusty Wallace take home the win. The series returned a year later with Mike Skinner taking the crown. This means that Mike Skinner won two of the three-year race deal between NASCAR and Japan. That’s just wild!

Autodromo Hermanos Rodrigez (2005-2008)

Autodromo Hermanos Rodrigez is the circuit NASCAR is returning to this weekend. That is to say that NASCAR has raced there before. Between 2005 and 2008, the Mexico City circuit was a regular fixture on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule. For the first three years, the race was run in early March during the Cup Series first off weekend of the year. During its first two years, the track used the chicane in its layout. The chicane was ditched for the final two runnings of the event.

Eventual 2005 and defending NASCAR Busch Series champion Martin Truex Jr. won the inaugural race at the track. To date, he was the only Xfinity Series regular to win the event as the Buschwhackers hoisted the trophy in subsequent years. Denny Hamlin won the 2006 running of the race while Juan Pablo Montoya won it in 2007. The last race until Saturday to run at the track was won by Kyle Busch in 2008.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (2007-2012)

With the success of the races in Mexico City, the NASCAR Xfinity Series added yet another race abroad for the 2007 schedule, this time opting to cross the northern border into Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the infamous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The NAPA Auto Parts 200 was run for six years between 2007 and 2012 and it was always a show. Gilles Villeneuve’s son, Jaques Villeneuve ran the race almost every year and was an absolute terror in the Team Penske number 22 Dodge. No driver wanted to see him in their rearview mirror because it only meant one thing: in the next corner, they were getting dumped.

A healthy mix of series regulars, Buschwhackers, and road course ringers went to victory lane during this span of races. Winning the first one in 2007 was Kevin Harvick in the number 21 Chevy for RCR. The following year, Ron Fellows won the race in the rain in the number 5 JR Motorsports GoDaddy.com Chevy. Current NASCAR on Prime broadcaster and NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Carl Edwards won the race in 2009. Boris Said captured his only NASCAR win in the race in 2010. SVG’s mentor, Marcos Ambrose, won the race in 2011. And finally, in 2012 future Xfinity Series Champion, Justin Allgaier won the final race at the track, driving for Turner Motorsports.

Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (2013-2019)

After the deal with Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ended, NASCAR wanted to keep a presence in Canada. So, while the NASCAR Xfinity Series returned to racing exclusively in the States, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series struck a 9-year deal to run at the less popular Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Ontario, Canada. Chase Elliott won the first race at the track in 2013, driving the number 94 Aaron’s Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports. His buddy Ryan Blaney won it the following year in the Brad Keselowski Racing number 29 Ford. Erik Jones won the race in 2015 for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Perhaps the most thrilling finish during this stint was the 2016 finish. The race came down between now-Cup Series drivers John Hunter Nemechek, driving for his father’s NEMCO Motorsports, and Cole Custer, driving the 00 for JR Motorsports. Coming to the line, JHN pinned Custer against the wall and held him there as he crossed the line first. Custer, furious, confronted Nemechek and the two brawled on the frontstretch. As a JRM fan, I never forgave JHN for this move. Other winners at the track include Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, and Brett Moffitt.

Though races in 2020 and 2021 were scheduled, they were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In their place were additional races at Darlington Raceway. NASCAR never returned to the track at any capacity.

Conclusion

That does it for this one, Daily Downforce readers! What are your expectations for this weekend’s return to Mexico City? Do you expect a thrilling finish? What are your hopes for NASCAR racing abroad in the future? Let us know! And be sure to comment what you think on all of our social media pages (X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)

NASCAR fans have grown accustomed to seeing speed, throttle and braking on broadcasts for years. There has been one measurement, though, that has eluded networks and viewers for years.

Until now.

Viewers of the Prime Video races have been able to see fuel usage with the introduction of the Burn Bar. Race teams have measured burn rates and fuel levels down to the last ounce for years, but the methodology has been kept secret for competitive reasons.

Prime Video, though, developed an AI tool using car data available to broadcasters and teams that can measure miles per gallon. The Burn Bar made a brief appearance during Prime’s first broadcast, the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25. It has been used more frequently the past two weeks and will be deployed again on Sunday during the race in Mexico City.

NASCAR on Prime analyst Steve Letarte, a former crew chief for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., contributed to the development of the Burn Bar and sees it as the first step in taking race analysis to a new level.

“It’s the first true tool that is taking information off the car, making calculations and then displaying to the fan a calculation or measurement that is being used in the garage. And it does affect the team,” he said. “There’s not a sensor on the car giving us miles per gallon. It’s a mathematical calculation of other cars performances.”

The AI model analyzes thousands of performance data per second, including a range of in-car telemetry signals, RPMs, throttle and optical tracking of each car’s position. The model then evaluates each driver’s fuel consumption and efficiency throughout the race.

Letarte worked with Prime Video “Thursday Night Football Prime Vision” analyst Sam Schwartzstein and Amazon Web Services during the process. They came up with four methodologies that were tested during the first part of the season, which was broadcast by Fox. Schwartzstein and Letarte would then get the data from teams after races to see how close they were until they picked one that worked the best.

The Burn Bar received its toughest test during last week’s race at Michigan as the final 48 laps were run without a caution flag. Most teams made their final pit stops with 50 laps to go, meaning teams were going to be down to the end of their fuel runs at the checkered flag.

“We projected William Byron to run out, which he did, and then we were on the razor’s edge for Denny Hamlin. And then watching the truck push him back into victory lane at the end, knowing he was as close as we thought he was. What a cool way to see this feature come to life and elevate NASCAR broadcasts,” Schwartzstein said.

Alex Strand, Prime Video’s senior coordinating producer for live sports, also sees the Burn Bar as the first tool of many that Amazon and Prime Video can develop for its coverage. Prime Video is in the first year of a seven-year agreement to carry five races per season.

“It’s really cool to live in a world where it shows us that anything is possible. We’re starting with something that we’re really excited about, but it’s setting us down a path that will open up new doors for us,” he said. “I think that’s what we’re really excited about is to say, ‘OK, we’ve had success in Year 1 on a feature that’s resonated with fans right out of the gate.’ It raises the table for our offseason.”

After Sunday’s race in Mexico City, Prime Video’s coverage for this season wraps up with the race at Pocono on June 22.

___

AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing

Joe Reedy, The Associated Press