NASCAR is allowing for two additional entries to the NASCAR Xfinity Series race in Mexico City via international provisionals.

The openings allow for up to 40 cars to run that weekend.

Any team using the 39th or 40th spot won’t be eligible for prize money or driver or team owner points. It will not receive playoff points for stage and/or race wins.

NASCAR utilized a similar rule in the NASCAR Cup Series for the Daytona 500 called the Open Exemption Provisional. Trackhouse Racing applied for it for Helio Castroneves, and at the time, if a driver eligible for the Provisional qualified for the race, the field would remain at a maximum of 40 entries. Castroneves didn’t qualify and was added to the field as a 41st entry.

Currently, the OEP will be applied and Cup Series will have a 41-car field if more than 40 cars are attempting the event.

The Xfinity Series race at Mexico City is slated to run Saturday, June 14 at 4:30 p.m. ET and airs on the CW.

Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She’s currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch issued a damning statement post-race at the Coca Cola 600 as he admitted he was starting to feel like a ‘broken record’.

The race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway proved another challenging one for Busch and his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team, with the 40-year-old finishing Sunday’s main event in 15th.

The race marks the fifth consecutive event that Busch has finished 14th or lower, with just one finish inside the top 10, which came at Darlington in April, in his last nine races.

Things certainly seem to be a struggle of late for the No. 8 team, and the two-time champion says he is tired of having to come out and repeat the same message every weekend.

“I feel like a broken record saying another difficult night for our No. 8 Chevrolet team,” Busch explained, via NBC.

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Elaborating on the issues he faced at Charlotte across the weekend, Busch continued: “The weekend started out with a steering issue. We got the pump changed and were able to make a qualifying lap, but had to change the rack and go to the rear for the start of the race on Sunday.

“We were tight in dirty air. Crew chief Randall Burnett made some changes and got it running better when I heard a loud pop. Something broke, and we’re still not sure what it was. From that point on, we were just out of it.

“We tried a strategy call late in the race, but we had an issue on pit road, so we weren’t really able to capitalize on that.

“I want to thank the family of Fireman Jeffrey M Svoboda for allowing us to honor him this weekend.”

On the plus side, there was good news for Busch ahead of the race, with him and his team having made a big contract announcement.

It was revealed on Saturday that Busch and Richard Childress Racing had finalized a contract extension that will see the 40-year-old continue to drive the No. 8 Chevrolet through 2026.

READ MORE: William Byron claims top spot after Coca Cola 600 despite late Ross Chastain heartbreak

Related

The NASCAR Xfinity Series continues its regular-season push with the Tennessee Lottery 250 on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | Xfinity Series | Truck Series

Katherine Legge makes her fifth Xfinity Series start of the season; she will race in the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet. 2025 Coca-Cola 600 winner Ross Chastain will additionally make his third Xfinity start of the season, driving the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

View the full entry list for Saturday’s event:

Bubba Wallace had a nightmare day at the Coca-Cola 600, as he failed to finish for the third consecutive race, while Tyler Reddick showed him up with a strong showing

Bubba Wallace was left reeling after his confident pre-race remarks were followed by a disastrous performance at the Coca-Cola 600, marking his third consecutive failure to finish a NASCAR Cup Series race.

The race marked the start of a new Amazon Prime Video TV deal, which saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards both catch the eye on the coverage while Chase Elliott pointed the finger of blame squarely at himself after a disappointing performance. But he wasn’t the only big name to leave frustrated and his issues with finishing sixth were minimal compared to Wallace.

Despite having a strong season start, Wallace, who had a costly “lapse” in a recent race, struggled in the Crown Jewel event, which was ultimately won by Ross Chastain in a thrilling finish. Prior to the race, Wallace had expressed his confidence, highlighting his team’s speed and intermediate track abilities, as well as his position in the points standings.

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“I’ve never been 10th in points 12 races in,” he stated. “I’ve always been the drama for the last four races leading up to the playoffs of trying to make it. Not saying we’re locked in by any means … but (66) points to the good, never said that before.”

When discussing the Coca-Cola 600 and his expectations, Wallace said: “It’s going to be a dog fight for 600 miles. I have looked at that before as like, ‘Damn, we’re already at a negative.’ Well, there’s no different than going out last and hitting the wall and starting in the 20s, right?

“You just have to execute. You have to show up and treat it like a normal race. We have the speed. We’re confident in our people, confident in our equipment, and, I think, where we’re at now at this point in the season, never been here before. That gives you confidence, too.”

Despite his positive attitude and pre-race confidence, Wallace and his No. 23 team faced significant challenges on the track.

To compound the misery, his teammate Tyler Reddick, who hasn’t hidden his problems with intermediate tracks this year, appeared to discover much more speed to leave Wallace’s performance looking even worse.

Reddick managed to place second in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2, while Wallace lagged behind at 30th and 25th positions, displaying a noticeable gap from the performance of Reddick’s No. 45 car.

The situation deteriorated further for Wallace when a blown engine from Carson Hocevar initiated the final stage, causing Wallace to incur damage in the ensuing chaos.

Reddick’s day also took a downturn, encountering a pit road penalty before spiraling out of control and crashing into the wall late in the race, resulting in a 26th-place finish. But he at least delivered far more speed after team co-owner Denny Hamlin declared on Saturday that Reddick needed changes.

“The 45 team specifically needs a reset,” Hamlin observed. “They need to get back to the basics and not chase a bunch of things.

“Certainly, with the success that now the 20 (Christopher Bell) and the 11 (Hamlin) has on the intermediates, I think that sometimes you can get caught kind of focusing on the wrong things.

“I think they’ve just got to get reset. I think they’re all talented – driver, crew chief, team. The cars I know have speed in them. They’re just struggling to find the balance right now.”

NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said Tuesday that increasing horsepower in the Next Gen car is “on the table.” Several drivers have implored NASCAR to add more horsepower and according to Sawyer, conversations are underway with its engine builder.

“It’s on the table,” Sawyer said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We are working closely with all the stakeholders in the industry, and as I said, the collaboration has been better than ever in our sport on all topics. This particular one, had a team owner council meeting last week, came up and we discussed that. Working closely, I know [senior vice president of innovation and racing development] John Probst had a conversation with our engine builder to see what we could do, how that would look and what changes would need to be made.

“As we talked about before, there’s the efficiencies that come with our rules and regulations that we have today and if you look at engines — there’s a lot that goes into it and it’s a tall mountain to climb, but we’re willing to do that to give our race fans the best product. Again, behind the scenes, there are a lot of conversations going on. How can we do that? Where do we do it? Is it across the board? Obviously, that’s not gonna be superspeedways. It’s just a lot to digest. But what I will say is it’s on the forefront. It is on the table and something that we’re discussing daily.”

NASCAR’s Mike Forde addresses driver feedback on potential horsepower increase

As far back as 2015, NASCAR has incrementally decreased the horsepower of engines capable of producing over 900. Except for high-banked drafting tracks, NASCAR caps engines at 670 horsepower.

NASCAR has argued against a horsepower increase for years. They mainly claim that the 670 horsepower package is set up to attract new manufacturers to the sport. There’s also concerns of cost.

Mike Forde, NASCAR managing director of racing communications, previously said that talks of going up to 900 or 1000 horsepower are off the table. What is on the table, as Sawyer said, is a slight increase.

“Well, I’m sure that’s going to come up too,” Forde said earlier this month on Hauler Talk. “I’m sure that [horsepower] will come up this weekend, and that’s something that we’re going to look at seriously. You hear levels of 900, 1000 horsepower, whatever, I don’t know if that’s – that’s not on the table just because of the cost.

“But there’s some conversation of, can you go up to 750? That’s something that I’m sure we’ll discuss with the drivers, too. I don’t want to make any promises or get anyone’s hopes up, but that is, we seriously listen to the drivers and their feedback, and we’ll see what we can do there.”

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