I meant to write this as my first column of the NASCAR season way back in February.
However, long-time motorsports writer Ed Hinton passed away the week before and acknowledging it was more important.
But what better time to give it a go then the week after the NASCAR Cup Series’ one and only off-week of the season?
Yep, it’s 28 straight weeks of NASCAR racing to end the 2025 season, because apparently the concept of short- and long-term burnout is foreign to the sanctioning body’s executive suit.
(Seriously, NASCAR. Absence makes the heart grow fonder).
Also, everyone and their mother wrote about the Next Gen car and its short track ailments. I don’t want to beat a dead horse.
So after a two weeks of people clutching their pearls over the Cup Series’ most recent race, here are a few things I’m excited for in the final stretch of season.
Mexico City
Finally.
For the first time since it held the 1958 Jim Mideon 500 in Toronto, Canada, the Cup Series will finally hold a points-paying race on foreign soil.
Just how long has it been?
That race, held on July 18, 1958, at Exhibition Stadium, marked the series debut of a little-known upstart named Richard Petty.
After being teased with a possible race in Montreal last year, Cup drivers will compete June 15 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez road course. It will be Cup’s first International race since the last of its three exhibition events in Japan in 1998.
It never quite made sense to me why NASCAR was OK with sending the NASCAR Xfinity Series to both Canada and Mexico for races in the 2000s and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to Canada in the 2010s, rather than its main event, the NASCAR Cup Sereis.
Wouldn’t it be a better idea to send your biggest stars and the country’s most popular racing series to foreign markets rather than your two support series? Put your best foot forward! It’s kind of why NASCAR returning to Rockingham Speedway with only Trucks and Xfinity was a head scratcher to me.
But maybe from a practical business viewpoint it’s safer to wade into foreign waters rather than performing a cannonball off the highest diving board at the pool (even though the sport proved Cup could do it in Japan 30 years ago).
Anyway, will the racing on June 15 be worth the wait? Who knows. But I’m just glad it’s happening.
The In-Season Tournament
It only took two years for the novel idea of an in-season tournament — inspired by Denny Hamlin‘s own tournament over at Dirty Mo Media — to become a reality.
For five races, starting the night of June 28 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Cup drivers will compete in a bracket-style tournament that will whittle them down to one.
Atlanta. The Chicago street course (July 6). Sonoma Raceway (July 13). Dover Motor Speedway (July 20). Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 27). Winner gets $1 million.
I love the concept of two drivers battling it out for something other than points or a simple race win. This will give teams throughout the field attention during a race when they might not otherwise.
However, we need to have a serious discussion about prize money.
The All-Star Race also pays out $1 million to its winner, and that’s just one race. Unfortunately, it’s been that way for decades.
$1 million is a drop in the bucket for (most) of the Cup Series teams. Time to spice up the stakes.
New (and Old) TV Partners
This summer, Amazon Prime Video, TNT and MAX will be back on NASCAR’s main stage.
Of course, TNT returns after being a summer mainstay for the sport back in the 2000s.
We’ve gotten a tease of what Amazon’s coverage will be like with it airing practice and qualifying sessions for the Cup Series this season, and MAX has gotten fans accustomed to it being part of the new TV deal by having in-car cameras stream on the platform.
This week, Prime got the promotion of its five-race slate — which starts with the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25 — underway with a new ad featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte. It’s set to “Up Around the Bend” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, which will be the main theme song for the Prime race broadcasts.
NASCAR’s other TV partners should take note: this is (one way) for you promote the sport. This is what it looks like when a little effort is put into it.
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.