NASCAR Cup Series will race in Mexico City in 2025 for first points-paying race outside U.S. since 1958

The NASCAR Cup Series is holding a points race outside of the United States for the first time since 1958.

NASCAR announced Tuesday that the Cup Series will race in Mexico City in 2025 on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course, adding a historic weekend of racing to the series’ increasingly unique schedule.

The Cup race will take place on Sunday, June 15 and will be televised by Amazon Prime Video as a part of the streaming service’s first season in NASCAR. There will also be NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Mexico Series races that weekend at the track in Mexico.

“This is a monumental moment for our sport in the sense that this is our first step of really taking the Cup Series internationally, and I think it could set us up for the future in potential new markets,” NASCAR executive Ben Kennedy, the chief person behind NASCAR’s recent schedule changes, said to NASCAR.com on Tuesday.

“I think we’ve been honest about our interest in taking our Cup Series abroad, whether that’s north of the border or south of the border. And then as we talk about some of our other races, there are opportunities for us to take the Cup Series even further than that.”

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez held Xfinity Series races from 2005-08 and annually hosts the Mexican Grand Prix as a part of the Formula One schedule. The 2.674-mile, 17-turn course also has hosted NASCAR Mexico Series races and was the site of current Cup driver Daniel Suarez’s first victory in the Mexico Series back in 2012 during his rise through the ranks. Suarez, the first Mexican-born driver to win in the Cup Series, told NASCAR.com on Tuesday that “it would be like winning a championship” to win next year’s event.

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The Cup Series last held a points-paying race outside of the States in 1958 in Toronto.

Five years ago, the NASCAR Cup Series schedule was stale and unimaginative. Since then, the sanctioning body has added Circuit of the Americas in Austin, the Chicago Street Course, a return to the Nashville area, the return to North Wilkesboro for the All-Star Race and the Los Angeles Coliseum for The Clash. NASCAR will switch out the LA Coliseum for Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a similarly-sized permanent race track inside a football stadium, for The 2025 Clash.

The full 2025 schedule for the three national series has yet to be fully announced.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Cup Series will race in Mexico City in 2025