On Sunday, the celebrities of the NASCAR Cup Collection will sort out the two.42-mile, 15-turn highway course of Mexico Metropolis’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for the operating of the Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Here’s what you should know forward of the sixteenth race of the Cup Collection season:
Favourite: Shane van Gisbergen (+340, per FanDuel)
With just one top-10 end this season (COTA), van Gisbergen’s first full-time season within the Cup Collection has not gone in keeping with plan. It might sound far-fetched for him to be the favourite going into the weekend, however his road-racing background says in any other case.
He gained the inaugural Chicago Road Race in 2023, completed second at Watkins Glen final season and led 23 laps in a sixth-place effort at COTA in March. A visit south of the border to Mexico Metropolis might be simply what van Gisbergen wants to show his season round.
Underdog: Michael McDowell (+2000, per FanDuel)
As a previous winner on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway highway course in 2023, McDowell actually is aware of his means across the left-and-right-turn circuits. Within the 18 Subsequent Gen races contested up to now on highway programs, the 40-year-old has 10 top-10s.
Exterior the NASCAR ranks, McDowell has some prior expertise in Mexico Metropolis. He completed eleventh in his solely Champ Automotive World Collection begin in 2005 and gained the Grand-Am Rolex Sports activities Automotive Collection race later that yr. Search for McDowell to be towards the entrance on Sunday.
Historic weekend on faucet in Mexico Metropolis
For the primary time since 1958, the Cup Collection may have a world points-paying race when it sees the inexperienced flag on Sunday. The method main as much as the historic occasion has not been with out hiccups, as a number of groups have skilled travel issues for numerous causes.
That adopted a prolonged course of to make sure vehicles made it the observe on time, which included a 40-hour drive from final weekend’s race at Michigan to Mexico Metropolis with a cease on the border alongside the best way. Regardless of the logistical hurdles to get there, an unprecedented weekend awaits NASCAR’s high collection on Sunday.
How will Daniel Suarez carry out at dwelling race?
Very similar to van Gisbergen, Suarez has had a disappointing 2025 season and at the moment sits twenty eighth within the playoff standings. A return dwelling might be the right alternative for Suarez to proper the ship as a previous road-course winner at Sonoma in 2022.
Mexico Metropolis would be the first of three highway/avenue programs within the subsequent 5 races, giving somebody like Suarez a number of probabilities to shake up the playoff picture. As a three-time winner at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez within the NASCAR Mexico Collection, do not be stunned to see Suarez within the combine on Sunday.
Denny Hamlin set to overlook first race since 2014
Hamlin will not compete in Sunday’s race at Mexico Metropolis after his fiancee, Jordan Fish, gave beginning to the couple’s third youngster. The 57-race Cup Collection winner at the moment sits third within the general standings with three wins this season and can miss his first race since a again damage sidelined him in 2014.
With Hamlin not competing, three-time Xfinity Collection winner Ryan Truex, who has been on standby the final two weeks, will make his first Cup Collection begin since 2014. As somebody who has confirmed he has expertise however lacked the sponsorship to constantly put a full season collectively, it is a prime alternative for Truex to point out what he can do in top-tier gear.
