Denny Hamlin claims ‘money’ is behind NASCAR 2026 | Sports News

NASCAR’s Mexico City journey has confirmed to be a short-term one, after it just lately emerged that the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is not going to return to the calendar in 2026, a determination Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin believes was pushed by money.

The first time a points-scoring Cup Series race was held outdoors of the U.S. since 1958, the Viva Mexico 250 was in the end received by Shane van Gisbergen within the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.

Part of NASCAR’s obvious determination to not return to the observe in 2026, as first reported by The Athletic, was the logistical difficulties the journey concerned, after a number of drivers and crew members rushed to make the 2025 race on time after varied flight-related points. What’s more, in the summertime of 2026, Mexico City will function one of the 16 host cities throughout North America internet hosting the FIFA World Cup, making discovering a date a powerful process.

“No tacos for me, bummer,” Hamlin mentioned of the information on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “Usually, this stuff all comes down to money, let’s be honest. Maybe someone’s bid isn’t what it needed to be, or they didn’t sell as many tickets, and so the return from that wasn’t enough. It’s always money…”

The 44-year-old additionally advised that attendance could have performed a half within the determination, claiming, “It sounded like it wasn’t what they expected. So, who knows? Decisions are always made by money, and more than likely, this is a money thing.”

But whereas Hamlin was disenchanted to overlook out on the native delicacies, having not participated within the 2025 race following the delivery of his third youngster along with fiancee Jordan Fish, the 23XI Racing co-owner admitted the information got here as a reduction from a group homeowners perspective.

“I can tell you from the team standpoint, we are like wiping our forehead,” he mentioned. “Mexico was very, very challenging logistically. Very, very tough on our race teams to prepare cars a week, 10 days in advance. Just a tremendous task.

“Not only the task of that, but the task it had on everyone’s stomach when they got back home. There were a lot of sick people, lots. I know of five to six that were in really, really bad shape.”

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Stomach points have been rife all through NASCAR in and following Mexico City, with van Gisbergen admitting shortly after exiting his car because the Cup race winner, “I felt pretty rubbish today, leaking out both holes. That wasn’t fun,” by way of Amazon Prime Video.

RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski went on to reveal after the subsequent race in Pocono, “Most all of the drivers are still sick and dehydrated from last week. I’ve never seen so many sick drivers before the start of the race.”

Whatever the rationale for Mexico City’s exit from the NASCAR schedule, it may but return to the calendar in years to come back, with a 2027 comeback on the playing cards. As for what’s going to exchange it in 2026, it seems that Chicagoland Speedway will take its place, returning to host its first NASCAR race since 2019.