{"id":120897,"date":"2025-08-05T12:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T12:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120897\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T12:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T12:50:11","slug":"denny-hamlin-reacts-to-nascar-not-returning-to-mexico-city-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120897\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin Reacts to NASCAR Not Returning to Mexico City in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nascar\/nascar-today-tv-schedule-race-highlights-rankings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASCAR schedule<\/a> for next season hasn\u2019t been announced yet, but the sport will not be returning to Mexico City in 2026. While driver Denny Hamlin wasn\u2019t at the race that weekend, he is quite supportive and understanding of NASCAR\u2019s decision not to return to Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday\u2019s episode of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dirtymomedia.com\/actionsdetrimental\/episode\/f08a26e1\/iowa-everything-sucked\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Actions Detrimental<\/a>, Hamlin responded\u00a0to the news last\u00a0week that there\u00a0won\u2019t be a NASCAR\u00a0race in Mexico\u00a0next season. He\u00a0immediately highlighted\u00a0that NASCAR\u2019s decision\u00a0was likely money-driven rather\u00a0than a direct\u00a0response to the\u00a0issues teams\u00a0had with the\u00a0logistics of\u00a0racing in Mexico.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cNo tacos for me, bummer.  Usually this stuff all comes down to money, let\u2019s be honest. Maybe someone\u2019s bid isn\u2019t what it needed to be or they didn\u2019t sell as many tickets and so the return from that wasn\u2019t enough. It\u2019s always money\u2026It (attendane) certainly sounded like it wasn\u2019t what they expected\u2026Decisions are always made by money and more than likely this is a money thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Denny Hamlin on the NASCAR Mexico City race being ditched for 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nascar\/nascar-news-denny-hamlin-on-connor-zilisch\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Denny Hamlin Offers Huge Praise of Connor Zilisch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascar.com\/drivers\/denny-hamlin\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Denny Hamlin stats<\/a><\/strong>: 719 points, 4 wins, 12 top 10s, 11 top 5s, 1 pole, 3 DNFs, 555 laps led, 14.955 average starting position, 13.045 average finishing position<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hamlin missed the Mexico City race due to the birth of his son, so he didn\u2019t get first-hand experience. While some drivers and media members liked quite a few elements of the trip to Mexico City, others had many issues with the venue.<\/p>\n<p>The driver of the No. 11 car for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owner of 23XI Racing also shed light on the logistical issues the NASCAR race in Mexico City had. Beyond how difficult it was for the truck drivers and crew to get there, repairing cars was much harder than usual. Furthermore, the trip also took a toll on many around the garage with illnesses that lasted into the following week.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI can tell you from the team standpoint, we are like wiping our forehead. Mexico was very, very challenging logistically. Very, very tough on our race teams to repair cars a week to 10 days in advance. Just a tremendous task. Not only the task of that, but the task it had on everyone\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Denny Hamlin on the logistical issues and stomach problems teams had with the Mexico City race<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nascar\/nascar-predictions-watkins-glen-2025\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">NASCAR Predictions for Watkins Glen, including Denny Hamlin<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The issues Hamlin mentioned aren\u2019t the only reasons NASCAR won\u2019t return there next season. As Jeff Gluck of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/author\/jeff-gluck\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">The Athletic<\/a>\u00a0shared on Sunday night\u2019s episode of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dirtymomedia.com\/teardown\/episode\/2f5ec2da\/every-last-kernel\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">The Teardown<\/a>, Mexico is a co-host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Because of that, there were added scheduling complications for both parties.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, NASCAR decided to take Mexico City off the docket for next season, and it\u2019s effectively being replaced by a race at Naval Base Coronado. However, there have already been indications that the NASCAR race on San Diego\u2019s naval base next season might be a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nascar\/nascar-san-diego-race-2026-one-time-thing\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">one-time thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nascar\/nascar-horsepower-increase-coming-rumors\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">NASCAR Horsepower Increase Sought by Denny Hamlin Likely Coming<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sportsnaut-tracks.png\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\tNFL,  MLB  &amp;  college  football  writer  for  Sportsnaut.  Graduated  from  San  Diego  State  University  with  BA  in  Journalism,  2019.  &#8230; More about <a class=\"more-bio\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/author\/wisconsinboymakesgoodincali\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Matt Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NASCAR schedule for next season hasn\u2019t been announced yet, but the sport will not be returning to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[11130,1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-120897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-denny-hamlin","9":"tag-nascar","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114976248631232679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}