"Don't know if we'll ever go back down there": Richard Petty delivers unfiltered take on NASCAR's return to Mexico City

Richard Petty shared his take on NASCAR's recent move to Mexico for the Mexico City Cup and Xfinity Series race weekend. The NASCAR Hall of Famer, in a recent podcast, discussed how he would not have gone down "there" in Mexico, and delivered an unfiltered point of view of NASCAR crew members.

NASCAR was in Mexico for the first time since 2008, and hosted a 150-mile Xfinity Series race, the Chilango 150, and a 250-mile Cup Series race, the Viva Mexico 250, on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

They hosted the race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a venue renowned for its operation in Formula 1, a global open-wheel racing competition. Since it was held in an FIA-accredited track, it was a street course race.

Notably, the race turned out to be a successful one given how racing fans in Mexico turned out in large numbers. Seeing their home hero, Daniel Suarez, race in front of his home crowd was another plus point for the countrymen.

Despite this, Richard Petty shared that he does not want to go to Mexico. Speaking on this, here's what he said in the recent conversation with Dale Inman in Petty Family Racing's YouTube video,

"You know, from the standpoint of going and trying to elevate NASCAR then, they wanted to do something like this to say. Okay now we're an international uh, company. But you know basically that from that standpoint you know, I don't know if we'll ever go back down there. You mean what kind of deal they had I know I won't go back down there, I don't know about you."

"But you know I just hope, I just hope all the crew members and everything uh got home safe and I hope they kind of use it as an experience you know what I mean and something they can talk about for a long time for the 99% of them it was something different and probably some of them probably don't want to go back through it again," Richard Petty further added. (9:35-10:25)

Suarez, racing for JR Motorsports, claimed the Xfinity Series race win in front of his home crowd on Saturday. His Cup Series teammate at Trackhouse Racing, Shane Van Gisbergen, clinched the Cup Series victory on Sunday.

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Richard Petty showed concern for Cup drivers amid Shane van Gisbergen's rise

Richard Petty, in his conversation with Dale Inman in an episode of the Petty Family Racing podcast, mentioned that NASCAR Cup Series drivers need to pick up on Shane van Gisbergen and improve their performances since NASCAR will be hosting a string of street course races soon. This is important as SVG is renowned as a street course expert.

Petty's statement came after the #88 driver claimed a thumping win in Mexico in the road course race.

Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #88 Safety Culture Chevrolet, gives a thumbs up after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Viva Mexico 250 - Source: Getty

"You know in the next what four or five races or six races we got two or three road courses coming up," Richard Petty said. "So you know if uh somebody don't pick it up at 88, it's going to be, going to be tough everywhere we go." (10:38-10:50)

Van Gisbergen started his Mexico City Cup Series race from pole, led 60 out of 100 laps, and won the race with over 16 seconds to spare. SVG, who is regarded as a road course expert due to his experience of racing in multiple racing series across the world, won his first Cup race at Chicago in 2023, which was also a road course race.