"It wasn't perfect": Ben Kennedy points to 'the beauty' of NASCAR racing in Mexico despite few hiccups

NASCAR executive Ben Kennedy recently opened up on his approach to keep making the sport better. During an appearance on the Teardown podcast, Kennedy spoke about the experience and reception of the weekend in Mexico.

For the 16th race of the Cup season in 2025, NASCAR took the racing product across the southern border of the US. This marked the first time a Cup points-paying race outside the US since 1958.

However, leading up to the weekend, NASCAR experienced a few serious hiccups. Some of those included teams and team personnel not reaching Mexico on their scheduled times for one reason or the other. Because of this, a lot of scheduled events during the race weekend had to be adapted.

But Ben Kennedy claimed that in spite of these hiccups, NASCAR's emphasis is always on improving more and more.

"We as a sport and as a company, we always want to get better. This weekend, it wasn't perfect by any means. There were a lot of things that we learned, a lot of things that we do better if we come back here in the future. But the beauty of it, you have so many new fans that come in and they see something for the first time they get to experience for the first time, and then they find a favorite driver they find maybe a favorite paint scheme or a number that they like, they start to follow them throughout the race and instantly they're hooked," Kennedy described. [5:15]

He mentioned that on a weekly basis, it is normal for them to get bogged down with things like travel and the day-to-day. However, there are 'so many special moments' that make NASCAR special, as per Ben Kennedy, which is why being in Mexico was motivation for them to keep growing the sport 'to the next level'.

Ben Kennedy reveals the extent of NASCAR planning heading into races like Mexico

During the Teardown podcast, co-host Jordan Bianchi asked Ben Kennedy how he prepares heading into an event like Mexico where things 'could possibly potentially go sideways'.

The NASCAR executive claimed he had a few moments in the weekend to take 'a couple of steps back'. Kennedy looked back on being involved in the announcement of the weekend, and executing the event while he was cheering on from the sidelines.

"I think the biggest thing for us is scenario planning. Everything's not going to be perfect going into it, we have to think about worst case scenario, how do we make sure that we're still able to put the race on everything goes according to plan. And I hate to say, you have to play with some of those doomsday scenarios sometimes," he elaborated. [6:40]

Ben Kennedy claimed that while something massive on a negative spectrum 'almost never happens', they remain prepared with plans regardless.

He mentioned that they need to have plans A,B,C, and D, so if the primary plan doesn't work, they can rely on their alternate plans, something which flows 'down the food chain' for the series.