“Mexican fans were not happy”: Insider speaks out on NASCAR’s ‘disappointing’ decision for the weekend

Renowned insider Jeff Gluck addressed NASCAR's 'disappointing' decision of not bringing merchandise haulers to Mexico. As a result of the decision, he thought that the Mexican fans were not happy since they wanted to buy their favorite driver's merchandise, but the options were limited.

NASCAR decided not to bring the merchandise haulers all the way down to Mexico City for one race weekend. While one could say it was a business decision, on the other side of things, it wasn't something Mexicans appreciated, per Gluck.

Speaking about this on The Teardown podcast by Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media, Gluck touched upon how they wanted to buy the merchandise, but it was not possible due to the hauler issue.

"The one thing I will say that the Mexican fans were not happy about and I totally agree with them," Gluck said in a conversation with Jordan Bianchi. "It was the merch. They thought the merch was, it sucked like they didn't have enough options. Yes the selection they're like "We came we we don't have merch here and, we came with money to buy merch and the merch options were so disappointing and so limited."

"They're like "Man NASCAR like we would have paid so much, we would have shelled out money and we didn't have the opportunity because the selection was so limited." That's disappointing they looked at the stuff they're like "Ah." they wanted to buy their favorite driver stuff now the merch haulers didn't come down here," he further added. (35:15-35:53)

Following this, Jeff Gluck shared that the available merchandise was just generic and urged the sanctioning body to bring the haulers to Mexico the next time they visit the country to host a race weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico.

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NASCAR head unsure if sport will return to Mexico in 2026

Ryan Truex, driver of the #11 Yahoo! Toyota, and Alex Bowman, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, race during the Cup Series Viva Mexico 250 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez - Source: Getty

The NASCAR senior executive Ben Kennedy revealed that the sanctioning body is hopeful of a return to Mexico in 2026, but cannot commit to the same due to a lot of scheduling issues. Speaking about this, here's what the chief said to the media after the race:

"As we’re going through the planning of putting together the pieces of the 2026 schedule, there are a lot of dominoes that need to fall.” (via NBC)

NASCAR was out of the United States for the first time in over two decades, as they hosted the Xfinity and Cup Series races. Home hero, Daniel Suarez, won the 150-mile Xfinity Series race, The Chilango 150, while Shane van Gisbergen claimed the 250-mile Cup Series race, the Viva Mexico 250.