NASCAR admits 'select few' teams not yet reached Mexico City after significant travel disruptions

NASCAR's race weekend in Mexico City has gotten off to a rocky start and in a recent update, the series reportedly admitted that a "select few" teams have not yet been able to reach the track.

On Thursday (June 12) at least two chartered planes, transporting key members of Cup and Xfinity teams from Charlotte, North Carolina, faced mechanical issues during departure. One aircraft was hit by an engine malfunction and on another, passengers are said to have reported a loud noise upon takeoff. Some drove from Charlotte to Atlanta to catch commercial flights, while others awaited replacement aircraft in North Carolina.

AP Sports' Jenna Fryer shared an update on X, writing:

"The comms director for Trackhouse Racing is on his way to help unload the car because several teams were stranded in CLT ystdy and aren’t here yet. Asked NASCAR how many teams were affected and got the transparent answer of 'a select few'."

Jenna Fryer

@JennaFryer

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Mexico City #NASCAR update: the comms director for Trackhouse Racing is on his way to help unload the car because several teams were stranded in CLT ystdy and aren’t here yet. Asked NASCAR how many teams were affected and got the transparent answer of “a select few.”

Trackhouse Racing was notably affected. Mexican native Daniel Suárez and some staff had arrived earlier in the week, but multiple crew members remained in the US overnight. In their absence, the team’s communications director was called to help unload equipment from the haulers that arrived Thursday (June 12) from Michigan International Speedway.

According to Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass, crew members from Trackhouse were expected to arrive at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez incrementally through the morning, with a core group due by 9:15 am local time. This leaves them with enough time to prepare the cars for the practice session scheduled for 2:00 pm local time.

Sunday's Viva México 250 (June 15) will be first Cup points race outside the US in about 25 years.

In response to these logistic challenges, NASCAR officials released a statement and revised practice and race times for both Cup and Xfinity Series events.

What is the revised schedule for NASCAR Mexico weekend?

While Sunday's race schedule remains the same, NASCAR delayed the practice session for the Cup Series to a later time on Friday. The Xfinity Series practice and qualifying were also moved to Saturday as the bulk of the delay appears to involve Xfinity teams.

The NASCAR Cup Series practice sessions are scheduled to start at 4:05 pm ET on Friday after the Mexico Series race, which was moved to 1:30 pm ET.

The Xfinity Series will run a single 50-minute session on Saturday at 11:05 pm ET, followed by qualifying at 12:10 pm. Cup qualifying will follow on the same day at 2:05 pm ET.

The Cup Series race remains set for 3 pm ET, with the green flag at 3:23 pm ET.