The line for Pato O’Ward at every IndyCar autograph session stretches around corners, blocks other drivers’ access, and puts his rivals to shame.
When his Arrow McLaren Racing team tries to have meetings at the track, O’Ward’s fans gather outside the team transporter and get so loud that teammate Alexander Rossi says the meetings have to stop.
So when NASCAR announced this week that it will have a race in Mexico City in 2025, IndyCar drivers were shocked that another American series beat them to a market eager to see their most popular driver.
“I think that’s a massive miss,” said six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon. “I don’t know how that happens.”
O’Ward, who is from Monterrey and has built a big following in Mexico in his five years with IndyCar, is also puzzled. Despite his popularity, NASCAR — with Mexican driver Daniel Suarez — will be racing next season at Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
O’Ward is the reserve F1 driver for McLaren and needs security to move around the track property. It’s not that he’s in danger; it’s just that his 2022 visit to the stadium bowl grandstands with a GoPro camera showed how quickly he can be surrounded by fans.
But he wants to race in front of them, and with NASCAR’s new long-term deal in Mexico City, O’Ward isn’t sure if IndyCar will have a chance.
“They beat us to the cake,” O’Ward said. “I strongly believe that we’re not only late, but I strongly believe that there isn’t more room in Mexico City.
Like, not only did they beat us there, but now that is not an option for IndyCar. You need to understand that these people save up their money to go to these events.”
His competitors sympathize with O’Ward, who has even paid for ticket promotions to help his fans attend IndyCar races.
IndyCar points leader Alex Palou was visibly surprised that IndyCar didn’t secure the race that went to NASCAR, which will hold an event outside the U.S. for the first time in modern history next June.
“It’s like, everybody is overtaking us, like left, right, left, right,” Palou said. “One-hundred percent, we should have been (in Mexico City). It doesn’t make much sense for me. But for Pato, he’s been growing, so I think we’re like five years too late, and now NASCAR overtakes us.”
O’Ward believes IndyCar’s only chance to race in Mexico now is to find a new location. The series raced in Mexico from 2001 to 2006 in Monterrey at Parque Fundidora, a track that would need major upgrades to host major races again. The 2007 CART season finale was held in Mexico City.
Salvador de Alba, the current NASCAR Mexico champion who also races in Indy NXT, disagrees that Mexico City can’t handle three international races. He also admits there are no other suitable tracks in the country for an IndyCar race at the moment.
“At the moment I think none of them. It has to be rebuilt, a racetrack,” de Alba said. “But we have a pretty good racetrack in Monterrey, which is Pato’s hometown. Guadalajara is also a big city, which is my hometown, but we don’t have a big racetrack. But I’ll do whatever it takes to have IndyCar in Mexico.”
Michel Jourdain Jr., a former NASCAR and IndyCar driver who promotes races in Mexico, said the Monterrey track would need so many upgrades that it might be cheaper to build a new one from scratch.
Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles mentioned that IndyCar has yearly talks about returning to Mexico. Before Roger Penske bought the series in 2020, IndyCar was only offered a lease deal for the Mexico City track because the promoters didn’t think the series was a big enough draw.
