Mexico City is a huge market. In 1995 it was the fourth largest city in the world with over 15,600,000 people. Given that it is so close to the US and is a simple drive down from the southwestern United States visiting Mexico is inexpensive for the teams and has a huge potential benefit for the sport.
Canada is another huge market as there are already a lot of NASCAR fans north of the border. Montreal the second largest city in Canada with a greater metropolitan population nearing 4 million.
To remain healthy, NASCAR needs to continue to grow. Mexico City and Montreal are excellent opportunities to tap massive markets of motorsports friendly potential fans.
Why does NASCAR need to be taking its valuable race dates outside of the United States when the northwestern part of the country and large parts of the middle part of the United States still don't have NASCAR within a reasonable drive?With still no NASCAR race in Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, or the entire northern border of the country NASCAR should worry about better servicing the NASCAR fans that they already have, and are in danger of losing, before they head off on a gamble in Mexico.
Crossing the border is a significant hassle and expense for teams. Nationwide series teams have to dedicate an entire hauler full of equipment and road racing cars to the event while at the same time racing on the ovals in California and Las Vegas. This spreads small Nationwide teams very thin, putting an incredible stress on teams that are often already just barely getting by.
This isn't good for the fans and it isn't good for the teams. Who is NASCAR putting on these races for?
Where It Stands
In 2008 the Nationwide Series will once again return to Mexico. The local response to the first event was incredibly positive so NASCAR is going to continue to tap that huge market.2008 will also see NASCAR return to its second international Nationwide Series location. In August the Nationwide stars will return to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal, Canada.
Clearly NASCAR believes that international expansion is important to the future of NASCAR. Should fans accept that what is best for NASCAR is overall good for them too? Or should race fans be more upset about the lost opportunity for NASCAR to better serve its existing fans?
This issue is not going away any time soon.
