NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer Ben Kennedy has revealed that the series have further international plans following a recent historic announcement.
Last month it was confirmed that NASCAR's Cup Series will head overseas for a points-scoring race for the first time in over 60 years.
Speaking on Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour show, Kennedy discussed further expansion plans, as well as the response to last month's announcement from a sponsorship perspective.
"So, I think the good news is ever since last Tuesday, we've already had a number of people reach out to us, and hopefully, on the team side, they've had some phone calls as well," Kennedy explained.
"Some potential new interests that they may not have otherwise had should we be racing that event in the States as an example."
Kennedy continued, hinting that Canada could be next on NASCAR's list for a points-scoring race outside of the US.
"I think that opens up a new door for sure and as we think about other markets internationally, we've talked about Canada a lot," Kennedy continued.
Our sport’s next great story will be written in Mexico City!
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez welcomes NASCAR in June 2025.
¡Nuestra próxima gran historia se escribirá en la Ciudad de México!
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez le dará la bienvenida a NASCAR en junio del 2025. pic.twitter.com/V4eSSXcHor
"I think that could potentially be an opportunity in the future."
Of course, racing abroad does not come without its obstacles, some of which the NASCAR executive touched upon.
"Talking abroad, I think the biggest challenge that we have as soon as you start to go abroad, especially when you start to talk about going over water, is naturally we just have so much inventory in our schedule," Kennedy said.
"It's 38 races and if you look at next year's schedule, we'll do the Clash, one weekend off, which a lot of people don't call it an off week, we go to Daytona 500, we have one off week after that in April for Easter, and then we go straight through to the first weekend of November.
"Kind of keeping those two bookends at either side of the schedule it makes it more challenging logistically to go from, let's just make it up, a Kansas to Brazil or Europe, wherever it might be."