NASCAR’s first Cup Series race outside US hits travel snags to Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP) - NASCAR’s first Cup Series race outside the United States was off to a bumpy start Friday with several teams yet to arrive in Mexico City because of travel issues in North Carolina.

At least one chartered flight to Mexico City was grounded Thursday with an engine issue, leaving teams scrambling to find alternative routes to get to Mexico. Some drove to Atlanta to catch a commercial flight.

But when the track opened Friday, many were not at Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Trackhouse Racing was among them - Daniel Suarez arrived Tuesday with some support personnel so he was not affected - but the communications director for the Cup team had been summoned to help unload the Trackhouse cars off the truck because no crew members were available.

The trucks came directly from last Sunday’s race in Michigan and arrived at the Mexico City track on Thursday.

NASCAR said only "a select few" teams aren’t on site Friday morning. But, it seems most are Xfinity Series teams based on a revamping of the weekend schedule.

"Due to two aircraft issues that grounded multiple race teams in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday, NASCAR has adjusted the on-track schedule for this weekend's activities at Mexico City's Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez," NASCAR said in a statement.

NASCAR delayed Friday’s originally planned Cup Series practice to later in the afternoon. NASCAR also pushed all Xfinity Series practice sessions from Friday to Saturday. And, the first of two NASCAR Mexico Series races will run earlier than originally scheduled on Friday.

The Xfinity Series will lose some practice time, with just one 50-minute session on Saturday morning, right before qualifying. There are other slight adjustments as well, but Cup teams will not lose any practice.