“Who’s taking the belt?”: Chase Elliott poses masked alongside Ryan Blaney in NASCAR’s Mexico promotions

Chase Elliott and three other NASCAR drivers headed down to Mexico to promote the nation's first point-awarding Cup race since the 1950s. Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City hosted Xfinity Cup Series events from 2005 to 2008, with prestigious winners like Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.

As part of the promo tour, the four drivers: Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Danny Suarez, and Christopher Bell, drove around the track in a golf cart, witnessed a "Lucha libre" (Mexican wrestling) event, and took a city tour, before having a press conference.

On February 26, Chase Elliott posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account, a picture of all 4 drivers posing with a luchador (wrestler), with the caption:

"Left to right: 🙋‍♂️ @Blaney, @CoreyLaJoie, @Daniel_SuarezG, @CBellRacing / Who’s taking the belt?"

Elliott also tagged fellow driver Corey LaJoie, as if he were the Mexican wrestler. This may be intended as a joke, in response to last weekend's incident at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where they ruined their races by crashing against each other, during the 150th lap.

---

Chase Elliott and the rest of NASCAR stars head for Mexico

F1 has been running in the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez since 2015 with huge success: attendance has been increasing year by year with over 400K spectators throughout the three-day event in 2024. Although their contract ends in 2025, according to Federico González Compeán, Mexico GP Director, the plan is to renovate until 2028 and beyond.

Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer said in a press release on NASCAR.com that the partnership with Mexico is a multi-year deal, although he didn't specify the exact number.

Kennedy also said that this is just the first of many plans for international races that NASCAR officials will pursue in the near future, as it has done in the past:

"This is a monumental moment for our sport in the sense that this is our first step of really taking the Cup Series internationally, and I think it could set us up for the future in potential new markets... whether that’s north of the border or south of the border, and then as we talk about some of our other races, there are opportunities for us to take the Cup Series even further than that" Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, said at nascar.com

In the meantime, Chase Elliott, currently 10th in the overall standings with 56 points will try to further his championship cause this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas. He won the contest in 2021 and finished P4 the following year. Qualifying begin this Saturday, March 1 at 12:30 ET.