Analysis: IndyCar left scrambling after NASCAR beats them into Mexico City

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) — “Pato, who?”

With a smirk on his face and a sombrero on his head, that's what IndyCar's most popular driver asked after trouncing the field in the series' long awaited return to the Milwaukee Mile.

Pato O'Ward was not happy at all when NASCAR last week announced it would race in Mexico City at Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the really popular Formula 1 venue and best circuit in his home country.

O'Ward could not believe that NASCAR had beaten IndyCar to the punch, and his fellow competitors were equally incensed.

NASCAR has never in the modern era held a points-paying Cup Series race outside the United States, and had somehow beaten IndyCar, which actually has raced in Mexico, back into the market.

Ben Kennedy, the 32-year-old great grandson of NASCAR’s founder, has been a broad thinker and unafraid to attack NASCAR’s tired old schedule. And last week’s deal with Mexico City was the first in which he stood center stage with neither of the Steve’s — NASCAR president Phelps, or chief operating officer O’Donnell — on site.

It was Kennedy’s show and he, along with celebrated Mexican driver Daniel Suarez, were treated as royalty as they announced a multi-year deal to bring NASCAR there starting next June.

As NASCAR celebrated this monumental moment, the IndyCar paddock was aghast.

How did NASCAR get a race in Mexico before they did?

Here's what we know:

O'Ward is without question IndyCar's most popular driver, but he has earned the title with the work he puts in on and off the track. No other driver stops for every selfie, signs every autograph card and cheekily flirts with the camera as the 25-year-old, who in addition to IndyCar is the reserve F1 driver for McLaren.

Both he and Suarez are from Monterrey, but had very different paths to the United States. Suarez came to the U.S. as a teenager, he couch-surfed to crack into the racing scene and learned English from watching cartoons. Earlier this year he became an American citizen.

O'Ward's family relocated to the San Antonio, Texas, area when O'Ward and his sister were young, and although he races under the Mexican flag, his home is also in Texas.

Either way, his popularity has soared among fans since his 2021 first full season and O'Ward works hard to cater to the Latino fan base. He offers ticket packages at his expense, goes out of his way to oblige Spanish-speaking to fans and has earned his spot in Mexico as second only to Sergio Perez of F1 in terms of motorsports popularity.

O'Ward believes he should be racing in Mexico, that IndyCar should have been working on a deal back in 2021 when O'Ward first broke through, and that NASCAR had stolen IndyCar's only chance.

Did NASCAR ruin it for IndyCar in Mexico?

Apparently not. Even though O'Ward criticized IndyCar for losing Mexico City, the bickering only spotlighted how important this issue is to all parties.

Mark Miles, the head of IndyCar parent company Penske Entertainment, seemed caught off guard by the backlash over Mexico City. As such, maybe Miles was sloppy with his names or dates and when he tried to explain the (very) confusing negotiations with Mexico City.

Miles said the promoters had previously advised that both IndyCar and O'Ward were not popular enough for an event. He even intimated that O'Ward was not as popular as retired CART driver Adrian Fernandez, at least in the eyes of the Mexico City promoters.

But what has muddled this is that those comparisons were apparently made long before O'Ward became the star of IndyCar.

CIE is the largest promoter in Latin America, and its subsidiary Ocesa is partner with Live Nation and runs more than 8,000 events a year. Ocesa already runs the F1 races and will work with NASCAR on its new deal.

CIE and Ocesa know exactly how big O'Ward can be in Mexico and have watched his rise, which they admit really exploded when he lost the Indianapolis 500 on the final lap in May. The promoters on Monday made it clear that the advice they'd given IndyCar about the series and O'Ward's popularity was years ago.

And then they heard nothing.

But then Pato won

O'Ward isn't letting this issue go, and that's why he wore a sombrero to his news conference Saturday after winning his third race of the year.

He was miffed at Miles' statements — quotes walked back a day later in a full-throated praising by Miles of O'Ward — and so ‘Pato, who?’ became O'Ward's flippant response to being told he's not big enough for Mexico.

Back in Mexico? CIE was paying attention.

They'd only heard from IndyCar just three months ago — it had been crickets since whenever they'd first advised that the Mexican driver market needed to be rebuilt before IndyCar could be successful in the city — and the initial communications were confusing.

The promoters first heard from IndyCar team owner Ricardo Juncos, who claimed to hold the series rights in Latin America and ability to negotiate a deal. Then came calls from businessman Ricardo Escotto, the father of a rising Indy car driver who claimed he could speak on behalf of IndyCar.

The Mexico City promoters were so far down the road with NASCAR, and so confused by what was happening with IndyCar, that they closed the deal for the Cup Series race and went about getting ready for the announcement. Landing the first championship-paying race outside the U.S. in modern history cemented Mexico City as one of the top venues in the world, so CIE wasn't thinking about these weird, multiple overtures from IndyCar representatives.

Eventually the game of “Who's on First” got sorted and IndyCar called off Juncos, who was essentially freelancing but by all indications with good intentions. Miles formalized in writing a July 1 letter that Escotto and former driver Michel Jourdain Jr. were IndyCar's designated proxies in Mexico, but the Mexico City promoters were busy closing the NASCAR deal.

That happened late last month, was announced last week, and then it was off to vacation.

But O'Ward wanted to be heard, and he joined a growing chorus of those critical of IndyCar's slow pace on issues others find important. Already trying to make a statement, O'Ward won at Milwaukee — and in total fairness, Milwaukee is being overlooked for being a really great success after an eight-year absence from a track that opened in 1903 and is considered one of the oldest in the world. The Mexico City promoters were paying attention and suddenly very aware of the public pressure on OSECA, IndyCar and O'Ward to get into Mexico.

Zak Brown, head of McLaren Racing, told The Associated Press on Monday that NASCAR is among the multiple inquirers he has had about O'Ward's availability for the NASCAR events next June.

“Subject to no conflicts, I'd welcome and encourage him to compete in the NASCAR Mexico race,” Brown told AP. “When I was the Mexico Formula E race and Formula 1, I had so many people yelling Pato's name.”

O'Ward — who, for those keeping track, was given the Singapore Grand Prix off from the F1 team so he can be a groomsmen in former McLaren driver Felix Rosenqvist's wedding — alas has a conflict next June in that IndyCar has a race scheduled the same weekend as Mexico City.

Brown will not allow him to miss an IndyCar race.

So will IndyCar ever get to Mexico?

CIE says this last 72 hours of IndyCar interest is news to them, but they of course are interested in having an event and including O'Ward. He, during F1 weekends, usually does on-track demonstrations for celebrities and this October could participate in the first practice of the F1 weekend for McLaren.

They recognize his rise in popularity, and reiterate that their earlier lukewarm feelings toward O'Ward and IndyCar were when he was a rookie, and Mexicans were having to rediscover the series after the retirements of Fernandez and Jourdain.

Mexico City is flattered to be caught in the middle of this NASCAR vs. IndyCar/Suarez vs. O'Ward jealousy: for CIE, it shows that in a city of 22 million, Mexico City has the venue capable of hosting international events that become must-attend events.

So don't worry, Mexico City and IndyCar are definitely talking now. And it is what it is, the earliest a deal can be done is for the 2026 calendar.

The entire thing was a debacle won by NASCAR in a knockout. But IndyCar has entered the chat and will see what it can get done. It's not fast enough for O'Ward, or most of the teams and drivers and sponsors, but this entire Mexico City mess has shown IndyCar leadership it has got to keep up.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press