Motorsports

NASCAR spots a new frontier south of the border

The circuit is in Mexico City on Sunday for the first points race outside the U.S. in decades.

By BRANT JAMES
Published March 4, 2005

Adrian Fernandez can hardly stroll Paseo de la Reforma without drawing a crowd or drive far off Mexico City's grand boulevard without spying a billboard bearing his image.

In a country in which only a soccer star or world champion boxer has occasionally denied him demigod status in its sports pantheon, the 41-year-old race car driver returns reinvented this weekend.

In a city where he helped persuade CART to race in 2002, Fernandez will drive a Busch Series car Sunday at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez when NASCAR holds the first points race outside the United States in nearly 50 years.

"I feel like a kid again," he said. "For me to be able to race at home in front of my fans again is a dream come true."

Most involved in the venture, except team members concerned about logistics or security, are just as excited.

The race over the 2.786-mile course is many things to many people. For the drivers, it's the chance at a share of a series-record $2.3-million purse before a predicted large, boisterous throng. For NASCAR, it's the opportunity to hook a Latin American market with an existing affinity for racing, unlike some of its newer domestic venues, and the sponsorship dollars of companies trying to reach that market.

Mexico has been part of NASCAR history since founder Bill France and legendary driver Curtis Turner competed in the Mexican Road Race in 1950. Now under the leadership of France's grandson, Brian, NASCAR is looking for the next untapped international market, particularly Mexico and Canada. France said NASCAR, which now has offices and broadcast agreements with television stations in both Canada and Mexico, is exploring how to "take better advantage of opportunities abroad."

"When we say that we don't mean that we're looking to take the Nextel Cup South or North," he said. "Obviously, domestically is full."

Felix Sabates, a partner in Chip Ganassi's Nextel Cup team and a major player in brokering the Mexico City deal, said he doubts a Cup race will come to Mexico, however.

"Because I think this Busch (race) is going to be so successful," he said, "if they sell 150,000 seats, that's all you can sell."

Nine Nextel Cup regulars, including Rusty Wallace, Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick, will attempt to make the field.

For Sabates, a Cuban-American and Latino pioneer in NASCAR, the race represents both a potential validation of the Hispanic market and a major business opportunity.

Sabates claims he had long lobbied and was rebuffed by former CEO Bill France Jr. about racing in Mexico but found a more receptive audience in Brian France. Sabates' brother, Jose, helped rally financial support, including racing fan Carlos Slim Helu, deemed by Forbes magazine the richest man in Latin America in 2004; and government support, in president Vicente Fox. And he arranged junkets in 2003 and 2004 in which Felix Sabates, Brian France and chief operating officer George Pyne surveyed the city and course.

"They pretty much had an open mind when we went down there, and once they saw what was there, Holy c---," Sabates said. "We went down there a few weeks ago and (Fox) showed up at the track to see what we were doing. I got a call (that) Fox wants to have dinner on Saturday night in Mexico City. You've got the president all pumped up behind it and one of the wealthiest families in the world, the Slim family; you have the makings of a very successful operation."

For certain, NASCAR's incursion into Mexico is more about commerce than taking its traveling show to a new pool of race-crazy fans. If stock-car racing can gouge a place in Mexicans' open-wheel sentimentality, NASCAR and its teams stand to reap massive financial reward. Just one percent of NASCAR fans were Hispanic in 1995. The figure had grown to nine percent by 2002.

"We're developing auto racing south of the border," Brian France said. "We know that the Hispanic market is the fastest growing emerging market in the country. We also know with Miami, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Chicago, that's where a lot of our fans are coming from, so we want to be relevant to our fans. One of the ways to do that is to be relevant to their country."

That makes it no coincidence that 10 Mexicans, including open-wheel veterans Fernandez and Michel Jourdain Jr., are on the 50-driver entry list.

"This is a new chapter for NASCAR and Mexico," Fernandez said. "(Mexican fans) don't know much about NASCAR. In general, they know more about open-wheel racing. They know CART or now Champ Car and the IRL. So this is something new for them and everyone is excited; obviously (it's) something they will need to learn about it, but I am excited to help them make the transition faster."

Though he won three of the last six IRL events last season and finished fifth in points, driver/owner Fernandez lost his ride when his Mexico-based sponsors withdrew support citing lack of exposure at home because the IRL does not race there. Fernandez had left Champ Car, which races in Mexico City and Monterrey, less than a month before the start of the 2004 season. He had eight wins in the series from 1993 to 2003.

Jourdain, 28, had two wins in nine Champ Car seasons, finishing third in the 2003 standings. His full-time deal with ppc Racing will make him the first Hispanic driver to contest an entire Busch season.

Fernandez and countrymen Rafael Martinez, Mara Reyes, Jorge Goeters and Ruben Garcia Novoa are guaranteed spots in the field because their cars finished in the top 30 (with other drivers) in the 2004 owner points. Fernandez will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet Kyle Busch used to finish second last season. Jourdain will be among the 13 drivers who must qualify on speed.

"These people like racing. And of course, they will get to pull for some Mexican drivers," Sabates said. "Adrian Fernandez told Jamie (McMurray), he said, "Jamie, there's gonna be 300,000 of us there. If one of you gringos touches one of the Mexicans' cars, it's gonna be hard.' He said, "When you see me coming, you better pull over.' "

The future is coming hard in the rearview mirror.

[Last modified March 4, 2005, 00:31:15]