Few names command as much reverence in NASCAR as Richard Petty, the man known simply as The King. With 200 career Cup Series wins, 7 championships, and an iconic cowboy hat that is as much a symbol of the sport as the checkered flag itself, Petty’s word still holds weight in every corner of stock car racing. So when he voices skepticism or raises an eyebrow, fans and industry insiders tune in. Petty has been part of NASCAR’s evolution for over half a century, watching the sport transform from dusty dirt tracks to international venues. But after NASCAR’s high-profile foray into Mexico City, even Petty sounded unconvinced about the direction things are headed.
The inaugural Cup Series race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was a milestone moment. Shane van Gisbergen dominated, showing his road-course mastery once again as he left the rest of the field in the dust. The event itself drew a sizeable crowd and generated a great amount of buzz, with a lively festival-like atmosphere and the promise of global expansion. NASCAR’s entry into Mexico was meant to symbolize a fresh chapter, with something new, exciting, and reflective of the sport’s growing ambitions outside the U.S., and while it certainly delivered in drama and unpredictability, not every veteran was ready to embrace the chaos.
Richard Petty questions return to Mexico after Cup race chaos
Reflecting on the race in a conversation with longtime crew chief Dale Inman in a snippet shared from his Petty Family Racing YouTube channel’s Petty Race Recap, Petty did not mince his words regarding his views on the race. “The #88 was so much quicker than any of the rest of the cars. I mean, it wound up what, 16, 18 seconds ahead or something. I’ve never seen so much beating and bashing or, bent fenders and people pushing on it,” said Petty. Shane van Gisbergen, driving the #88 Kaulig Racing Chevy, dominated the inaugural event with surgical precision, winning by nearly 20 seconds, a rare margin in modern NASCAR.
Meanwhile, narrow technical layout and aggressive road-course driving saw cars trading paint at nearly every corner, leading to widespread damage and tempers flaring throughout the field. Petty continued, “I mean, even at Martinsville or something like that, they don’t touch and move around as much as they did up there.” In comparison to Mexico, Martinsville Speedway has been no short of chaotic, notoriously known for short-track intensity. During the 2025 Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, Denny Hamlin and others acknowledged that contact is common in such races. Even in the Xfinity Series race at the same venue, saw a shocking 14 cautions, including front-stretch pileups and aggressive moves such as Sammy Smith’s controversial last-lap bump on Taylor Gray, resulting in a 50-point penalty and a $25,000 fine.
Reflecting on the race, Inman rationalized, saying, “They couldn’t spin out, Richard, because it was against each other.” The tight corners of the Mexican circuit forced constant contact, with drivers leaning on each other lap after lap, and for Richard Petty, it wasn’t a very satisfactory race in that sense. “I don’t know if we’ll ever go back down there. I don’t know what kind of deal they had,” said Petty. While NASCAR hints at a possible return to the track and also a possible expansion to other international circuits, the response has been divided, both between fans and even NASCAR veterans. But the final decision lies with NASCAR.
But while the drama at the race track came to an end this weekend, Inman and Petty reminisced about an incident which pretty much remained in the minds of both. “You got a pretty good memory there, dislocating your neck a little bit over the tunnel,” said Inman. The incident is that of the 1980 Coca-Cola 500 at Pocono Raceway, when Richard Petty endured one of the most harrowing crashes of his legendary career. Leading the race until Lap 57, Petty’s car suddenly sliced into the Turn 2 wall after a tire failure, nearly flipping and crashing violently, as he later discovered he had fractured a vertebra in his neck. Reflecting on it, Richard once recalled, “I said, ‘Well, I probably broke it sometime when I broke something else, and it hurt worse. Your body can only hurt one place at a time,’” and now joking about the incident, he answered to inman pointing at his neck, “It still works.”
The Mexico City race proved that NASCAR’s bold international expansion comes with chaos, drama, and undeniable entertainment. Legends like Richard Petty may question its future, but the spectacle spoke volumes about where the sport is headed. If this is the new normal, fans better buckle up, because the bumping isn’t going anywhere.
Mark Martin endorses Petty’s long-held critique of NASCAR’s playoff era
After the chaotic weekend south of the border, NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin reignited a decades-old debate by backing a legendary critique from Richard Petty. The spark of ignition came from Shane van Gisbergen’s Cup Series win at the Viva Mexico 250, which clinched the rookie a playoff berth despite limited starts this season. Martin, known for letting his consistency speak louder than his opinions, made a rare but resounding statement, simply reposting a 2004 clip of Richard Petty warning against NASCAR’s playoff system, adding just two words: “THE KING.”
The video Martin reposted was from a 2004 NASCAR preview show, just before the introduction of the Chase playoff format. In the clip, Petty lamented NASCAR’s move to copy traditional sports leagues with a postseason model. “That’s NASCAR racing, okay. We got where we are at because we did things different than other people,” said Petty. “We had a different ball game in town. We did not have playoffs, we didn’t have drafts. We didn’t have the same thing they had. So we got where we are at. And here we are jumping right in the swimming pool with everybody else. So we’re going to be a small fish in a big pond.” Martin’s subtle yet powerful endorsement of this message sent ripples through the NASCAR community.
The timing of Martin’s message couldn’t have been sharper. Van Gisbergen’s victory, while widely celebrated for expanding the sport’s global appeal, added fuel to the growing concern that NASCAR’s playoff format rewards opportunistic wins over season-long consistency. Critics argue that under the current system, a driver can secure a postseason spot with one well-timed win, while another with a higher average performance might miss out entirely. With both Martin and Petty raising the same alarm decades apart, the pressure to reevaluate the playoff formula may soon become impossible to ignore.
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