NASCAR officials promise 'good news' for Richmond Raceway despite loss of spring race weekend to Mexico City

The news that local officials had feared for years could come finally arrived Tuesday, when NASCAR officials confirmed they were yanking away Richmond Raceway’s spring race weekend in 2025 and moving it to Mexico City.

The move to shift the top-level Cup Series race (which has carried the Toyota Owners 400 name since 2013) and a corresponding second-tier Xfinify Series race (which has been known as the ToyotaCare 250 most years since 2013) south of the border will mark the first time NASCAR has held a multiple-event race weekend that includes a Cup Series race outside the United States.

So what’s next for the track and Henrico County? Some details will come Thursday, when NASCAR officials will have some “good news” about the raceway, a company spokesperson told the Citizen Wednesday. That news, presumably, will include details about the planned fall race at RR next year, which will remain part of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, but may also provide details about potential Xfinity or Craftsman Truck series races at the track next year.

Richmond hosted two Xfinity Series races annually for years but since 2021 has hosted just one. It hosted one Craftsman Truck Series race annually from 1995 through 2005 and then again each year since 2020.

Richmond Raceway President Lori Waran was away and not available for comment this week, and Henrico officials told the Citizen they would wait until after Thursday’s announcement to comment on the news.

The larger impact of the loss of RR’s spring race weekend was unclear in the immediate aftermath of NASCAR’s announcement.

During the track’s peak years in the 1990s and early 2000s, Cup Series races sold out 33 dates in a row over a 16-year period of time, several times reaching capacities of more than 100,000 fans. A study conducted by the Washington Economics Group in 2009 that analyzed 2008 impacts concluded that one race weekend generated an economic impact for the region of $168.5 million for the region and state. A separate study at about the same time by the racetrack concluded that each race generated about $42 million in tax revenue (including about $18 million that went directly to Henrico County and other nearby localities).

But attendance at the track has plummeted in the years since then – reflective of an industry-wide trend at many tracks for reasons debated by fans of the sport – likely slashing that impact dramatically. Are rules changes and car modifications that some believe have resulted in less exciting racing to blame, or were the retirements of prominent drivers like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson within a five-year period responsible for declining fan interest? Has attendance shrunk because the cost of tickets didn’t, or because more fans are content watching at home? Fans are split.

A number who commented on the Citizen’s Facebook page this week said that NASCAR’s decisions in recent years to move races back and forth from nighttime to daytime and back again has hurt the track, while others said that racing at the 0.75-mile oval had become boring as a result of “cookie-cutter” cars. NASCAR moved to its Next Gen race cars during the 2022 season and simultaneously began requiring all teams to purchase parts from specific sources rather than manufacturing pieces and parts themselves, as they had been doing previously. NASCAR also began more closely regulating race teams’ inventories, limiting them to no more than seven cars for the same car number at one time and requiring them to run a particular car in at least three races before replacing it with another one.

“It’s been boring for years,” fan Ryan Wilkins wrote. “RIR used to be two of the most exciting races of the year.”

Other fans blamed the lack of more frequent resealing at the track for creating a one-groove path that results in less-exciting racing.

Richmond Raceway and its owner, International Speedway Corporation, invested $30 million to renovate the track’s infield in time for its debut during the 2018 season, and while track officials have said that attendance at recent races has shown signs of improvement, the track’s capacity of about 51,000 is less than half what it was just 15 years ago.

At this year’s Toyota Owners 400, run under the lights March 31 after rain passed through, television coverage showed that some sections of grandstands were mostly full, while others had only a smattering of fans.

NASCAR, a privately held company, typically does not release attendance figures except to announce sellouts.