There were doubts that it would happen, but NASCAR has indeed made it to Mexico for this weekend's festivities at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
For the first time ever, the Cup Series is set to run a race in Mexico, with Sunday's Viva Mexico 250 scheduled to be a 100-lap race around the 15-turn, 2.429-mile (3.909-kilometer) road course in Mexico City, Mexico, the venue which also hosts Formula 1's annual Mexico City Grand Prix.
With Sunday's race being a road course race, the traditional road course qualifying format is set to be used in Saturday's qualifying session. Drivers are split up into two groups based on their metric score. The drivers with the higher (worse) scores are in the first group, and the drivers with the lower (better) scores are in the second group.
Note that this metric is the new two-variable formula, not the four-variable formula which was used from 2020 to 2024.
A full breakdown of the new metric can be found here.
The groups are timed groups, as this is not a single-car qualifying session like NASCAR runs for oval races. Additionally, drivers can run as many laps as they please within the allotted amount of time.
The results from both groups are simply combined to determine the entire 37-car starting lineup. There is no longer a second round shootout for the pole position like we have seen in past years, and there are no more row-by-row designations depending on group.
Here's a full look at this weekend's qualifying order – more specifically, this weekend's qualifying groups – from south of the border.
NASCAR Cup Series at Mexico: Full qualifying order
Group A
1 - Katherine Legge, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet
2 - Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford
3 - John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
4 - Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
5 - Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
6 - Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford
7 - Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford
8 - Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
9 - Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota
10 - Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
11 - Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
12 - Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
13 - Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
14 - Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
15 - Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
16 - Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
17 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
18 - William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
19 - Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Group B
20 - Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
21 - Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
22 - A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
23 - Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
24 - Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
25 - Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
26 - Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
27 - Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
28 - Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
29 - Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
30 - Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford
31 - Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
32 - Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
33 - Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
34 - Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
35 - Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
36 - Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
37 - Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota*
*Denny Hamlin has been replaced by Ryan Truex, as he has opted to remain in the United States following the birth of his third child.
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is scheduled to host the Viva Mexico 250 this Sunday, June 15, with live coverage set to be provided by Amazon Prime Video beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. This race is the penultimate race on Prime's five-race portion of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series broadcast calendar.