NASCAR México confirmed it will visit Tulum on April 25th and 26th to race within the Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport, as part of the Tulum Air Show 2026 organized by the Mexican Air Force. This resolves the third date of the calendar, which had been listed as "TBD" for weeks since the series published a schedule with five of its twelve races without a confirmed venue.

An Invitation That Came from the Air Force

The initiative did not come from NASCAR México itself, but from FAMEX (Mexico Aerospace Fair), which extended the invitation to the series to be part of a four-day event that will combine military aviation, the aerospace industry, and motorsports in the Riviera Maya. Jimmy Morales, CEO of NASCAR México, explained during a press conference at the Military Aviation Museum in Santa Lucía that the project has accumulated over six months of joint work with the Air Force, and the intention is to turn this participation into a recurring relationship with FAMEX.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

The first two days of the Tulum Air Show will be dedicated to an international aviation safety congress, aerospace sector exhibitions, and demonstrations with F-5 aircraft and the Águilas Aztecas squadron, all with free access near Military Air Base No. 20. NASCAR México joins the program on Saturday and Sunday to close out the weekend with the racing competition.

The press conference left important operational details unresolved that matter to fans: the layout they will set up on the airport's surface, whether the Trucks category will also participate, and how much race admission tickets will cost.

An Event Designed to Fill Tulum

FAMEX projects that the Tulum Air Show will attract around 29,000 attendees between the air displays and the races, with the expectation of saturating the hotel supply in an area that is already an international tourist hub in its own right. General Disraelí Gómez Herrera, president of FAMEX, broke down the figure into 14,000 spectators for the aerial component and 15,000 for the motorsport one, an ambitious projection considering it's the first edition of the event.

With Tulum resolved, the 2026 calendar still has two dates without a venue (round 2 on March 28-29 and round 6 on June 26-27, which repeats last year's Chihuahua or San Luis Potosí dilemma) and one more with dual options between Mérida and Querétaro for October.

The series has now had three consecutive seasons of publishing incomplete calendars that are later adjusted on the fly, as happened in 2025 with four changes to the schedule and the cancellation of Panama.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

Military Runways, a Trend Shared with the NASCAR Cup

NASCAR México's bet on racing at a military airport is not an isolated one. The NASCAR Cup Series has scheduled a race for June 21st at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, the first time it will compete within an active military installation. That event, organized as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of the US Navy, will bring all three national divisions to a street course at Naval Air Station North Island, with Prime Video broadcasting the main race.

The formats and budgets are different —San Diego will feature three national categories and is framed within the US Navy's 250th anniversary celebrations— but the coincidence reveals the same quest: to take races out of conventional road courses and oval tracks to generate events with their own identity and the ability to attract audiences beyond the usual fan.

Updated NASCAR México 2026 Schedule (February 2026)