NASCAR competitors detail messy travel day into Mexico City

At a certain point, all the Haas Factory Team folks could do was laugh as they drove from Charlotte down to Atlanta, just to catch a plane ride to Mexico City with a connection through Miami.

Sam Mayer and crew chief Jason Trinchere were amongst those on the caravan to Atlanta. Cup Series driver Cole Custer was too. All told, there were the three drivers, three crew chiefs and two car chiefs.

Driving to ATL to fly to Mexico 🚀 pic.twitter.com/1rxM6j9RcP

— Sam Mayer (@sam_mayer_) June 12, 2025

“I don’t think the reality of what trip we were about to take set in until we got to the airport,” Mayer told The Sporting News. “Like, the whole van ride, we were obviously goofing off or whatever so it was fun.

“But still, the van ride was rough because it rained like hell through Atlanta so we had to deal with that. It wasn’t too bad. It just took a little longer than I planned in my head. But not too bad.”

Read more: NASCAR industry hit with nightmare Mexico City logistics

It kind of turned into a team building exercise because they arrived to the Atlanta Airport and just found a restaurant, where they shared stories and drank beer.

“We bonded,” Mayer said. “We just hung out the whole time. There was two-hour delay in Atlanta so that was unfortunate but that just made our layover in Miami shorter and that was only two and half hours so not bad.”

Mayer said he is generally not a plane sleeper but was able to get his in overnight and this morning. Custer on the other hand, looked a little worse for wear but said he was good to go for Cup Series practice on Friday.

They all got to Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

“I’m probably going to go take a nap in the hauler,” Custer conceded.

It wasn’t the first nap he took over the past 24 hours.

Out Stone Cold pic.twitter.com/gEXQ3V5O9P

— Sam Mayer (@sam_mayer_) June 13, 2025

Trinchere gave credit to Haas Factory Team travel coordinator Jennifer Stimberis for doing all the legwork to make sure they could get to Mexico City, somehow, some way.

“Joe Custer worked with Jen too,” Trinchere said. “It was kind of just all of us, even looking at our phones, realizing ‘hey, this one has a flight’ and passing it up the chain. And then 10 minutes later, you get an email, and it’s like ‘okay, we have to go.’

Trinchere equated the van ride to his short track driving days.

“We’re tired but that’s racing sometimes,” Trinchere said. “We just have to make the most of it.”

They were on the plane that was grounded for some still yet to be confirmed reasons. It was just not allowed to take flight. This is the same plane that the Sam Hunt Racing guys were on.

There was another flight that was on the runway, just moments from liftoff, when it suffered an engine failure and was forced to slow down and return to its gate. The captain told passengers they may have struck a bird but everyone disembarked and needed to find alternative means to Mexico City.

That includes Trackhouse Racing who had to send Shane Van Gisbergen and some of its crew members to Mexico over an early commercial flight and then a second wave later on Friday.

Those on that flight reported hearing a loud pop from the engine.

“Yeah, it wasn’t real fun,” Van Gisbergen said. “Yesterday was a long day. But yeah, pretty scary when the plane launched itself on take-off.

“But yeah, they stopped and were trying to just get another plane. And then it was first thing this morning, so early start this morning. I think we got up at 3:30 a.m. at home and got on an early flight down here.”

Xfinity Series driver for DGM Racing Ryan Ellis said the plane’s cabin was surprisingly calm because it was full of people who crash into walls for a living.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Van Gisbergen said. “I guess it’s a big deal when you think about it, but I’m not really too fussed about it. I’m already focused on today. But yeah, obviously not ideal, but it happened and we fixed it.”