NASCAR journalist Matt Weaver admitted that he witnessed “a lot of sketchiness” during his trip to Mexico City to cover the NASCAR races held at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez over the weekend.
During an appearance on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Host and spotter for Bubba Wallace Freddie Kraft shared part of his experience, “One of the biggest things I took away from it was, how good we have it here. Because while we talk about how nice-. The area of Mexico City-. I didn’t venture out a whole lot. I kind of stayed at the hotel or went across the street to dinner one night. So, I didn’t really venture out to the city much ’cause I know that I can be stupid when I’m in public and I don’t need to add any problems to my list. But going to the racetrack you can get an idea of how some of those areas-. I was talking to Tommy [Baldwin] about this earlier. You tip somebody $20 and they’re the most appreciative person on the planet and then you kind of go back and see maybe where they live. Some of the areas like on the way to the racetrack are not so nice and it makes you really appreciate coming home to what we have here.”
Following these comments, Weaver shared his experience, “Listen, the thing I would say is, is where we were near the Sheraton … that was the hospitality, that is the economic center of Mexico City. They wanted to put on a good show for us. They had sweepers out at night. It is the safest part of town. But like you said, when you go to Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and you have to go from the hotel to get there there’s a lot of sketchiness in between.”
“And so, listen, I’ve said that it’s a lot like going to Chicago,” he continued. “South Chicago is way different than North Chicago, Grant Park, where we were the last two years, where we’re going to be in a couple of weeks. And I think it’s like any major city, right? There’s good and there’s bad. But like you said, Freddie, it does make you really appreciate there’s a lot of good here in the States.”
Later, Weaver added, “Look, I think the goal here is don’t do stupid stuff and I think that’s true of any city. I didn’t go too too far. I would say the furthest I ventured out from the hotel, maybe a mile. Again, they keep that area safe intentionally. And I think knowing that NASCAR was in town, they wanted to put their best forward as well. I can’t say it’s like that all the time, but incredible restaurants. The colors of the city, like it is very vibrant, very electric, neon. Everything you think about Miami. There’s a little bit of Miami into Mexico City. Great food. Great people. Super friendly. The more you tip them, the friendlier they get.”
Kraft then admitted, “There was issues. There wasn’t all sunshines and rainbows through the weekend. There was some people that had issues. And the people that had issues were probably doing things that we were not instructed to do for the most part, from what I understand.”
He then revealed that a prostitute followed a group of spotters to dinner at one point, “One night we went to dinner, we walk outside, there’s a group of spotters and there is, for lack of a better term, a prostitute standing on the corner. And she followed us to dinner and she was offering her services the whole way. And we had to keep telling her no. … But that could happen in Vegas, you know what I mean? I was sitting in the Oyster Pub one night having dinner with a bunch of guys and somebody got shot outside. So it’s not like this is completely uncommon. There was some stories of things that went on that weren’t ideal. When we got there, people had their bags gone through and they were ‘taxed’ on some of the equipment they were bringing in, whether it was a spotter or some of the photographers. That wasn’t probably very legit. That stuff didn’t make me happy.”
“I felt as long as you were smart and kind of stuck to the guidelines that they gave us going into it, you really weren’t any different, like you said, being in Chicago or a place like St. Louis,” he added. “There was a damn shootout outside of a team hotel in St. Louis a couple of years ago. It is what it is and people were looking for things to nitpick and there certainly was. There’s small things that happened, the truck convoy might have ran into a couple issues on the way down there, but it wasn’t nothing that couldn’t be handled and nothing that really wouldn’t happen in other cities.”
Weaver then added that they were all instructed to change behaviors due to crime in the city, “They would say that you stick your wallet in your side pocket, not your back pocket. Say no to the panhandlers. But really, if you just keep your wits about you, don’t go into the dark alleyways. Make sure your in well-lit areas at all time. It’s just common sense stuff. Like don’t do dumb stuff and dumb stuff won’t happen to you.”
What do you make of Kraft and Weaver’s comments about Mexico City?
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