NASCAR Heads South: Mexican National Guard Convoy, Customs Inspections And 2,296 Miles From Michigan To Mexico
NASCAR had some big guns protecting them after crossing the border
The logistics of putting together a trip to Mexico City for the upcoming NASCAR race on Sunday have been months in the making, but after traveling 2,296 miles from Michigan this past weekend, NASCAR haulers have made it across the border.
You might be wondering what type of preparation it takes for this sort of trip to be pulled off. Well, for Tom Bryant, who is NASCAR's vice president of racing operations, his years of serving in the United States Army and dealing with logistics have certainly come in handy.
Putting together a plan to get 137 haulers from Michigan to Texas, then crossing the border into Mexico after a pit-stop in Laredo to gather all the trucks together was a process that needed the help of one of the best logistics companies in the country.
To pull this off, NASCAR hired ‘Rock-It Cargo’, which specializes in making sure these long-haul trips go according to plan, or at least without too many hiccups. But this wasn’t like any other trip across the border into Mexico.
NASCAR Heads South: Mexican National Guard Convoy, Customs Inspections And 2,296 Miles From Michigan To Mexico Via: Eric Shawn
No, the company had to make sure that they would be able to keep track of over 2,400 documents that listed every single piece of equipment, tires, gas cans and all the way down to the grills that each driver's chef would be cooking on this weekend.
"Everything on-truck has to be documented in a manifest, and then it has to be documented both on a temporary form and a consumable form and a race-car form," Steve Beres, the managing director of racing operations recently said. "Everything has to be separate. We can only bring in stuff that’s coming back out.
"In other words, a pit box — we list that on one section of the manifest, and it comes out on that same section. A consumable — if I have a Sharpie marker or roll of tape, that has to be listed separately on different documents. It’s a very tedious and a very time-consuming process. And then dealing with every single team with their questions, trying to figure out what they can and can’t take and just working on it day in and day out, sometimes till midnight, every single day."
Also, it's not just the Cup Series that will be racing this weekend in Mexico City. The NASCAR Xfinity series will also be taking to the track, which means more haulers, and plenty of extra equipment that has to cross the border.
Oh, and the Xfinity series haulers were coming from North Carolina, which meant all the trucks had to meet in Laredo, Texas before crossing the border into Mexico.
Mexican National Guard, Police Escorts And The Border Crossing
It's safe to say that NASCAR was not messing around when it came to the safety of all of the expensive equipment that would be making the trek to Mexico City.
Judging by the amount of security that was included in the convoy from the border to the track, this was going to be an adventure for these truck drivers.
As you can tell by the videos that have been posted to social media by different teams and NASCAR workers, safety was a top priority. If you need any further proof, just look at the pickup trucks filled with local police and Mexican National Guard, all of them carrying assault rifles.
Also, thanks to NASCAR providing such a well-documented manifest of what was being brought into the country by the haulers, the checkpoint at the border didn't seem like much of a hassle, besides the massive X-Ray machines that each hauler had to go through.
I might've also seen a photo of what appeared to be a border patrol agent taking a photo inside one of the haulers, with a cellphone in one hand, and an assault rifle in the other. I mean, they need to have a little fun as well, given that many haulers pass through at one time.
It certainly helps that the company, ‘Rock-It Cargo’, was also in charge of getting Taylor Swift's production crew to Mexico City as well on her last tour, along with the F1 series. So these guys know exactly what they’re doing.
After the long haul south of the border, all the truck drivers will do it again on Sunday night after the Cup race ends, as they head back to North Carolina to drop off the haulers.
It's been one crazy week, and we haven't even dropped the checkered flag yet.