The road to NASCAR’s Mexico City bonanza has been anything but smooth, with off-track travel dilemmas rivaling the excitement promised on race day. Among many drivers and crew members hit by mechanical delays and logistical snags is DGM Racing’s Xfinity Series veteran, Ryan Ellis, who found himself in an all-too-relatable travel nightmare, this time courtesy of American Airlines.
Ryan Ellis’s Unexpected Pit Stop Ahead of the Chilango 150
Before the BetMGM 300 went down in Charlotte Motor Speedway, 35-year-old Ellis’s best finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series was an 11th-place finish, which came twice on two different Superspeedways, the most recent one being a P11 finish at Daytona and the other one a year prior at Talladega.
Since then, the veteran has done everything in his power to crack into the top 10, and it finally happened in the last week of May. The Chevy driver finished P8 for the first time, close behind Richard Childress Racing’s No. 21 driver, Austin Hill. The finish was emotional for Ellis, who admitted that he had tears in his eyes as he came out of Turn 4 on the final lap.
Fast-forward to this week, and the No. 71 driver encountered a different kind of challenge en route to his Mexico City feature. Set to compete in the highly anticipated race weekend at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the driver finally received his delayed luggage, only to find that relief quickly gave way to frustration.
I thought that the chaos of the trip was over when I saw my bag was finally delivered to the hotel.
However, there is a somewhat uncuttable lock placed on my bag by @AmericanAir and the SHOW GOES ON. pic.twitter.com/wSOvDE2tBT
— Ryan Ellis (@ryanellisracing) June 13, 2025
After a long wait, his suitcase arrived, but with a wrench, it was sealed shut with a lock by American Airlines. He took to social media to note down his thoughts while tagging the airlines, taking a sarcastic dig. He wrote, “I thought that the chaos of the trip was over when I saw my bag was finally delivered to the hotel. However, there is a somewhat uncuttable lock placed on my bag by @AmericanAir, and the SHOW GOES ON.
Ellis’s travel nightmare began on Thursday when his NASCAR-chartered flight forced him to abort takeoff from Charlotte. Scrambling for an alternative, he was rebooked on commercial flights, but things only worsened. His American Airlines flight to Mexico via Miami was delayed multiple times, leaving him in limbo.
The travel chaos left the driver just 105 minutes of sleep before heading back to Miami, only to know that his luggage had never left Charlotte airport. And now, after the driver finally reached Mexico City, battle-tested before even hitting the track. With the travel chaos behind Ellis, all eyes are on the No. 71 driver to see if he can turn the weekend around and chase another career-best finish on the 2.4-mile road course.