ARCA shares weekend with IndyCar at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON - In its short time as a major-level racing facility, Iowa Speedway has become a destination track for many drivers in several national series, including NASCAR Nationwide (soon to be Xfinity) and Camping World Trucks.

That's especially true for lower-level national series like the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, which has its East and West series meet twice a year in Newton, USAC and ARCA.

After two and one-year sabbaticals respectively, both are returning to Iowa Speedway, with ARCA announcing Friday its race date of July 17 and pairing with the IndyCar Series race weekend.

'The really cool thing is how much the series and competitors cherish the opportunity to race here at Iowa Speedway, but our fans really wanted those series back, too, and more racing on an additional weekend,” said Iowa Speedway President Jimmy Small. 'The drivers, competitors, owners and sanctioning bodies at USAC and ARCA were just giddy when we made the phone call and asked if they'd strongly consider coming back here in 2015.”

USAC, which returns June 20 for the first time since 2012 in conjunction with the Camping World Truck Series race weekend, and ARCA - first race since 2013 - represent the grass roots of the national-level racers. They're the up-and-comers, as it were, and many have gone on in very short succession to higher series.

Small said bringing both back was a marriage of desire from those series and a desire from those die-hard fans who wanted more racing.

'We have good relationships and great history with both USAC and ARCA,” Small said. 'And our fans, again, were mentioning the love and passion for motorsports, and here in Iowa their love for USAC and for ARCA and how much they enjoyed the visits by both those series.”

What remains to be seen, then is if those fans who gave the feedback will follow through and attend the races. Small has said in the past he really liked the pairing of the Camping World Truck Series with the IndyCar Series, but with the expansion of the schedule and IndyCar wanting to hold its July date, new options had to be explored.

In addition, there's the new NASCAR TV deal which has NBC and NBC Sports Network replacing ESPN. Small didn't specify if that directly affected moving the Trucks from July to June, but did say NASCAR and IndyCar (whose Iowa Speedway date is broadcast by NBCSN) had parts of the season to juggle.

'As we started exploring that fourth weekend option and moving some things around, we got in touch with guys like (ARCA President) Ron Drager and Andy Hillenburg at USAC,” Small said. 'We love the idea of having some of these lower-level series - the K&N Pro Series, the USAC Silver Crown Series, your ARCA Series - paired up with a series that's a step or two above it.

'As you can probably imagine, with NASCAR pairing up with NBC starting with next season, there are certain time frames and windows that NASCAR and IndyCar have to work through at certain points in the season. That's something those two worked out.”

Regardless of the reason, the schedule is now set. NASCAR K&N Pro Series East/West and NASCAR Xfinity Series are set for May 17-18, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and USAC Silver Crown Series June 19-20, ARCA ReMax Series and IndyCar Series July 17-18 and the bookend K&N and Xfinity races July 31-August 1.

The schedule, Small said, is consistent with the message the speedway wants to send to the world that it's about being a proving ground for young racers and a track still in its maturation process as well.

'It's allowed us to work with some other grass roots but nationally touring series that really speak to what we're all about here,” Small said. 'And (it's showed) that making names of these young and up-and-coming drivers, guys who got an opportunity, have some talent to showcase it at the highest level.”

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