At long last, NASCAR’s Cup Series is roaring into Iowa Speedway

NEWTON — Iowa Speedway has endured. This week, it finally sees its dream become reality.

The 7/8ths-mile racetrack is hosting what Iowa auto racing fans have long wanted and usually thought was out of reach: A NASCAR Cup Series event.

The Iowa Corn 350 is next Sunday night, a day after a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the track. The USA Network’s television audiences will see all 50,000-plus seats occupied for the two races. The Cup Series race was sold out last December, two months after it was announced.

It isn’t as if the track has sat empty since its first races were held here in 2006. NASCAR had the Xfinity Series — its No. 2 series — here between 2009 and 2019. Its first events here topped 50,000 fans.

The IndyCar Series debuted here in 2007 and has held events here each year since, other than 2021.

However, former Cup Series championship winner Rusty Wallace designed the speedway 20 years ago with Cup Series events in mind. However, a short oval in Iowa wasn’t what NASCAR had in its own mind on the occasions its schedule had an opening.

In fact, the company tried to fill its 2024 opening in Montreal, at the 4.3-mile circuit used by Formula 1. They couldn’t come to an agreement in time. Iowa was the backup plan. But once you’re in and you’ve sold the race out …

“It means we should have been here five years ago,” said Christopher Bell, a Cup Series driver who won Xfinity Series races here in 2018 and 2019.

“Anytime you can sell a place out, it deserves a date, so hopefully this is a mainstay on the Cup schedule.”

About three-fourths of the drivers in the 36-car Cup Series field have raced here. Ten have won Xfinity Series races here.

If any of the drivers didn’t think Newton should host a Cup race, they’ve been awfully quiet about it. The ones who love the track have been quite vocal.

Brad Keselowski, a winner of 36 Cup Series events and a co-owner of RFK Racing, won three Xfinity (then Nationwide) Series races here, including the first one in 2009. He’s happy to be returning here after.

“Winning here, the inaugural weekend of the Xfinity Series in 2009, was one of the highlights of my career,” Keselowski said. “I felt like I’d really made it that weekend. Very special.”

Last October, Keselowski joined Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in Des Moines to help announce the Cup Series’ first date in Iowa since 1953 in Davenport.

“I was almost shocked,” he said. “I told people for a long time that I thought Iowa was a good candidate for a Cup Series race.

“I got a call from NASCAR’s marketing department saying they wanted me to go to the announcement with the governor. I was ‘Wait a minute, what?’ Sometimes you think you’re getting pranked.

“When it was obvious it wasn’t a prank, I just said good for them. There’s a lot of dues that had been paid by this track and the community, and I’m glad to see that all pay off for them.”

Things didn’t look good at all here in 2021. One wondered if closure was on the horizon with no NASCAR or IndyCar races here that year. IndyCar, with a multiyear sponsorship with Hy-Vee, returned in 2022. Its doubleheader here is July 13-14.

And now, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and the rest of the top stock car series in the world are coming. Finally.

“It means a lot to a lot of people,” said Iowa Speedway President Eric Peterson. “Once the race was announced, the fans really showed up and showed out, and they’re showing they’re support by selling out the race.

“We have a really great national team that’s helping with experience from all over the board on how we execute in every area, whether it’s security, guest services, our fan experience.

“It’s 350 acres that we’re working with, and with the sellout, we have to get a little creative on things like parking, but we feel like we have a really good plan in place.”

Wouldn’t it be something if a track the Cup Series had overlooked for so long became one of its anchors?

“You want to be where you’re wanted,” Keselowski said. “You just feel coming here to Iowa Speedway that the community wants NASCAR here and that makes it a really good thing.”

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