RADIO
On June 16, 2024, history will be made as the NASCAR Cup Series makes its debut at Iowa Speedway.
Located in Newton, IA, a small corn farm town located roughly 35 miles east of Des Moines, this track is known for producing exciting races, a reputation that has earned it the nickname “the fastest short track on the planet."
Given that 2024 will mark the first experience that many NASCAR fans have with this .875-mile tri-oval track, today we will look at three quick facts that you should know about the newest addition to the Cup schedule.
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Fact #1: Iowa is Replacing Auto Club Speedway on the Cup Schedule
When Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, CA) announced plans to convert from a two-mile D-shaped oval to a short track, it created a vacancy on the Cup schedule.
After several cities expressed interest in filling this void, rumors ran wild throughout most of 2023 about which track would actually land the coveted opening. From Montreal to Rockingham, every city with a track seemed to be considered for this event.
Despite all the speculation, in an October 2023 joint press conference with NASCAR and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, it was announced that Iowa would be the beneficiary of the opening left by Auto Club, and the $100 million economic impact that this event is expected to bring to the area.
(Note: The reason that Iowa did not take over the second race of the season that was normally reserved for Auto Club is because of the instability of the weather in the Midwest in February.)
Fact #2: Rusty Wallace is the Mastermind Behind Iowa Speedway
In 2004, former Cup champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace began designing what we now know to be Iowa Speedway. As an accomplished short-track racer in his own right, Wallace took inspiration from Richmond Raceway, as well as other popular short tracks, when developing his vision.
Based on his personal experiences competing on these legendary short tracks, Wallace designed Iowa to be able to handle 3-wide racing despite being less than a mile in length. Because of his role in the track’s development, Wallace became the face of the speedway and the leading voice that lobbied for NASCAR to give the young track a Cup date.
Fact #3: 12 Active Cup Drivers Have Won at Iowa Speedway
While June 2024 will mark the first time the Cup Series races at Iowa Speedway, it will not be the first time that NASCAR hosts an event in Newton.
Between 2009 and 2019, NASCAR ran 20 Xfinity Series and 13 Truck Series races at the track. Of these 33 races, 21 were won by 12 active drivers in the Cup Series in 2024.
Of these winners, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Erik Jones are tied with the most victories, with each man having won three times on the “fastest short track on the planet."
Final Thoughts
With the race not happening until June, fans still have to wait four months until NASCAR invades the cornfields of Iowa. While this event may not quite be the spectacle that the Field of Dreams game was for Major League Baseball, it will still be a signature moment and an economic boom for the Hawkeye state.
Whether this is a one-off for the Cup Series or whether this event becomes an annual event in America’s heartland is unclear, but what we do know is that this June, a town with a population of just 15,667 residents, is going to become the center of the racing world and an inspiration to all the other small town tracks that dream of hosting a Cup race of their own one day.
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