Could Iowa Speedway ever land a Sprint Cup race?
NEWTON, Iowa – Since Iowa Speedway is NASCAR’s newest Nationwide Series track, many wonder if it will ever host a Sprint Cup Series race.
Track designer Rusty Wallace advised Iowa Speedway officials to not even consider that question when the track was being built.
“We were on our hands and knees two years pleading just to get a Truck race,” Wallace said Thursday as preparations began for Saturday’s inaugural U.S. Cellular 250. “With all the controversy with Texas Motor Speedway and Kentucky and the lawsuits, I said, ‘Let’s never even mention the word Cup around here. We’d be so grateful just to get a Truck race or a Nationwide race.'”
Iowa Speedway was completed in 2006 and is in its third full year of racing. Iowa got the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series races last year when NASCAR announced the 7/8ths-mile track would host those events in 2009.
Would Iowa ever get a Cup race? Track president Jerry Jauron said “that’s out of our control.”
“All we can control in our little world at Iowa Speedway is put on the best show we can, make it the best entertainment event possible,” Jauron said. “It’s our goal to put on the best Nationwide race of the year. If we do that … hopefully NASCAR sees that and sees what we’re getting done here and it leads to bigger and better things down the road.”
Wallace said the track would have to pay a “really big purse” for a Cup race.
“Can we put that many people in here? Will they come? I don’t know,” Wallace said. “We want to get a good snapshot of what this race looks like, what the Truck race looks like, and down the road, if the support’s there and NASCAR wants to have a Cup race [here], we would entertain that, yeah, for sure.”
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch said “for sure” the track is suitable for Cup racing.
“This place has got some good amenities to it,” Busch said. “It might not have the grandstands it needs in order to accommodate a Cup race. It might not have the roads in and out for a traffic pattern. But that’s about all I see that it lacks.”
