NASCAR considers adding Iowa Speedway to Nationwide schedule
By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor
Monday, August 04, 2008
- TEXT SIZE: Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Reset Text Size
- 1 Comment. Leave a Comment
- Digg This
- Add to Del.icio.us
- RSS Feeds
Darrell Ingham / Getty Images
Latest Headlines
- Chase glance: Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Kevin Harvick Inc., Craftsman Truck Series driver Jack Sprague part company
- AJ Allmendinger to drive Michael Waltrip Racing's No. 00 Toyota at Charlotte
- Brad Keselowski, Bryan Clauson and Scott Speed on preliminary Cup entry list
- ABC’s overnight Talladega Sprint Cup TV ratings slip 4.8 percent
NASCAR Vice President of Racing Operations Steve O’Donnell has confirmed that Iowa Speedway is one of the candidates to replace Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City on the 2009 Nationwide Series schedule.
NASCAR has already said it would not return to Mexico for a fifth race there next year, and speculation was rampant that Iowa would be the replacement.
“I’d say there’s more than two [tracks], but [Iowa is] absolutely one of the tracks under consideration that we’ve had conversations with,” O’Donnell said. “… We definitely want to find a replacement. We will be at the same number of races as last year. We’re still in that process. We’ve got a couple of good candidates. We’re probably about two weeks away from being ready to announce our schedule for ’09.”
Iowa Speedway, which was partially designed by former NASCAR Cup champion Rusty Wallace, opened in 2006. The 0.875-mile track is located in Newton, Iowa. Wallace said in Montreal that while he wants NASCAR to host a Nationwide or truck series race there, he has not been guaranteed a date.
Driver Landon Cassill, who is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, hopes NASCAR decides to run a Nationwide race there.
“It’s just an awesome race track,” Cassill said. “… Rusty did a nice job designing the place. Everything from the track surface to the campgrounds and the stands and the club seats, the bus lot. Every garage has a drain for your cool-down units, so you don’t have water all over the place. Everything is so nice and state-of-the-art."
Comments
1 response to "NASCAR considers adding Iowa Speedway to Nationwide schedule"
Dustin Hook said:
Aug 4, 2008 at 12:23 PMI went to the Indy car race there in 07 and the ARCA race in 08 and was impressed with both. There is plenty for the fans to do before the race, and btw the racing itself is great with the progressive banking. Of course I may be a little bias because I live only 40 miles from the track;)
Report as AbuseReport Abuse
This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
» Confirm Abuse Report