Iowa Speedway on a post-Covid revival

Eric Peterson had to take a moment to look at Iowa Speedway’s full grandstands.

It wasn’t on the Sunday of the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series weekend at the .875-mile oval. Peterson, Iowa Speedway’s president, knew the seats were going to be full on that day.

No, it was on Saturday, for the Xfinity Series race, when Peterson saw the crowd and knew the weekend was the success he was expecting.

“When we went into that weekend knowing that we were sold out Saturday and Sunday, and only had a few tickets left for Friday, I had to take a moment to look at the crowd that Saturday,” Peterson said in an interview on Thursday. “It was really great to see all of the people who showed up.”

That kind of success is why NASCAR is coming back to Iowa Speedway next season, with a different  — and maybe better — date and a chance to build on what was done this season.

NASCAR announced its 2025 schedule on Thursday, and the Xfinity and Cup Series cars will be back in Newton on August 2-3.

“It’s been a great day, all the way around,” Peterson said after spending most of the day with sponsors and fans at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.

The debut of the Cup Series at the track this year, and the return of the two NASCAR series for next season, just adds to the revival of the track, which nearly went dormant after the COVID-19 pandemic but has entered a new era with the annual Hy-Vee-sponsored IndyCar Series doubleheader weekend that is a festival of racing and musical acts, and now the two biggest NASCAR series.

“I call it the ‘Iowa Speedway season,’” Peterson said, laughing. “We’ll have the IndyCars in July next year, and then a couple of weeks later we’ll have NASCAR. It’s a quick turnaround, but we were able to do it this year (when the NASCAR weekend was held on Father’s Day weekend in June) and we can do it again.”

Any doubts that the first NASCAR weekend wouldn’t be popular — and there weren’t too many — were vanquished when tickets for the weekend sold out by November last year.

Once race weekend arrived, it all went smoothly.

“I walked around the midway Friday and Saturday, and I talked to fans, and everyone spoke positively about what we were able to do,” Peterson said. “We did learn some lessons — we only have a certain amount of land to work with for parking and traffic, and even though things went well there are some things we’re going to work on.”

Even the biggest concern for drivers — a partial repaving in Turns 1-2 and 3-4 — turned out to be much ado about nothing.

“Once the race started, drivers were able to go three-wide at times,” Peterson said. “It became one of the best short-track races of the year.”

Peterson said there won’t be any more repaving done before next year.

“If you do a full repave, as you know, it can take a few years for it to work itself in,” he said. “So we’re going to keep it as is.”

Peterson said it didn't take long before discussions began about next year.

The 2025 date will be in a prime spot in the schedule. The race at Iowa will be in the final month of the season before the Xfinity and Cup playoffs begin, so there will be greater stakes for drivers who haven’t qualified.

Peterson said renewals for those who bought tickets this year have already started, and any tickets remaining will be going on sale to the public in November.

It will be a hot ticket, again.
John Bohnenkamp is an award-winning spors reporter and editor, and a regular contributor to Pen City Current.