Brad Keselowski finishes third at Iowa Speedway after two stage wins
The NASCAR Cup Series veteran looked to have the car to beat in the Iowa Corn 350 but came up two spots short after some bad strategy luck.
- NASCAR Cup Series races at Iowa Speedway saw strong attendance in 2024 and 2025, prompting drivers to advocate for its continued inclusion on the schedule.
- While IndyCar races at the same track suffered from low attendance, NASCAR’s events sold out weeks in advance, demonstrating a strong local fan base.
- Despite not having released the 2026 schedule, NASCAR officials expressed satisfaction with ticket sales and hinted at a likely return to Iowa Speedway.
NEWTON — As the sun set Aug. 3 on the second NASCAR Cup Series weekend at Iowa Speedway after William Byron’s win, it appeared likely that NASCAR’s top series would return for years to come, even as the details are still being finalized.
In July, the Indianapolis Star reported that the NTT IndyCar Series would replace Iowa with a race in Mexico City after this year’s races drew dismal crowds. But NASCAR had a strong crowd for the Aug. 1 ARCA Menards Series race, nearly sold out the Aug. 2 Xfinity Series race, and reached sellout status for the Aug. 3 Cup Series race more than a month beforehand.
Cup Series drivers said strong attendance in 2024 and 2025 showed that the NASCAR-owned track should be on the schedule next year. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said Iowa should remain on the Cup Series schedule for the foreseeable future.
“The fans came out in great numbers last year here at this track,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know whether they were saving up for this race and skipped the IndyCar race. But I think they’re going to come out in great numbers for this race.”
Iowa Speedway’s grandstands hold about 24,000 fans, small for a track with a Cup Series date. Last year’s race featured temporary suites and drew about 45,000 fans, much closer to the capacity at most Cup Series tracks. This year those temporary suites were not built. NASCAR spokesperson Matt Humphrey said of the capacity, “It is a big number.”
NASCAR officials said they were pleased with ticket sales for the second straight year. NASCAR has not released its 2026 schedule, but at fan fest in Des Moines on July 31, Humphrey told a fan that he would be surprised if NASCAR does not bring its top series back to Newton.
“The 2026 NASCAR schedule is still in development, but we look forward to sharing the finalized details,” Humphrey told the Des Moines Register in a statement.
A June 17 news release noted that the Iowa Corn Growers Association extended its title sponsorship of the Cup Series weekend “through a multi-year extension.”
Typically when NASCAR brings the Cup Series to a new market, it stays there for at least three years.
The Indianapolis Star estimated that only 6,000 tickets were sold for each NTT IndyCar Series race on July 12 and 13. On his podcast and radio show “Trackside,” IndyCar broadcaster Kevin Lee called the crowds in Iowa “one of the most embarassing crowds that I’ve ever seen.”
“We all love this event. We love this race,” Lee said on “Trackside” in July. “It has historically been one of the more entertaining races in a market we think likes IndyCar and oval racing, but it did not show.”
Hamlin said the appetite for racing in Iowa is strong, and the NASCAR crowds showed it, despite the poor attendance at the IndyCar doubleheader.
‘It’s tough to ask people to just buy tickets’
IndyCar is as much a part of Iowa Speedway as the corn surrounding the track. In June 2024 before the first Cup Series date, NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace said that IndyCar asked him to change his plans to build it with banking of 12 degrees down low in corners and 14 degrees up high. Instead Wallace made Iowa progress from 12 to 13 to 14 degrees in the corner.
On July 13, IndyCar raced at Iowa Speedway for the 23rd time since the track opened in 2007. On Aug. 2, the NASCAR Xfinity Series raced here for the 22nd time. Iowa was long a staple of the Xfinity schedule, with NASCAR’s top developmental series racing here twice annually from 2011 to 2020.
Iowa’s first Cup Series date came in a surprise announcement in October 2023 after NASCAR closed Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, for renovations and could not come to an agreement with organizers of a race in Montreal to take Fontana’s date.
The Manatt Family, owners of a construction company in nearby Brooklyn, built Iowa Speedway for $70 million. NASCAR bought the track from the Clement family in 2013 for $10 million.
Dozens of fans filed into the Cup Series garages when they opened at 11 a.m. on Aug. 3. Nearby, hundreds of fans flooded pit road and the infield for a pre-race concert. During the race fans packed every corner of the grandstands and tents with temporary seating in the top of turns one and two.
Fans in campers above the backstretch, turns three and four cooked hamburgers on grills and drank beers as they cheered on drivers. Inside turn three one fan set up a lawn chair and watched next to a pickup truck bed near an ARMCO barrier next to the wall.
Iowa Speedway president Eric Peterson and others have repeatedly said there is a strong appetite for racing in Iowa. But the Cup Series weekend happened just three weeks after the IndyCar doubleheader.
“It’s tough to ask people to just buy tickets and buy tickets and buy tickets to every single race,” Hamlin said. “Even if I’m an avid NASCAR fan, I’m not going to attend every single motorsports race that comes to my local track. When I was a fan at Richmond we went to Xfinity, we went to Cup. We didn’t go to anything else that came to that track.”
In June, NASCAR announced that it sold out the Cup Series race for the second straight year. The stands for Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race were more than half-full, visually fuller than for the IndyCar races. Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series did not sell out, but NASCAR was pleased that most seats were full, Humphrey said.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds sat in on a pre-race meeting where drivers received instructions. In an interview, Reynolds said she was thrilled with the turnout.
“It’s a great thing for Iowa. It’s a great day for Iowan for people from across the country to experience what’s great with Iowa, and it doesn’t get any better than NASCAR,” she said.
‘You roll in and see almost nothing for hours’
Chris Buescher, 32, driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford, won an Xfinity Series race in Iowa in 2015. He still remembers the feeling as he drove to Iowa Speedway for the first time in his ARCA days.
“You roll in and see almost nothing for hours and hours and roll into this beautiful racetrack set up in the hills,” Buescher said. “It really is an amazing facility. It’s been a really fun racetrack through the years. There was a ton of excitement last year with Cup coming here. I don’t think that’s died down.”
Buescher’s RFK Racing Teammate and part-owner Brad Keselowski won the first Xfinity Series race here in 2009. For years Keselowski, who still takes pride in his Midwestern roots in Michigan, was proponent of bringing a Cup Series race to Iowa. He thinks NASCAR should come back.
“I always say, ‘We should race where we’re wanted.’ When you have a crowd like we have here, it’s sold out, the energy and atmosphere that we seem to enjoy here in Iowa, it makes a great case for itself.”
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe repeatedly called Iowa one of his “favorite” tracks leading up to the race, and won the pole for Sunday’s race. Before the race held his young son in his lap during a driver’s meeting as his son waved at dignitaries. As he stood on pit road after finishing second said the track should remain on the schedule.
“We have an incredible crowd,” Briscoe said in an interview afterward. “It’s sold out every time we come here. So why we wouldn’t come back?”
‘It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite Cup destinations’
Jeff Andrews, Hendrick Motorsports president and general manager, celebrated with William Byron, Hendrick’s winning driver on Sunday. Andrews said he and Byron’s Crew Chief Rudy Fugle were blown away by the fan support this weekend.
“That place was packed,” Andrews said. “It’s our job as an industry to put on a good show, put on a competitive race.”
Byron said he is amazed by how clean the speedway is but would like the straightaways or the top of corners to be repaved. Byron also won a 2016 NASCAR Truck Series race and a 2017 Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway.
“It was awesome today, the fans,” Byron said. “It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite Cup destinations.”
Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar, who finished eighth, said he thinks that NASCAR should come back to Iowa for the foreseeable future, given how many fans attended the ARCA Menards Series race.
“As long as the fans keep showing up, I think this track will have a good future,” Hocevar said.
Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and motorsports for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184 or pjoens@registermedia.com.
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