Iowa Speedway

[lindaw]

Yesterday, in the Iowa legislature, a state Senator from the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area gave a rousing speech in support of plans for the Iowa Speedway. He mentioned the future plans of having a race track having between 80,000 and 90,000 seats along with amenities making it among the premiere tracks in the country. Iowa Speedway currently has 40,000 permanent seats. This 7/8 mile facility is already the best spectator track in the country--next to Interstate 80, great parking, terrific food and excellent race viewing from any seat in the house. This is the first track NASCAR has ever bought. Built by the Mannatte family of Iowa--later sold to the Stan and Conrad Clemments families of Iowa and sold to NASCAR in November. The charismatic 28 year old President, Jimmy Small has great plans for his Speedway--he worked in the Daytona NASCAR offices for six years before getting the "call" to head the Iowa Speedway. By the way, Rusty Wallace also sold his equity ownership in Iowa Speedway. He will continue to make occasional appearances at the track but he no longer has any ownership interests. I may be an Iowa Hawkeye who is partial to this great track; but in 42 years I have visited nearly every major track in the country and I will argue the merits of Iowa with anyone. In 2014, The NASCAR truck race will be held in night before the Indy Car event in July. And Iowa has two nationwide dates planned. The Iowa Speedway should be on everyone's bucket list. Plenty of hotels along I-80 and in Des Moines (and they don't charge double their regular rates) And for you true "open wheel" fans, the Knoxville Speedway is located just down the road 20-25 minutes away--

[aaron5572]

they can't sell 90,000; that track is perfect the way it is........just the government wasting money again.....sigh

if Bristol can't sell out there's no way in hell Iowa will

[ttturner68]

Other tracks are taking down seating to the 75K range they are going to go to 90K seems odd.

[Unzerdog]

I've been to Richmond International too many times to care anymore. The Knoxville Nationals, thats worth a trip to Iowa.

[Hitokiri]

they can't sell 90,000; that track is perfect the way it is........just the government wasting money again.....sigh

if Bristol can't sell out there's no way in hell Iowa will

I agree mostly since the track is less then a mile long. Maybe they're trying to make it like Bristol which is a even smaller track but yet hold up to 160,000 people.

[Darth Airbox]

Maybe if they could reduce the banking just slightly 1-2 degrees it would be a better indycar track. But that isn't happening. No way they're selling 90k for anything.

[Z28]

You've got Chicagoland dropped towards 60,000. The thing about Iowa Speedway is the area really couldn't support doubling the crowd. They have the local race fans showing up and to get that much more they would have to draw far more from out of the area. They don't have the camping space and Des Moines doesn't have the hotel capacity for that.

I also think ISC has learned the lesson of overreaching.

[BretEarl]

Z28, is that what they settled at or was it even less that the 60,000.

[irlracingfan]

"In 2014, The NASCAR truck race will be held in night before the Indy Car event in July."

I hope IndyCar does NOT hold their qualifying races on Friday with nascar... I am not in favor of giving the France family any more of my money! I hope all the IndyCar sanctioned events are on Saturday!!! Then I'll spend Friday at Lake Pla-Mor relaxing and skip the nascar BS!

[JimmyStephans]

Was it NASCAR or ISC that bought PPIR in Colorado?

[ramberg]

when I ordered my tickets last week, I specifically got Saturday only..they better have qualys on Saturday!

I hope IndyCar does NOT hold their qualifying races on Friday with nascar... I am not in favor of giving the France family any more of my money! I hope all the IndyCar sanctioned events are on Saturday!!! Then I'll spend Friday at Lake Pla-Mor relaxing and skip the nascar BS!

[Grinder-Tank]

90k seats? No way that will work.

[ramberg]

now that NASCAR owns it, are they thinking of bringing the cup cars there and the need for seats??

90k seats? No way that will work.

[cdnojibwedude]

I am not concerned about increasing the seating capacity at Iowa Speedway, but rather I am more concerned about NASCAR now owning the facility. Like ISC, I do not trust NASCAR. What is to say that NASCAR will not shaft IndyCar like ISC does? I am expecting NASCAR to not properly promote the IndyCar event thereby necessitating the series' departure from the venue.

[slkornya]

now that NASCAR owns it, are they thinking of bringing the cup cars there and the need for seats??

Can't see them doing that. Unless they're going to increase the number of races, where are they going to pull a race from? Bruton Smith would go ballistic and have them in court in a second if they tried to pull a date from an SMI track. I think the same would also happen if they tried to take a race from either of the independent (Pocono or Dover) tracks as well; also, those tracks are NASCAR's presence in the DC/Philly/NYC metroplex and I can't see the France's giving that up. Which leaves an ISC track. Which leaves Martinsville or Chicago losing a date. Which I just can't see happening, regardless of how many seats they put in Iowa.