NASCAR Cup Series coming to Iowa

Hell froze over.

The sun rose in the west.

Death and taxes are the only members left in the sure-thing family.

NASCAR’s Cup Series is coming to Iowa Speedway in 2024.

Yeah, this news deserves ALL CAPS because of its unlikeliness.

NASCAR’S CUP SERIES IS COMING TO IOWA SPEEDWAY IN 2024.

Shocked? You should be.

When the construction folks cut into the farm fields outside of Newton to build the .875-mile oval in 2005, the hope was to get a Cup Series race. You don’t build a track like that without wanting the best.

Sure, when the IndyCar Series came in 2007, it was cool. It was cooler still when NASCAR’s Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series and Truck Series showed up two years later.

The Cup Series, you figured, was coming at some point.

But NASCAR had some wariness about the track’s future, and even when the sanctioning body bought the track in 2013, a Cup Series date was too elusive. Ask a NASCAR official about it, and you’d get a shrug or a snarl.

And when the track lost its Xfinity and Trucks races in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and fell off NASCAR’s schedules the following year, the chance of a Cup date was virtually nonexistent.

Times, though, change, and NASCAR is changing when it comes to rejuvenating a schedule that has felt stale in recent years. The series has revived an old track (North Wilkesboro), taken events to a football stadium (Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum), and raced on a street course (Chicago).

NASCAR had holes in its schedule to fill. The track in Fontana, California, is off the schedule because of a proposed plan to turn it into a short track. The Cup Series was considering a race in Montreal, but that plan seems to have fallen through.

Now it’s coming to a track in which its drivers have fondness for, along with some curiosity. During the height of its run in the Xfinity Series, Iowa Speedway would draw rave reviews from the Cup drivers who showed up, and would also have a similar reaction on social media from the drivers who weren’t there.

Race tracks rarely get more than one life, and Iowa Speedway is on its third. The purchase by NASCAR saved the track from financial mismanagement that nearly shuttered the speedway the first time. Declining attendance as the Cup Series’ hopes dimmed, followed by the pandemic, nearly killed it the second time.

The IndyCar Series, with help from sponsor Hy-Vee, put new life into the track. The 2022 and 2023 weekend were punctuated by packed grandstands for the racing and for the pre-race and post-race concerts in both years. Carrie Underwood and Kenny Chesney rocked the place during the Saturday race of this year’s doubleheader, and Zac Brown Band and Ed Sheeran did the same the next day. The popularity has been such that the IndyCar Series will return next July, including the return of a Saturday night race.

It was clear those events, and the response from the ticket-buying market, made an impact on those watching from the outside. National media members who dismissed any sort of NASCAR return to the track started speculating about the Cup Series coming. Driver Kyle Busch, who has raced at the track and long touted it on social media, mentioned it as a place where he would like to see NASCAR go in the coming seasons.

Now, the Cup Series is coming.

You wanted it, you got it, so buy tickets. And then save money for the next year, and the year after that. NASCAR is taking a chance, and it’s up to the market to respond accordingly. If the interest isn’t there, NASCAR will go somewhere else.

Tell FOX or NBC to get the B-roll of corn-field video out for next season’s telecast. Book your hotel rooms now, or reserve your spot in the campground.

A Cup Series race is on the schedule.

And Iowa Speedway’s third life has the chance to be its best.