Iowa Speedway to build on the momentum of a very successful 2024 season

Following the excitement over the Iowa Speedway hosting its first ever NASCAR Cup Series race last year — which resulted in millions of viewers nationwide, making it the most-watched cable sports program the week it was broadcasted — the president of the racetrack wants to continue that positive momentum.

Eric Peterson, president of Iowa Speedway, said the team at the fastest short track on the planet is working to promote the facility throughout the entire year. The team is bringing its race simulators to the Iowa State Fair and other events around the area and state. The track also wants to host year-round events.

“Our plan is to host an event at least once a month … when it’s not winterized from April until October or maybe early November,” Peterson said. “We’ve already hosted a few this year. And the idea is to host anything from a Chamber of Commerce event in the suites or the Newton Club to the WHO tractor ride.”

Heck, Peterson may not have been entirely joking when he offered folks to set up times to run some pace car laps.

“I don’t know how many people are watching this on TV so I better be careful. But I truly mean that we want to be a part of the community,” he said. “We want to have people out, and we are in the business of entertainment. So we need to make sure people are having fun at the racetrack.”

Iowa Speedway is also set to host its second consecutive Cup Series race this year, which is great news for Newton and Jasper County. Peterson said the NASCAR Cup Series Race Weekend and Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend last year brought a little more than $100 million in economic impact to the state.

Last year the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol was the biggest event of the NASCAR Cup Series Race Weekend. At the time, it was the most watched race on any cable news broadcast since 2023. Peterson said the race had an average viewership of 2.7 million people, which is particularly high for a mid-season race.

Ryan Blaney won the Iowa Corn 350 back in 2024. Peterson said it was a fitting win since his family originates from Chariton. To have Blaney sit in a big John Deere tractor on Victory Lane at the end of the race was “the epitome” of what Iowa Speedway is representing here in Iowa.

“Even though we’ve been open for almost 20 years now at the Iowa Speedway, hosting this first-ever NASCAR Cup Series race was truly monumental,” he said. “It took a lot of work from a lot of people in the city of Newton to make this happen. It’s really important to me and to NASCAR … to highlight some of this.”

Prior to the big race was the Hy-Vee Perks 250 Xfinity Series race and the ARCA Menards Series Race. The Xfinity Series is no stranger to the Iowa Speedway, but it saw a massive bump in TV ratings during the race weekend; it was the No. 2 sporting event at that time, just behind the College World Series.

“TV is a massive driver in our sports,” Peterson said. “To be able to get that many eyes watching this was really, really impactful.”

The ARCA Menards Series is a “feeder series” for the sport and it typically averages about 3,000 to 4,000 people attending. But at the Iowa Speedway that weekend, it was sold out. The grandstand capacity is at 25,000. It was the only sellout of the season for the ARCA races in 2024.

Of course, all three races were sold out that weekend.

It is not uncommon for NASCAR races to sell out, but the Iowa Corn 350 sold out within six days — the quickest of any track on the Cup Series circuit last year. As someone who has worked with NASCAR for about 14 years now and seen many first-time successes, Peterson was amazed to see so much support.

“Not only from a partner standpoint with Iowa Corn, Hy-Vee and Iowa Lottery — the list goes on — but just the fan support and local support here,” Peterson said, stressing the help from the city and county helped tremendously. “…That made that successful and ensures that we’re going to continue selling out in the future.”

Another major supporter was the State of Iowa itself. Peterson said support from the state on Day One made race weekend go by much smoother. Working with the state also allowed Iowa Speedway to repair its track surface in 2024 through the use of Iowa Economic Development Authority grants.

“Without doing those improvements to the surface itself there’s no way those cars would have been able to run all those laps without a major problem,” he said.

Not only was the racing good on race weekend, Peterson said the community was accepting and was a good place for fans to visit and spend the weekend. Oftentimes race fans make race weekends an excuse to go camping, which means they will likely spend time in town and the surrounding areas.

Surveys are taken at the end of every race, Peterson said. These surveys go out to every ticket holder in the database to find out the good, the bad and the ugly of every race weekend. Iowa Speedway takes all of that feedback into account when trying to improve the facility for the next events.

Traffic is an issue most races have to think about. Peterson has a family of his own with two kids, and if parking is bad, concession lines are bad and bathroom lines are bad, it is likely he won’t return to that event. He reckoned others feel the same way. Regardless, this feedback was “overwhelmingly positive.”

Peterson said, “Again, going back to working with local, state and county officials on ensuring that was an extremely smooth process that took months and months and months of planning. But everyone was supportive of that so we were able to execute that really well on race weekend. Really, really proud of that.”

Before the NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway, Peterson said there was a concerted effort to establish a “brand identity” for the racetrack. When viewers tuned in, they knew they were watching a race at the Iowa Speedway. Creating an identity was also important for in-person visitors of the track.

“We worked with John Deere locally to plot a 9-acre plot of corn that said ‘Iowa Corn’ and had the NASCAR logo in there,” Peterson said. “Pretty amazing what that GPS technology can do these days, right? …That was neat because we’re coming out of that season with Iowa Speedway having a true identity.”

It was a reflection of the state, he added, and a reflection of Newton, which is important to the Iowa Speedway team. Looking ahead, the next NASCAR Cup Series race begins in August. Peterson said on March 3 the track was a little more than 1,000 tickets away from being sold out.

“Again, just another testament to the community support,” he said. “A lot of Iowans rallied for years and years to have cup racing. If we don’t sell tickets then we can’t came back. But it’s been really neat to see that. We’ll be sold out here pretty soon … We’re looking forward to a really exciting race season in 2025.”