Iowa Speedway president 'pretty confident' that NASCAR Cup Series will return

Iowa Speedway held its first NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, and the track president believes it will not be the last. While speaking to KCCI Des Moines, Iowa Speedway president Eric Peterson said he’s “pretty confident” that the Cup Series will return soon.

“Fans did everything to support this with the sold-out race,” he said. “We’ll make an announcement here probably by the end of the summer. We’re really excited.”

NASCAR held the Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway, a track owned by the organization. The track opened in 2006 and hosted Xfinity Series and Truck Series races every year from 2009 to 2019.

“We’re really excited to be heading to Iowa Speedway,” Ben Kennedy, NASCAR SVP of racing development and strategy, said in a release last year, per Frontstretch. “The first time in what will be the 76-year history that we’ve had a (Cup) race at Iowa Speedway, and the first time in a really long time that we’ve had a (Cup) race in the state of Iowa, so we’re excited to get there.

“We talk a lot about the racing product and what that looks like, and we hear from a lot of our fans that would like to see more short tracks. And then we also hear how good intermediate racing is with this Next Gen car. And I think Iowa in a lot of ways shows both the short track as well as an intermediate race track in the way that it races. I’m so excited to see it on the schedule.”

Ryan Blaney talks making history at Iowa Speedway

Ryan Blaney won the Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway, making him the inaugural winner. After the race, Blaney was asked about making NASCAR history.

“I mean, Joey [Logano] has won a lot of those inaugural races,” Blaney said. They do a great job. I think us as an organization, Penske, we do a really good job of preparing and planning, going through sim work, really utilizing tire tests, wheel force test, figuring out a good game plan before we get here.

“Not taking anything away from the 22 team, but I think as a whole company we do a good job of these places we go to for the first time. All of Team Penske, they work really hard to be ahead of the game. I think our sim work and all that stuff is really good. Engineers and crew chiefs are great.”