DES MOINES REGISTER
After a partial repave earlier this year, more of Iowa Speedway will not be repaved for next year, track president Eric Peterson said Thursday.
NASCAR, which owns the track, partially repaved all four corners of the 7/8-mile track in May. Straightaways on the front stretch and back stretch retained their original pavement from 2006. Through both the NASCAR Cup Series weekend in June and the NTT IndyCar Series weekend in July, the partial repave drew mixed reviews from drivers in both series.
NASCAR announced Thursday that the top-level Cup Series will return on August 3, 2025, and the developmental Xfinity Series would return a day before on August 2, 2025. The NTT IndyCar Series previously announced it would return to Iowa Speedway with a doubleheader weekend on July 12-13, 2025.
Repaved sections give drivers more grip and speed but drivers slide around less, making passing harder. Before the partial repave Iowa Speedway was known for its bumpy character, which made cars slide around.
The repave starts on the entrances to the corners and ends at the exits of the corners. In the corners there are a few small slivers of original asphalt near the wall. As cars drive on the bumpy surface they can bounce up and down and cause cars' wheels to come off the track.
"We went into the Cup race with those repairs and we were unsure what that was going to look like from a competition perspective," Peterson said. "But the feedback was overwhelmingly positive from the fans, from the teams. Within a couple laps you're seeing three-wide racing. So we don't have any plans to do any repave or any major changes to the track because of the racing that we experienced back in June."
NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson (5) enters turn three during the Iowa Corn 350 Cup Series race on Sunday, June 16, 2024, at Iowa Speedway in Newton.
In the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races, second and third lanes formed above the predominant low lane. Fans got treated to arguably the best short-track Cup Series race of the last three years. Riley Herbst, who finished second in the Xfinity Series race June 15, said he hoped NASCAR would keep pavers off of the remaining portions of the track.
"I hope they don't touch it again," Herbst said after the race.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell finished fourth in June's Cup race, but did not like what NASCAR did.
"The track could use a little bit of work. Hopefully they do a full repave. Then it will be really good in about 15 years," Bell said after the June 16 race.
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Passing during both the July 13 IndyCar night race and during the July 14 race was hard. Arrow McLaren driver Pato O'Ward said in July the repave "ruined a fantastic race." Josef Newgarden won six of 12 IndyCar races at Iowa since 2016. But IndyCars don't work as well on the current track, Newgarden said in June.
"Unfortunately I don't think our car and our formula work well for this type of track adjustment," Newgarden said. "We're different than a Cup car. We've developed our car differently than they have, and it doesn't always mesh."
Pato O' Ward in practice during the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend in Newton, Iowa.
Newgarden's teammate, Scott McLaughlin, won the July 13 and finished third in the July 14 race. After the second race McLaughlin said the track would have to be repaved eventually. The races were the first oval races with IndyCar's hybrid system and the extra 105 pounds it added to the cars. It was up to IndyCar and Firestone to create a package that can race well on the new surface and allow passing 30 or 40 laps into runs, McLaughlin said at the time.
"You can't blame the track because they have to repave this at some time," McLaughlin said. "But if we can somehow get our cars working when a repave happens and know what we need to do to make it work, we won't run into these issues. I feel like we go into it and not do the right amount of study to get it to work."
As the original sections of pavement age, NASCAR engineers in Iowa, North Carolina and Florida work with track leadership to determine what sealants to put on the track and preserve the pavement, Peterson said.
In the winter the pavement contracts during the "coldest of the cold" times and expands during 90-degree summer days.
"So you have the track that is constantly contracting and expanding," Peterson said. "So that's going to come with some challenges."
(Photo Courtesy NASCAR)
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