NASCAR considers adding Iowa Speedway

UPDATE NASCAR will replace its Nationwide Series road-course race in Mexico City with an event at the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway oval in 2009. The Iowa race is scheduled for Aug. 1, a week after the race at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. Montreal, which was the race following that event, has been moved to Aug. 30, an off weekend for Sprint Cup competitors.

08/04/08 NASCAR Vice President of Racing Operations Steve O’Donnell has confirmed that Iowa Speedway is one of the candidates to replace Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City on the 2009 Nationwide Series schedule.

NASCAR has already said it would not return to Mexico for a fifth race there next year, and speculation was rampant that Iowa would be the replacement.

“I’d say there’s more than two [tracks], but [Iowa is] absolutely one of the tracks under consideration that we’ve had conversations with," O’Donnell said. “… We definitely want to find a replacement. We will be at the same number of races as last year. We’re still in that process. We’ve got a couple of good candidates. We’ll probably about two weeks away from being ready to announce our schedule for ’09."

Iowa Speedway, which was partially designed by former NASCAR Cup champion Rusty Wallace, opened in 2006. The 0.875-mile track is located in Newton, Iowa. Wallace said in Montreal that while he wants NASCAR to host a Nationwide or truck series race there, he has not been guaranteed a date. Scenedaily.com