Miller: Iowa race needs to be at night

Iowa Speedway is owned by NASCAR. NASCAR wants NASCAR to succeed before IndyCar. Don't hold your breath they will do IndyCar any favors, as in – move race to different weekend. Duh…..

There are no better fans than the ones in Iowa, no better short track than Iowa Speedway, no better title sponsor than Iowa Corn and no better ally of IndyCar than president Jimmy Small.

But Sunday's turnout was disappointing, the 25,000-seat grandstands maybe half full (AR1 says 1/3 full at best), and the 4:40 p.m. local start wasn't any more well received than the 1 p.m. green flag a few years ago.

IndyCar was made for a night show at Iowa, so it's time for a rethink on the next two years since it's already been announced they will be Sunday shows. Because NASCAR will be running on Saturday night, July 9, 2017 and July 8, 2018, and televised on NBCSN, then Small and IndyCar need to look at running Friday night.

Or, better yet, a Wednesday or Thursday night show during baseball's All-Star break around that time, because there is no sports competition then and you have a real shot at pulling a decent TV number and getting back the people who always came to the night races.

"I think we should always be a night show in Iowa," Tony Kanaan said. "And that's what I heard from a lot of fans this weekend." Robin Miller/Racer.com