IndyCar’s return to Iowa almost certain

Ryan Hunter-Reay wins at Iowa again

In the wake of the Iowa Corn 300, social media was once again buzzing about the show the Verizon IndyCar Series put on at Iowa Speedway.

For the past several installments of the yearly open-wheel visit to the 7/8-mile track in Newton, close racing and thrilling finishes have enthralled fans and delighted sponsors who shell out millions of dollars to promote races. But unlike their NASCAR counterparts where the schedule rarely changes, the scheduling for the IndyCar Series leaves some doubt year-to-year about stops on their tour — the Indianapolis 500 notwithstanding.

So after another nearly unanimously popular event, is IndyCar's future firm at Iowa Speedway? To ask track President Jimmy Small, it’s likely, if not certain.

"IndyCar is, hands down, the best race here. We want to keep it here. It's a part of our vision to raise the overall profile of motorsports. I can't imagine it not being here," Small said on Saturday. "They were the first sanctioning body to take a chance on us, first major race to happen here at Iowa Speedway, and there’s a lot of significance involved in their presence.

"This race, this series is really important to have here for a number of reasons."

Where a series sees a venue fit into its plans and where the venue sees the series fitting into its plans don’t always match up.

As of this race weekend, IndyCar, by all accounts, sees Iowa Speedway as an important and vital part of its schedule because ovals are still a major part of the plan. The track and region have a major role in that, because the fans that attend the races are among the most intelligent and dedicated IndyCar fans on tour.

The evidence for that comes from people who follow the series to every track, stay in all those cities and interact with those fans. Longtime motorsports journalist and unabashed critic of racing, Robin Miller, has changed his tune over the years on where Iowa Speedway stacks up in the IndyCar mix. If you asked him in 2007, he couldn’t have wanted IndyCar to go elsewhere more. But he stood on pit road Saturday night and said on live television Iowa Speedway provides some of, if not the best racing all season.

"This has become one of the four or five best stops on the whole circuit," Miller said. "In terms of racing, it's always one of the best races. In terms of fans, they get it; it's probably first or second. People wear T-shirts, they watch television, they watch other races, they come up and talk to me intelligently about racing.

"I think what you’ve got here, is I think IndyCar has figured out this is one of our crown jewels and they ought to keep this thing."

IndyCar racers and team owners consistently praise the track and fans for the same reasons Miller mentioned.

They don’t want to lose a trip to the Midwest, either, which has historically been the foundation of open-wheel racing in the United States. Between that at the tradition of ovals in IndyCar, it’s more than appreciated.

“I think it’s really important because we don’t want to lose ovals," said team-owner Michael Andretti. “It’s part of the tradition of IndyCar racing and this is a very important track. I think it’s very important to keep it on the schedule and I hope they’re going to be able to do it."

Small said he’s had multiple conversations with IndyCar about 2016, even one in which the series brought him an offer for a date for next season.

The ball is squarely in Small and his staff’s court, as it were, to figure out a way to make it work for 2016. Even if there’s a desire for the race to return, Small has to be a businessman first and a fan second, because he still has a bottom line to consider. Iowa Speedway still is not removed from the financial pits it was in before NASCAR purchased the track in November 2013, so financially sensible decisions need to be made. Jeremiah Davis/The Gazette