NASCAR Cup Series announces it will return to Iowa Speedway during summer 2025

The NASCAR Cup Series will return to Iowa Speedway in 2025, the sanctioning body announced Thursday.

The Cup Series Iowa Corn 350 will run on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. That comes one day after the the Hy-Vee Perks 250 in NASCAR’s top-feeder Xfinity Series, which will run on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025.

The NTT IndyCar Series already scheduled an Iowa Speedway doubleheader weekend for July 12-13, 2025.

Iowa Speedway opened in 2006. It has hosted 21 NTT IndyCar Series races, 21 NASCAR Xfinity Series races and 13 NASCAR Truck Series races. In June the 7/8-mile short track hosted its first NASCAR Cup Series race.

NASCAR, which bought the track in 2013 for $10 million, considered the June 14-16 weekend a huge success after selling out Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race, Saturday’s Xfinity Series race and Sunday’s Cup Series race. Penske Racing driver Ryan Blaney, whose mother grew up in Chariton and spent time at his grandparents’ house in central Iowa while growing up, won the Cup race.

Iowa Speedway’s place on the NASCAR schedule was not guaranteed. NASCAR added the track to the 2024 schedule at the last minute after Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, closed in 2023 for renovations. The series wanted to take Fontana’s date to Montreal, but the deal fell through. So the series looked to the track it owned in Newton.

After the inaugural weekend, the move to bring the Cup Series back was widely expected. Throughout the weekend in June drivers praised the attendance. Despite a partial repave of the track it was widely considered one of the best short-track races of the last three years.

Iowa Speedway designer Rusty Wallace reflects before first Cup date

Blaney’s Penske Racing teammate Joey Logano said throughout the weekend that Iowa deserved another Cup Series race. After the June 16 race he kept that sentiment.

“It seemed like it was a pretty entertaining race,” Logano said June 16. “The place was packed. The fans showed up. From the inside it looks pretty good.”

When will the NASCAR Cup Series be at Iowa Speedway?

Dates announced Thursday were the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025, and the Cup Series on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. For the second straight year Hy-Vee will sponsor the Xfinity Series race and the Iowa Corn Grower’s Association will sponsor the Cup Series race.

Fans who attended this year have until Nov. 7 to renew their tickets, according to a news release. Tickets are scheduled to go on sale to the public on Nov. 25. Times for the races were not announced.

After Iowa’s biggest racing season, can Iowa sell tickets to both IndyCar and NASCAR?

Last year the Cup Series raced at Iowa Speedway on June 14-16. But in 2025 that weekend will go to Mexico City, where NASCAR will have its first points-paying race outside the United States since 1958.

Philip Joens covers retail and real estate for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Speedway will host another NASCAR Cup Series race in 2025