Despite NASCAR’s Confidence on Iowa Speedway, Cup Series Drivers Bash a Potentially ‘Unusable’ Revamp

As the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Iowa Speedway for the first time in Series history, all the talks this past week have been surrounding the questionable repave job. NASCAR took ownership of the speedway in 2019, and last year, the national-level stock car race event was held at the 7/8th mile racetrack.

Ever since the racetrack opened its doors to racing back in 2006, it has been pretty much the same. And over the years, there was significant wear and tear on the racing surface. To make a quick patch-up, NASCAR decided to partially repair the track, a move that has received widespread pushback from Cup drivers and fans.

But despite the complaints, NASCAR is still holding firm on its decision, claiming that repair work would encourage multi-groove racing. But drivers, on the other hand, have a contrasting opinion on the same.

Should we expect single-groove racing in Iowa after NASCAR’s repave?

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, shed light on the incident in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR radio. He shared that there were no plans to repair the racetracks, but given how worn out the surface was, they were left with no option. And while the drivers and fans were left puzzled to see the sketchy repair, Sawyer still believes the track will cater to multi-groove racing.

“Now, aesthetically, it looks a little different than what we would normally go into a facility. But we’re confident the repairs are to a high level, and it’s not going to be an issue, and we’re still going to have some multi-groove racing around the racetrack. We’re looking forward to getting out there and getting cars on the racetrack, and seeing exactly how things unfold. But as we lead into the weekend, we don’t anticipate any issues with the surface,” Sawyer said

Meanwhile, Christopher Bell, who had two Xfinity wins to his name at the old Iowa, wasn’t sold on NASCAR’s idea with a half-hearted repave job. He even went on to predict what racing would look like this weekend. “I mean, it completely ruined the corners, and it’s going to make it a one groove race track … the top half is completely unusable. Even in the second groove, you move to try to get grip, and with new asphalt there’s no need to move up. So it’s definitely going to be a different race.”

Even the defending Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney, was shocked to see NASCAR resorting to a quick and easy fix rather than revamping the entire venue. “I don’t know why you do that. In my mind, you either leave it or pave the whole thing. You can’t pave two lanes on the bottom because now it’s a two-lane race track; if you’re lucky, it might get to that second lane. Forget about the third and fourth lane, it’s never going to get there so.”

Denny Hamlin, who had a public spat with SMI CEO, Marcus Smith, couldn’t help but share his take on the controversial topic. Surprisingly, he was quite restrained in his questioning of the repave job. “Looks like you’ll be able to force others on top of you up into the not-so-good grip, so it’s interesting that they paved so much of it but they didn’t pave all of it. Still haven’t seen exactly where the stops of grip are, but yeah, we’re all going to be fighting for that blackest pavement.

However, amidst all the criticism, some NASCAR stars were optimistic about the racing at the newly paved Iowa Speedway.

Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski had positive insights from the newly repaved Iowa race track

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Apart from Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski were the other two drivers who participated in the Goodyear tire test at the end of May. While the JGR driver didn’t mince his words in calling out a repaving job, the other two seasoned drivers had a rather interesting, and positive, take on the topic.

The RFK Racing driver was content to see that the new repave job had weeded out the rough edges of the race track. Ones that could prove detrimental to the Next Gen race car’s safety. “A lot changed with the track surface. It used to have this really wicked tunnel bump down in the turns, and now that’s kind of taken care of, which is nice. Because the Next-Gen car doesn’t really play well with bumps, kind of like an IndyCar. But I think it’ll make the car more race-able.”

Meanwhile, the HMS star also chimed in with his take on the repave, stating how the racetrack would tend to grip better with multiple race cars, leading to multi-groove racing. “The test was difficult with just three cars… really a brand new surface, so gosh, it took probably four hours or so until we could actually like get some grip and make some decent laps. But yeah, I think with 30 or whatever cars, the groove should widen out from what it was … It does have some progressive banking, so it should hopefully be a little bit better.”

The NASCAR Cup Series has never raced at Iowa Speedway, therefore making it hard to predict what the racing would look like. But with the questionable repave job now in the mix, it’s only added to the nervous energy and excitement ahead of this weekend’s event.