Word came down today that Mansfield Motorsports Park was pulling out of its deal to host the NASCAR Craftsman (excuse me, Camping World) Truck Series race over Coca-Cola 600 weekend in 2009. While I think the small town show was a good one for the series, I know a lot of people who are probably doing cart wheels because they hated the track.
Honestly, this came as a surprise to me as it was probably the only venue on the circuit that regularly sold out. They said that it was because of the economy, I’m not really sure what that means, maybe they didn’t have enough advance ticket sales, but I was happy with its replacement.
NASCAR announced not long after that Iowa Speedway would be the replacement for Mansfield. The 7/8 mile track opened up in 2006 and has hosted Hooters Pro Cup, ARCA Re/Max, and Camping World East Series events. They have also hosted an Indy Racing League race since 2007. NASCAR decided this year to give the track a Nationwide Series date, and the IRL re-uped its contract for another three seasons.
TC was first singing the track’s praises in May, saying that NASCAR needed to be there, and I could not agree with him more. The track always provides a good show, and the facilities there are second to none. The track surface is nice, the garage is nice, pit road is nice, the stands are nice and there is even a ton of parking. It is hard to find much fault in the track.
Not only is it an incredibly nice facility, much nicer than Mansfield, but it is in the heart of NASCAR’s fan base. The rural Midwest is great demographic and one that will surely pack the stands of any NASCAR race that shows up. And if the IRL events are any indicator, it should be a sell out.
While the track is in tiny Newton, Iowa, it is right off the interstate and just a hop, skip and a jump away from Des Moines, the state’s most populous city.
I suppose we’ll see how well the track supports its two new NASCAR dates, but I can tell you everyone I have talked to is excited at the opportunity. I hope I don’t sound too much like an Iowa Speedway commercial, but it is a nice facility that is getting its due.
So tell us what you think. Do you think Iowa should have gotten the date? Would you like to have seen the date go somewhere else? Let us know!
Related posts:
- NASCAR Needs to be in Iowa
- Canada On My Mind
- A Change on the #2 Truck?
- UPDATE 2: A Change On The #2 Truck? SPRAGUE OUT
- Truck Series Schedule Heats Up
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on Dec 18th, 2008 at 6:39 am
There are rumors that Mansfield was in jeopardy of losing its sanctioning. I’m guessing NASCAR wanted improvements to the facility that they couldn’t afford.
It is a sad day for our friend Windowlicker.
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Is windowlicker from Ohio?
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Originally, yes. And Mansfield’s been one of his favorite races.
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I grew up in da ‘nati but am on the east coast now. I tried to get to Mansfield for the truck race whenever I could. I loved the race there. I guess a track that must erect temporary bleachers for their NASCAR event will lose their date eventually. From what I understand the track always had problems with the county over parking too. Just like the race teams, tracks must keep up with the times or get left behind.
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 7:12 am
I’ve been to Mansfield in the past, and except for the fact that we had to push pitboxes and toolboxes up the hill out of the track to the haulers, I thought it was a nice little short track. Pit road was nice, racing was good, and the people were great. And I know the track didn’t have all the modern amenities, but I’ve definitely been to worse race tracks. It’s a shame that maybe some mismanagement led to the demise of the track.
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Guess that means you’ll be making the trek to the CLT for Memorial Day?
I’m sure it’s going to make a lot of truck series people very happy to have that weekend off now.
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 7:24 am
(Edit: That Memorial Day comment was for Windowlicker.)
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I live about 80 miles from the Iowa Speedway and it’s a great track!! It’s great to have the nationwide series and now the truck series coming here!! I’m my opinion the truck series offers the best racing in NASCAR. I was at the Indycar race in June, and I ws very impressed with the track.
The future of indycar racing in Iowa is a little shaky at this point though. the Iowa indy race is known as the Ethanol 250, and with the indy series announcing they would be using imported ethanol next year it was a giant slap in the face of the Iowa farmers who work to produce corn for ethanol.
The series vowed to use Iowa ethanol at the Iowa race but the Iowa ethanol board feels so betrayed I would not look for Indy racing to be a long term Iowa speedway event.
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I’m just glad that if they had to take away a good short track race, they replaced it with a short track & it didn’t go to a 1.5 mile cookie cutter.
The truck series has by far the best racing of the big 3.
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Bobby…does the Indy race sell out in Iowa?
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Ross, yes the Indy race sells out. There had only been 2 indy races so far and both have sold out. With nascar coming both events will easily sell out.
Rusty did a great job designing the track and the racing is amazing. They are going to need more seats though. It’s pretty small. I am also glad they did not move the date to a 1.5 mile track. I have passed up chances to see races at Chicago and Kansas City simply because I don’t like the tracks, both are only 4 hours from me but the quality of racing is not worth the trip.
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
While there is a bit of Indy flavor in the above comments, I was just thinking about this. Since we’re tired of cookie-cutter 1-1/2′s and NASCAR more than likely would not another road course (darn! I love road racing) and other than the Indy Goodyear tire debacle…..I would love to see a true (4) seperate turn speedway on the schedule. Just a mini-Indy track somewhere w/ a really great park setting.
In my humble opinion, having short shoots between 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 adds a whole new element and difficulty that seperates driver’s talent levels. May add a “Darlington like” difference between ends of the track.
Any comments here???
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
It may have a little to do with the fact that I live in Iowa, but I think this track is very deserving of a NASCAR race. It already had Nationwide, and now it has the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race as well (its craftsman until January 1, 2009 at 12:01AM ET).
Not that there is any comparison between Indy and NASCAR, but the Indy Races have always been pretty exciting, and I don’t see why NASCAR won’t be the same way.
It would be nice to see a cup race, but unless a couple of tracks fall under the same thing Mansfield did(which is unlikely, i know) that ain’t going to happen
on Dec 18th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Kyle another thing stopping Iowa from a cup race is they would need about another hundred thousand seats. I recall there being a minimum of seats required for a track to have a cup race but I don’t remember how many. T.C. can you help with that?
on Dec 19th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Neon – The first configuration at homestead was a mini (1.5) mile version of Indy.
Iowa deserves a date, but so does Mansfield and other short tracks. That’s how the truck series started out. Should have taken the date from a gawd awful 1.5 cookie cutter instead.
on Dec 19th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Chad-I thought about Homestead in it’s original config before progressive banking, but the problem there was that there wasn’t a distinct flattening out between turn 1 & 2 and 3 & 4. I like banking from a speed perspective, but it really is a crutch in a way w/ slower cars like we have today. In the pre-restrictor plate days (before Bobby Allison’s Talladega accident), even the banking was a challenge for “Winston” Cup cars averaging 212mph. Today’s cars are just slowed down too much for tracks like Daytona and Dega. Circuiting the track in no longer the challenge, it’s weaving through bunched traffic that poses the challenge. A man-made challenge so to speak!
A track that does pose a challenge and separate the talent is Pocono. Although 3 turns, it’s more like Indy thatn the orig Homestead.
on Dec 19th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Bobby: I’m not aware of NASCAR having a specific number of seats required for a track to host a Cup race, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have one. Iowa would most definitely need to add seats in any case, as they only have 30,000. The tracks with the smallest seating capacity are Martinsville (65,000) and Darlington (63,000) I believe. So I would think they would need at the very least another 35,000-40,000 seats.
on Dec 19th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Chad- The reason they “took” the date from Mansfield was because Mansfield is closing for the 2009 season, due to financial concerns.
Mansfield will have no events of any kind in 2009.
This was a Mansfield decision, and that opened up a date, and NASCAR let Iowa have it.
Bobby- Yes, that will be a big concern, I forgot to mention that one.
on Dec 19th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Hey, Newton isn’t tiny! Around here the 15,000 or 20,000 population of Newton darn near makes it a big city. My town is 1500, others nearby are 200 to 1000. Des Moines is probably 250 to 300,000 total in the “greater metropolitan area”. I know, you have 20,000 in one big city block, we spread that out over an entire county.
on Dec 19th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Larry- Sorry, I should know better than that. I retract my original estimation, and change it to small/medium size town. Thats what I get for editorializing.
on Dec 20th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Journo, no worries about your “tiny town” remark. Us Iowan’s are used to things like that. It’s just a part of life here.
If you ever want to get away from it all head to Iowa, “it” ain’t got here yet. It don’t seem to be heading this way either……..