Pit Stop Radio News

Iowa Speedway, The Fastest Short Track on the Planet, is a state-of-the-art 7/8-mile asphalt paved tri-oval racetrack and motorsports facility located in Newton, Iowa. It becomes the latest new venue as NASCAR continues making bold moves with its schedule, entering new markets and engaging new audiences with its premier series.

The sanctioning body brought the Cup Series to the streets of downtown Chicago last year and began its season with an exhibition race on a temporary oval inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since 2022.

Iowa Speedway hosted the Xfinity Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series from 2009-2019, while the ARCA Menard Series has competed at the track in all but one season since the facility opened in 2006. Yet, since the racetrack opened in 2006, and was acquired by NASCAR in 2013, placing a Cup Series race at the venue had not materialized — until this Sunday.

With all three days nearly sold out, Iowa Speedway will host ARCA, Xfinity and Cup races this weekend. Since it is a new track on the schedule, Cup cars will practice for an hour on Friday before qualifying on Saturday and racing on Sunday.

• Busch Light ‘For The Farmers’: This weekend at Iowa Speedway, Ross Chastain will pilot the No. 1 Busch Light ‘For The Farmers’ livery in support of Farm Rescue. The design of the ‘For The Farmers’ paint scheme features Busch Light’s fan-favorite Corn Cans, representing our country’s agricultural community. For each case of Corn Cans sold through June 2024, Busch Light will donate $0.10 – up to $200,000 – to its longtime partner Farm Rescue.
• Farm Rescue: Since assisting its very first farm family in 2006, Farm Rescue has officially helped 1,000 families stricken by unexpected crises, and Busch Light is a proud partner in these efforts. Busch Light has been a proud partner of Farm Rescue since 2019, helping raise $1.2MM for the organization to date. Through its work to spread awareness about Farm Rescue, Busch Light aims to encourage any farm and/or ranch family who has experienced a major illness, injury or natural disaster to apply for assistance at FarmRescue.org. With support from Busch Light, Farm Rescue is able to provide necessary equipment and/or volunteers to plant, harvest crops, as well as assist with livestock feeding.  
• Busch Light Sweepstakes: Busch Light will be giving fans another chance to win this week with their #BreakForBusch #Sweepstakes. Follow @BuschBeer on X and tweet using the hashtag’s #BreakForBusch #Sweepstakes for the chance to win a Busch Light branded mini fridge. 
• Meet Chastain: On Friday at 1 p.m. local time, Chastain will appear at Moose Lodge No. 923 located at 2233 S. 24th Ave. W., Newton, Iowa. At 7 p.m. local time he will sign autographs at Fareway, 620 8th Street SE., Altoona, Iowa – wristband required and distribution begins at 9 a.m. on Friday. On Sunday at 2:45 p.m. local time, Chastain will appear at the Chevy Stage located in the Iowa Speedway fan midway.
• Double Duty for Chastain: For the first time this season, Chastain will run the Xfinity race in addition to the Cup Series race. He’ll pilot the No. 92 Rich Mar Florist Chevrolet for DGM Racing. Chastain is slated to run a limited schedule this season in the Xfinity Series.
• Iowa Stats: Even though Iowa Speedway is new to the Cup Series circuit, Chastain has experience on the 7/8-mile track in the Truck and Xfinity Series. He has six starts in the Truck Series dating back to 2012. He won the pole award in September 2013 and won the Truck Series race in June 2019 until he was disqualified. He’s led a total of 257 laps in Truck Series at the Newton, Iowa track. Chastain has eight starts in the Xfinity Series dating back to 2015 and has two fourth-place results.
• Season Stats: Chastain has earned six top-10s in 16 races so far this season along with 118 laps led. He’s currently 10th in driver points.
• NASCAR: Full Speed: Catch Chastain in the five-episode docuseries NASCAR: Full Speed on Netflix. The series documented portions of Chastain’s 2023 season on and off the track. All five episodes are currently available on Netflix.
• Last Weekend at Sonoma: Chastain had a top-10 qualifying effort along with teammate Daniel Suárez at Sonoma. The Chevrolet driver went on to finish fifth in his fifth Cup Series start at the road course. 
• 2023 Season Recap: Chastain won at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway in June and at the Phoenix Raceway season finale in November. He posted 10 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes in his third full time Cup season. The Alva, Florida native finished ninth in points.

Chastain Quotes:

What kind of challenges do you expect at Iowa in the Cup Series?

“Yeah, its a new track for the Cup car and we’ll all be learning together. There’s some repaved spots from the last time some of us were there for Xfinity and Trucks, so it has been a while for me and for most of us.”

Do you think there is any advantage this weekend if you’ve raced at Iowa before for Xfinity or Trucks?

“For sure. If nothing else, it makes you feel more confident when you’re driving out through about 20 miles of corn fields, and bean and wheat and ag. Most people are going to think they’re going the wrong way, but go 20 miles past the last building and you’ll get there.” 

How do you think the atmosphere is going to be since it’s sold-out?

“It’s huge. We’ve seen what they’ve been doing with IndyCar there and that atmosphere has grown. I remember being there in Xfinity and Trucks and the fans hollerin’ they want a Cup race. So they’re finally getting it and it sounds like ticket-wise they’ve shown their support. You know its a little bit of a risk for the series and the sport to go out to an unproven track for Cup. It sounds like the fans are going to make the drive and fill that place up.”

Suárez Notes

• Iowa Speedway Success: Suárez logged two top-10 finishes, won two poles, and qualified first or second in all four Xfinity Series races in 2016-17 at Iowa Speedway. He also finished sixth driving a NASCAR Craftsman Truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2016. 
• Sunday in Sonoma: Suárez started seventh at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway and finished eighth in the first stage before driving to a 14th-place finish. 
• Atlanta Victory: At Atlanta, he and runner-up Ryan Blaney were separated by 0.003 seconds at the finish line. It was the fourth-closest finish in series history, and with third-place Kyle Busch just 0.007 seconds behind the winner, it also stands as the closest finish among three cars in the history of auto racing. 
• Trackhouse Victories: Atlanta marked Trackhouse Racing’s seventh win in the NASCAR Cup Series, and first at Atlanta. Chastain owns four victories, Suárez two and one for Shane van Gisbergen. 
• Mexico Series Victory: Suárez won the 150-lap Mexico Series race at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Feb. 3. It was his 11th victory. 
• First Mexican to Win in Cup: Suárez became the first driver from Mexico (Monterrey) to win in the NASCAR Cup Series on June 12, 2022, at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. 
• International Driver: He is one of six drivers not from the United States to win a NASCAR Cup Series race: Shane van Gisbergen (New Zealand), Marcos Ambrose (Australia), Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia), Earl Ross (Canada) and Mario Andretti (Italy). Ambrose, Montoya, and Suárez own two victories each.
• Cup Career Highlights: Suárez owns two victories (Sonoma 2022 and Atlanta 2024) and three Busch Light Pole Awards – Pocono (Pa.) Raceway July 2018, Kentucky Speedway July 2019, and on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway August 2023. 
• English is a Second Language: Suárez came to America to race. He did not speak English when he arrived in Buffalo, New York. He is the only Spanish-speaking driver in the NASCAR Cup Series.
• Suárez Passes Citizenship Test: The Monterrey, Mexico native passed the United States Citizenship test on April 29 in Charlotte and will take the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony in the next few weeks when he will become a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States.

Suárez Quotes:

What are your thoughts on Iowa Speedway?

“I like that track. We had a lot of success there in the past. I won six poles in the Xfinity Series and two of them came in Iowa and we had a good race driving Kyle Busch’s truck a few years ago. But I haven’t been back in a while so getting that practice on Friday will help a lot.” 

Is Iowa an important market for NASCAR?

“I am a big fan of taking our sport to new places. When people get to see the cars on the track for the first time and feel the energy, see the speed, they become fans for life. I’m always going to be for visiting new places and I think people coming to see our race on Sunday are going to be coming back for a long time.”

You have had fast cars the last two weeks, does that give you more optimism?

“Of course it does. We were top-10 at Charlotte but we were penalized right before the rain stopped the race so we thought we were going to get a better finish. We struggled at St. Louis but we qualified well and ran pretty good at Sonoma. We want better, but we are showing progress. My team and I tried a lot, and learned a lot the last couple of months but now it is time for us to start getting good finishes. You just cant turn it on once the playoffs start so we want to create a lot of momentum going into the playoffs.”

Trackhouse Racing PR