NEWTON − Brad Keselowski munched on pizza Tuesday night and looked around the Iowa Speedway Media Center at pictures of IndyCar drivers James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves, wondering where his own picture was.
Keselowski, winner of the first NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway in 2009, spent almost 10 hours testing tires for Iowa's inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race Tuesday, along with Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson.
"You need some NASCAR pictures in here," Keselowski said before digging through a stack of pictures in a storage closet and joking, "I won the first race here, and I don't have a picture on the wall."
Keselowski (representing Ford), Larson (Chevrolet) and Bell (Toyota) ran hundreds of laps through heat and a brief rain delay Tuesday. Goodyear is using the two-day test in Iowa to determine which tire to run during the Father's Day weekend race, scheduled for 6 p.m. June 16. Tuesday was the first time NASCAR's seventh generation "Next-Gen" was on track at the 7/8-mile circuit of Iowa Speedway.
Bell, Larson and Keselowski are three of the most prominent drivers in the sport. Larson is the biggest story in motorsports. On Sunday, Larson tried to run both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. But a four-hour rain delay in Indianapolis followed by rain shortening the 600 spoiled his attempt at the "double." The Hendrick Motorsports driver had flown from the rain-delayed Indy 500, where he finished 18th, and arrived with 151 laps to go, prepared to take over his usual No. 5 Chevy from Justin Allgaier, but that opportunity never came.
Bell made NASCAR's Championship 4 in 2022 and 2023 and won the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 Sunday. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver recorded Iowa Speedway wins in 2018 and 2019 in the second-tier Xfinity Series, and he felt excited to return to one of his favorite tracks.
"I love the racetrack. It's such a unique venue and a unique facility," Bell said. "It was just a great place to race. I'm excited about getting a Cup race at a different venue. Diversifying the schedule is always going to be a positive."
Now a co-owner of RFK Racing, Keselowski has long been an unofficial spokesperson for Iowa Speedway. He has always trumpeted the notion that Iowa deserves a Cup race, and now that day is almost here.
"I like that it has its own identity," Keselowski said. "There's not another track that it really drives like. It feels like it has its own niche to it. It has a little bit of everything."
Kyle Larson back in a stock car
After rain spoiled Larson's attempt to take over for Allgaier, Tuesday marked the first time Larson returned to a stock car after the Indianapolis 500. Larson ran in the top 10 for most of the 500, but got a speeding penalty on pit road on lap 131 during his first green-flag IndyCar pit stop, and he went a lap down as a result. He later got back on the lead lap and finished 18th.
The rain-delayed Indy 500 conflicted with the start of NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte. Larson and Hendrick Motorsports made the decision for Larson to stay in Indianapolis for the world's most prestigious auto race.
Larson has Cup Series wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 3 and in the closest finish in NASCAR history at Kansas Speedway — where he won by 0.001 second — May 5, which make him eligible for the NASCAR playoffs. But because he missed the start of the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR would have to grant Larson a waiver to make him eligible for the playoffs.
Larson said he's letting Hendrick Motorsports handle the waiver request.
After Tuesday's test, Larson said he still feels great after balancing NASCAR and IndyCar for most of May.
"I got more sleep in Indy than I do in a normal week. I wasn't traveling back and forth every day," Larson said. "So it's really not bad. It's much better than me getting home at 4 a.m. after a dirt race."
In Indianapolis, Larson frequently got the loudest cheers during practice, qualifying and driver introductions. Sports Business Journal reporter Adam Stern reported Larson led all Indianapolis 500 drivers in merchandise sales. He signed thousands of autographs during his two weeks in Indianapolis for the race. At times, the hoards of people around him seemed reminiscent of golfer Tiger Woods at the peak of his fame and talent in the mid-2000s.
Larson hopes to try to do the "double" again, if the weather will cooperate. About 345,000 fans attended the Indianapolis 500, according to the Indianapolis Star. Larson wrote on Instagram that one of the best days of his life became, "One of the most disappointing ones I've ever experienced."
On Tuesday in Iowa, he offered further reflection on his attempt at the "double."
"I had a fantastic experience there from every day of practice and qualifying. Even the race day is cool to look around and get to race in front of 350,000 people," Larson said. "Have all my friends and family there. A lot of people from Hendrick Automotive Group and some from Hendrick Motorsports. Then yeah, the fan support was incredible. I just didn't quite get into the right mood to be able to enjoy it on Sunday. But up until then it was crazy. I felt like the whole world, whoever may have been paying attention to the Indy 500, was rooting for me. So that felt really good."
Repaved turns draw mixed reviews
All four turns at Iowa Speedway have been partially repaved. Two lanes of the entrances and exits of turns two and four were repaved, leaving only a small section of the original track near the wall in each turn. Iowa Speedway has not been fully repaved since it was built in 2006. A notorious bump developed over the tunnel to the infield between turns one and two.
"Now that's been taken care of, which is nice because the Next-Gen car doesn't play well with bumps, like an IndyCar," Keselowski said. "But I think it will make the car more raceable."
Bell won twice in four Xfinity Series starts at Iowa Speedway, including a 2019 race in which he led 186 laps. Bell drove about 350 laps Tuesday, the same number of laps the Cup Series race is scheduled for.
Bell and Larson said they liked the track as it was and wished that the Cup Series would have gotten at least one race on the old surface. Bell said Iowa Speedway was his favorite track before the repave because, "You raced all over the place."
"The repave basically made it a whole new racetrack," Bell said. "It adds a lot of grip to the racetrack. Iowa was a place that was a low-grip track before. You could move around all over the place and really pass guys. I'm a little bit worried now that the pace is going to be really fast, and it's going to be harder to pass."
Repaves increase speeds. But with 40 cars on the track, Larson expects other lanes will open and the racing will improve.
"It will still be difficult to pass because the pace is so fast," Larson said. "But we'll see. It's hard to predict."
Iowa Speedway president Eric Peterson said the repaved sections were finished within a week of the tire test. More information about the repaved sections will be released after the tire test wraps up.
"Been hard at work getting this done, working with our design and development team to make sure it's up to spec," Peterson said.
The track still has character. On the straightaways, which have not been repaved, bumps are still there, Bell said.
"Entering turn one, right at the end of the forestretch it's there and it upsets the car a little bit," Bell said.
Braking zones are still in the old pavement, Larson said.
"It's still really, really bumpy," Larson said. "There's still going to be a lot of mistakes made in turn one because of the bumps on entry. But once you get to the fresh pavement, it's pretty simple."
'One of the highlights of my career'
Keselowski won the first Xfinity Series race here in 2009. He followed that up with Xfinity Series wins in 2013 and 2014. He is tied with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as the all-time wins leader there in the Xfinity Series. A Detroit native, Keselowski said that winning the first Xfinity Series race in front of a full crowd at the track was "one of the highlights of my career" and added, "I felt like I had really made it that weekend. So it was really special."
Iowa Speedway is a short track that sometimes races like a high-speed intermediate track. Keselowski feels like the track paid its dues, serving as a "junior track" to the Cup Series while drawing strong support from fans, businesses and the local government.
"The times that I've been here, I felt like the fan base was really strong," Keselowski said. "You just feel like when you come where to Iowa Speedway that the community wants NASCAR here."
Bell reflects on a major win
Bell spent Memorial Day relaxing with some of his crew members at his house, hours after his win in Charlotte. He was surprised NASCAR called the Sunday race after about an hour spent trying to dry the track. It marked his second win of the season.
"I never in a million years would've thought they were going to call the race," Bell said. "Whenever the rain stopped and they put the jet dryers out, I thought we were in it for the long haul. At the time I knew that it was going to be a 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. checkered flag. So I was in my motorhome trying to get a little snooze in."
Wet-weather tires could be used in damp conditions, NASCAR says
In the event of rain, NASCAR could use wet-weather tires in damp conditions, said Matt Humphrey, a communications manager for NASCAR. The series has long had the ability to run cars on rain tires in wet conditions at road and street courses. But last year, NASCAR introduced its Goodyear wet-weather radial tires for oval tracks a mile-long or less, except Dover Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway.
The cars cannot run during rain showers, but tires are designed to run in damp conditions so races can start sooner after rain. Wet-weather tires were used for the first time on an oval during the 2023 All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway and used on an oval for the first time in a points race during April's race at Richmond Raceway.
NASCAR Foundation donates to four Iowa elementary schools
On Tuesday the NASCAR Foundation announced that it would provide four Iowa elementary schools through All Kids Bike, a nonprofit organization that teaches kids to bike during PE class. The total grant from the NASCAR Foundation was for $36,000. Three of the four elementary schools are in the Grinnell-Newburg Community School District. A the fourth school to receive the grants will be named later.
In the Grinnell-Newburg Community School District, 120 kindergarten students each year will use the bikes, according to a news release.
"We are so excited to receive this generous gift," Grinnell-Newburg School District physical education teacher Tony Farmer said in a news release. "They will be zooming around while they love learning this lifelong skill."
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.
