Racing in Iowa The first
Championship Car race in Iowa took place on July 9, 1915.
AAA held a race at
Tri-State Fair Grounds in
Burlington, Iowa, won by
Bob Burman. Additional AAA races were held at Des Moines Speedway in
Valley Junction, a one-mile (1.6 km) wooden board track, in 1915 and 1916. Only two championship car races, won by
Ralph Mulford and
Ralph DePalma respectively, were held at Des Moines, as the track closed and was dismantled shortly thereafter. On August 6, 2006, IndyCar & Iowa Speedway officials announced the first IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway would be held June 24, 2007. The race itself was a crashfest with the 10th-place finisher of Scott Dixon finishing 77 laps down to the winning driver of Dario Franchitti. In October 2013, Iowa Speedway announced that the 2014 race was extended to 300 laps. In most years since its inception, the race has been held as a Sunday afternoon event. In 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019, it was held as a Saturday night race under the lights. In 2020 IndyCar had two 250-lap races at the track using a double header format with both races taking place at night on July 17 and 18. On September 30, 2020, IndyCar revealed their 2021 schedule and announced that due to financial issues with the Iowa Speedway their date had been dropped from the schedule along with Richmond Raceway, the latter not hosting a race in 2020 due to
COVID-19 restrictions in the state of Virginia. Iowa was left off the calendar for
2021, to the disappointment of fans and drivers alike. Former series champion and team owner
Bobby Rahal managed to secure new sponsorship for the event from Iowa supermarket chain
Hy-Vee and was successful in returning IndyCar racing to the speedway on a multi year agreement starting in
2022. A double header race weekend will be used as the format for the event going forward, with one 250 lap race and one 300 lap race. For 2025, Sukup Manufacturing sponsored the races and extended the race from 250 laps to 275 laps. On September 16, it was confirmed that Iowa would not return to the calendar. ==Race 1==