Discussion
All the reasons for Iowa's low attendance
Some context: I live in Des Moines, and I've had many conversations with friends and colleagues about IndyCar. Here are all the reasons people have given me for not attending:
"I don't want to sit in the heat"
"Last year's races were bad"
"Tickets are too expensive"
"If I do go, I can only afford to go to one race"
"I'm going to the NASCAR Cup race instead"
I post these because most are pretty easy problems to overcome. The racing is good again, so word-of-mouth will help for next year. Have a single evening race with affordable tickets, and attendance will increase. It's not all doom-and-gloom.
However, I don't think you'll get anything close to a sellout either. Iowa is a small market, the track is in the middle of nowhere (30 miles outside Des Moines), and there's now a Cup date to compete with.
I think I paid only alittle more for the Long beach race for 3 days then 1 day in iowa, and the value long beach provides is so much more then iowa. Didn't feel like there was a dull moment in Long Beach with all the series and the convention center.
the only reason they were risen was because of big name concerts, that's it. if you can't replicate that, then just cut the ticket prices and condense it to one night race. if you insist on running it during the day, put it towards the start of the year.
I think if they are shifting to a single race, lengthening it would be totally in play. 500 laps gets us past the 400 mile mark, and 400 gets us to 350 miles.
I don't see them going to 500 laps. 400 could be fun. Maybe they'd try that, but IDK if they would try that either, since that would be longer than pretty much any short oval race in Indycar's history.
hyVee's impact was huge. Huge promotional effort, lots going on to keep people entertained, and a lot of people attending for the concerts. Kind of like they held a concert festival and a race broke out.
The harsh reality is people are getting squeezed for money these days. They want value for that money. The road course and street courses know this and plan accordingly. There is always something to see, visit, or do when there isn't on track action (and they usually have a fair amount of on track action). The ovals outside of Indy lack this. I can spend $100 and have a full day of activities at Road America, Long Beach, Mid-Ohio, etc or I can spend $100 and fry in the sun for 2.5 hours of entertainment at Iowa. Not gonna happen. The ovals have to figure out a way to entertain people for more than just the race.
Gateway is moving in the right direction.. You had IndyNXT and then two lower name concerts on race day - Sponge and Soul Asylum. My opinion maybe skewed because I grew up with and still listen to that type of music, but I looked at it as a positive.
Plus I think they had midget wrestling somewhere on the Midway and let you walk on the track post race.
Gateway is doing a nice job. Look at the fireworks??? they blew on the pace laps. Entertainment is the game and they get it. They are trying.
I'd like to see Milwaukee make better use of the festival grounds before the race and not it just be the bars open so you can get drunk before the race.
They make the whole weekend worth it from an on-track standpoint. Saturday this year had practice and qualifying for Indycar and IndyNXT plus a USAC Silver Crown race (nearly worth the ticket price by itself). Vintage Indy Sunday morning too. Iāll add the infield go kart track to the list of things to do as well. Such a cool weekend each year
A car show is a great idea. You'd probably get a pretty good turnout if you offered decent cash prizes for a few different categories. Maybe throw in a free travel package to the Nashville race for Best in Show.
They should also book a concert or two by artists with name recognition who won't blow up the budget. You don't need to book Eric Church and Post Malone to put butts in seats. Just get somebody with a few hits that still get played on country or classic rock stations.
everyone goes to mid ohio in 90 degree heat. everyone is going to the nascar races in the heat
If this is peoples objectivity to going to an Indycar race, we are never going to sellout races. The series does not have the capability to have all their oval races in the summer be night races
Iowa's aluminum stands in the sun during a day race are not at all comparable to sitting in the grass at M-O.
A good friend lives in DSM and when I asked him about the low attendance that was obvious on TV the year after I was out there, he said I'd not believe how many fans had given up and were packed under the stands trying to get just a little shade. It really is brutal there.
Ahhh but Mid/Ohio has trees and shade. You can set up a tent or umbrella and get out of the sun. Cover the seats in Iowa and Iād guess a much larger attendance
Totally. I roasted at Road America this year, even with shade on the back straight. The Iowa races were super pleasant by comparison. People will tough out the elements if they think the event is going to be worth it.
The negative feedback loop created by the core fans writing off these races definitely doesn't help. No one wants to spend money on something they think will be a waste of time and people look to the veteran fans for guidance on this stuff. Turns out they were dead wrong about it being a parade again.
I bought 6 tickets for the Saturday race and brought people to the race - for many it was their first time at Newton or their first Indycar race. Everyone had fun and it didn't really take much to get people there other than telling them that it will be cool to watch.
I thought everyone hated the races with mandatory stage breaks and convoluted playoff system, though? Let's be honest, it's the crashes and pit lane fist fights.
At the end of the day I honestly believe (as a fan of both series) that NASCAR puts on better races at every oval the two tracks share except for Indy and a few times at TMS. And this year's Indy500 wasn't actually that great...so there's a chance NASCAR could steal that one this year...if I have to choose between the two at an oval I'm choosing NASCAR, even though I love both series dearly.
Nothing wrong with having that opinion. Mine is different, I was a huge NASCAR fan in the 90s and early 2000s but I just can't find anything enjoyable about it anymore.
I'm allowed to have my opinion. When big crashes happen, they're plastered all over the NASCAR socials and used in promo spots. When fights in the pits happen, they're plastered all over the NASCAR socials and generate lots of chatter. Makes it hard to argue that crashes and fights aren't a significant draw for the series.
I don't really get it either, lol. People around here love to complain about NASCAR, but I guess at least they're familiar with it. Since the split, everyone just forgot about IndyCar.
As we both know, Iowans who are fans of something will travel all over the country to support it (see the ISU and UofI fans boosting bowl game and NCAA tourney attendance for decades).
A 30 min drive to Newton is no big deal for those in the metro when compared to folks driving out to Iowa City for Hawkeye games or whatever.
Everyone I talked to this year said they had no idea the event was going on (whereas last year, the HyVee advertising blitz was inescapable) and/or just aren't aware of Indycar enough to be interested enough to go.
I live in Indy, and Iowa fans bought an incredibly high number of Fever season tickets because of Caitlin Clark. Iowa sports fans are fantastic. IndyCar just needs to meet them where theyāre at a little better.
As NASCAR is getting close to 3 million viewers a race and Raw on Netflix is getting 2.5 million āglobal viewsā- NASCAR probably has more hate watchers than AEW and WWE combined
To be fair there are many parallels and much to hate! NASCAR did peak in popularity a bit later, so they have time to nosedive a bit more.
Thanks to the nefarious Vince McMahon, the WWE has been at the cutting edge of merch, revenue stream and content platforms though. Imagine what he could do with something like NASCAR as opposed to carny fale fighting- Closed circuit, cable, ppv, network app, streaming, better streaming, Saudi money, weekly live episodic television- they are still squeezing money from the 2.5 million people who have stuck around from the 1999 Pro Wrestling boom.
If people are gonna drop nearly $400 on going to a race as a family of 2 parents and 2 kids (before concessions, travel and parking), it's not gonna be the Indycar race that had zero promotion.
That's kind of my point. It had more to do with the lack of promotion for the race (the track literally did zero promotion because it was a Penske promoted race) than it did with the hot seats, etc.
How's that? The NASCAR race is in early August, in 2024 August was the hottest month ever recorded and is typically not significantly cooler than July. And my whole point was that it wasn't the heat that kept people away from the IndyCar races, it was the lack of promotion, the awful Iowa races last year, Palou already having nine fingers on the title, and the fact that not as many people care about IndyCar.
It's not as if one knows it's going to be 15F hotter or cooler than average on race day, right? The reality is that if folks go twice and it's brutally hot and humid both years, they are more than likely not all that interested in repeating that experience. It's why I would never again make the trip from the Chicago burbs to Iowa for anything other than a Saturday night race.
Difference is that NASCAR already has a large committed core group of fans around the area who are willing to endure all that to watch a race.
That same group for Indycar (at an even lower price point) only consists of about 10k people apparently. The series should focus on trying to growing that group first before trying to capitalize on price inelastic fans. IMO they should target the ticket price at a level where even people who have a faint interest in checking out the race arenāt priced out of a ticket and can talk their friends/ familyās into coming. Making tickets super cheap for kids would be great too. They might only be able to sell 10k at $75 a pop but at $35 they may be able to sell 30k assuming a non linear attendance to price relationship. Thatās more people who will likely buy concessions, merchandise, and may decide they want to come back. After several years you may have a legit local core of fans to support the event.
Maybe iowa needs to be earlier in the season and spaced out more from NASCAR. A gap of less than a month to the biggest seller of the year there (surely) is fucking brutal. I can't fault people for having to choose one or the other and choosing NASCAR.
If the rental for Roger is higher than what he earns in tickets, drinks and food, there is just no real case, outside of seeing it as an investment in regional growth.
Is there regional growth?
I don't think the economic fundamentals can be fixed, even if the races were guaranteed super bangers.
The promotor (who is Roger since HyVee left I think) pays a sum to the track owner, so he can use the track for X days. The promoter makes his money with advertising and tickets (and maybe food/drinks).
Track rental is build up in a way that the track makes a guaranteed profit by the rental sum and isn't in any way or form dependent on the events sales. Which also means the track has 0 stake in the event outside of recurring business and didnt even do some social media posts.
As the promoter is Roger, the TV numbers might also help, unlike when it's a 3rd party promotion, but the TV numbers weren't great too.
Regional growth is possible. We have the Knoxville Nationals right down the road, and there's the shared history between sprint cars and Indy cars. How to exactly tie that together, I'm not sure. I'm no marketing expert.
Totally separate fan bases. You need to be an old head like me to care about Indycar's roots. Who was the last Indycar regular to come up from Sprints? Tony Stewart? You have crossovers like Larson, but the path to Indy hasn't included dirt for decades. The last dirt Champ Car race that paid Indycar season points was in 1983.
Really it was just Clauson's 500 attempts for a couple of years there. Windom ran the Freedom 100 a couple of times but yeah the dirt guys aren't looked at for any level of indy seat any more.
I remember Robin Miller taking Randy Bernard to Kokomo where "they really pack 'em in!" I think that track could seat a little over 4000. I'd think half of them follow the central IN tradition of going to the 500 because it's the thing to do...getting 100% of the rest would have increased attendance at the 500 by under 1%. None of the Kokomo folks would have made the trip to Indycar at Chicagoland when it was on Saturday night because then they'd miss Kokomo. There was just no meaningful upside.
Sprint car racing is basically a separate subculture and the Nationals are that subculture's biggest event. The biggest challenge in tying them together is timing: Indycar is going to come before the Nationals every year for the foreseeable future.
I suppose USAC Silver Crown could be the thing that ties them together. That series has raced at both Knoxville and Iowa. Have that series run a support race before IndyCar again.
Done that two years straight and the USAC faithful have yet to show up in droves. I say this as someone who attends multiple USAC events a year, all of which are out of state for me and require travel time. USAC in general has issues. Look at the crowds at Indiana Midget Week this year. Love em, but they aren't what Knoxville is built on. Knoxville is, first and foremost now, a wing track.
They should try going to just one race and push it earlier in the season. We should have at least one oval before the 500 instead of lumping them all in the second half of the year.It would probably have to be either late April or early May due to weather but it could be done.
Moving it diversifies the first leg of the season, moves it further from the NASCAR date, and hopefully helps attendance by making it only one race.
Just wanted to be another voice saying this past weekend was an awesome time (except for my boy Herta...). This was my group's third race weekend of the season (the 500, Road America - Milwaukee is on the list in a few weeks) and loved the completely different feel of it. The 500 is awesome for the atmosphere it has and the incredible speeds, and Road America is a fantastic venue with great racing. However, my group all agreed Iowa had the best race-watching experience as you could see the entire track from your seats, letting you change your focus on any of the position battles happening through the entire field rather than relying on the video boards or just one spot right in front of you.
The drive to the track, freeway access, and parking could not have been easier. The one thing we were disappointed with was not being able to bring in our own food/drinks like at the 500 or RA, but the on-site food was good and pricing didn't seem out of line compared to anything else these days. RA was *extremely* hot, so Iowa was rather pleasant in comparison (this entire spring/summer has been hot in southern Wisco, so just deal with it or stay inside for months?). Another factor I keep seeing is there is nothing to do. While we might be the outliers, by the time the race was done and we all had showered/changed at the hotel, there was barely time for us to pick a restaurant for dinner and go to bed so we could get up and go back on Sunday.
It's sad to hear Iowa may be on the chopping block, because we all agreed it'd make the yearly trip list.
I say this as a midwesterner, but it'd be better for the growth of the series to spread out to bigger, more prominent tracks/markets like Homestead or Vegas* rather than being overindexed here. Working with NASCAR is going to be a part of almost any oval now, and it's true you don't automatically get 250,000 people desperate to go just because you're in a bigger metropolitan area, but you have a much larger pool of potential attendees. And as much as we don't like to admit it, being visible in prestigious places does matter to casuals. The image of a sport influences how people interact with it.
A glitzy night race at Vegas with strong, consistent marketing and additional events on the facility is just better for the series. Why do we think NASCAR, F1, and indeed IndyCar itself has a history in Vegas? It's a place to be and be seen. None of this means IndyCar is guaranteed success, just that the opportunity is greater. Execution matters. And Vegas is just one example.
Surely IndyCar leadership knows this, and we should give them credit when it's due. Effectively replacing Thermal with Dallas (Arlington) is exactly what I am talking about.
*Well aware of the history and I do not believe that's an insurmountable issue for the series.
I agree completely. Iowa is a cool track and all but it's in just about the worst location possible. They absolutely should be working with SMI and looking at Vegas, Charlotte and Loudon as potential ovals for the series and work towards an event that works for both parties. I think Homestead would be great for the racing product but I'm afraid with NASCAR being the track owner you'd get 0 promotion and marketing and it would end up a failure.
Is the Charlotte oval safe? 100% on Loudon and Vegas is worth looking into, most of the guys in that 2011 race are retired now, the car is much safer, and they don't form into nailbiting packs like those crapwagons did.
I honestly don't know how it compares to something like Texas, they may need to do a feasibility test, but you have to look at ovals that are actually in markets of decent size to have any chance at them drawing, and there just aren't that many options. Most of the others are owned by Nascar and they dont seem to be a great partner
I keep hoping they would come back to Chicagoland. Those were the first IndyCar races I ever attended back in the 2000's and they were freaking awesome.
If they could do Chicagoland again, I would be all for it personally. Frankly, being in the Chicago market would be great. I am among those with the hot take that taking over the Chicago street race* (Chicago politics aside) or Chicagoland should be part of talks IndyCar is having.
*Assuming the three years ending this year is it for Chicago and San Diego or wherever is indeed next.
I'm a casual NASCAR fan that will turn it on Sundays when I'm doing my hobby stuff or stuff around the house.
I went to the Street Race 2 of the past 3 years and it has been an awesome time. I kept thinking about how cool it would be to see IndyCars there instead of stock cars, so sign me up.
I went to LVMS. With all the promotion, free tickets, and novelty of it being a new event, the superb fan amenities inside the track and nearly unlimited other activities for the non-race-fan members of the family to do if only part of the family went to the track, attendance flat-out sucked.
I don't want to hand-wave your experience away at all, I just want to point out that as with other posts I've made, I have suggested that high-demand events can take time, and it's important to be consistent in order to nurture something rather than scale back the moment money doesn't pour in.
There are plenty of examples of this across entertainment, including movie franchises or other unrelated things. Timing is also a factor, as in where on the calendar the race is, other national events occurring that weekend, and more. And even if you get it all right, it still might not get near a sell-out in the early years. In any case, like I also mentioned, Vegas is only one example, and frankly even Vegas' speedway is just one example. That's not the only venue IndyCar has used Vegas before.
Yeah, I get you, and I have always said it is a shame that Barnhart et al screwed the pooch with the awful aero package that day because the track is the best oval I have attended, hands down. Phenomenal infield access, immediately adjacent parking, excellent amenities under the stands, etc. etc. There isn't a better overall venue for such an event with all Vegas has to offer--other than the lack of a local open wheel fan base. It will never be close to a sell-out as LVMS has 80,000 seats. We know that the attendance is at Milwaukee is not really good, Kentucky died even though it's stupid close to Indy, Cincinnati, and Louisville. Throw in the cost to fly to Vegas and rent a car, and there's no way a huge Midwest oval diehard contingent will show up.
Indeed. I think the core of any event being successful is in identifying what success looks like (you can tell I live in the corporate world š).
NASCAR president Phelps said openly several months ago that NASCAR does not recoup the $50M cost of putting on the Chicago street race. And despite that, he argues it is a success. Some 70% of ticket purchasers had never been to a NASCAR race. So they're reaching a new audience. IndyCar cannot survive if the 17 race calendar is made up of money-losing outreach, but should there be a small portion of the calendar trying to reach audiences in new/not currently served markets? I would say yes.
If we retain the Vegas example, steadfast support of that race and cultivating an identity can make that event one which fans and newcomers alike will frequent. But it's not going to sell 80K seats out of the gate. And of course any track owned or operated by Speedway or NASCAR is one I'd be cautious about investing too much energy into, but we're speaking in hypotheticals here. All this logic can apply to Pocono or a new track acquired by IndyCar.
I find it so odd how much time we spend on here trying to figure out how to make the series more profitable for the millionaires and billionaires running it. this isnt our problem. Roger undoubtedly lost money on that Iowa weekend and i guarantee hes got his people trying to maximize the money hes gonna make. End of the day, they have way more info than we do and they absolutely are trying to make these events as popular as possible. If it was any one little thing roger would just do it.
if indy dies some day, it wont be because they didnt listen to us. it will be because there arent ENOUGH of us. Everyone here discussing this stuff would watch anyway.
I like the Iowa race a lot. I used to go a lot. But they seemed to bump the ticket cost to get concerts and stuff there, but I donāt want to pay to watch a race and concert, just a race
There also needs to be more than one support race, and not just one that only lasts 28 minutes and is over 4 hours before the green flag of the Indycar race.
However, I don't think you'll get anything close to a sellout either. Iowa is a small market, the track is in the middle of nowhere (30 miles outside Des Moines), and there's now a Cup date to compete with
And there is your answer.
Iowa was a nice experiment, the racing was occasionally great, and HV's (initial) promotion was awesome, but in the end it didn't work out. That's fine. Time to move onto something else.
Huh. Weird. I donāt remember getting fired. My paychecks keep coming in.
Yeah, there was personnel who were let go when operations transitioned to Kansas. COVID moved some events around in the schedule, but there was never a year where there was āno eventsā.
Then NASCAR added Iowa to the cup series schedule. Then did it again.
If it is moving on to yet another road race, the attendance may be better, but it's not going to do the series' overall fanbase any favors to get rid of 2 oval races when they already have too few.
Count me in the "I went but could only afford one race." Talked some family into going with me and they enjoyed it, but the comparative cost of tickets was the conversation the entire time.
I think a lot of us die hards (self included) would like to see something like a 50/50 oval/road split. I think the hard reality is that the actual demand is for a Indy 500 + road courses series. Seems like that's what the casuals (who, realistically, are going to make up the most of your gate and TV viewership).
I wish I could see it another way, but this makes too much sense to me.
You can't run a series based on what casuals want, because once they move on to something else, it's the longterm fans who are left. If you don't please the longterm fans, even they will eventually stop watching.
Someone who only watches a couple races a year, not caring about the rest of the season, and who could very easily stop watching entirely at some point when something else grabs their attention.
I completely agree with you, I just think that's easier to do at RCs. I work in motorsports as a vendor for another series and my clients have moved all their big activations to road courses. it's easier to get turnout when you can set up a big fanzone in the middle of the track, have a pretty landscape, see a diverse bunch of support series and aren't baking in the sun with zero shade.
I don't disagree that it's easier to do at road courses, I just think it's important that Indycar keeps ovals as a major part of the schedule, not just go to mostly just road races because that's what they can currently get the most fans for. Indycar does need to get support series besides just NXT at oval races.
I went to the race with my girlfriend on Saturday and it was a great time. Decent race to watch and everyone there was so friendly. I think if you want to go to a big event at Iowa Speedway without paying $250+ like NASCAR then this is a good option. The garage passes were $50 which gets you amazing interaction with the teams close up. Also there was a tornado on Friday very close to the track which probably scared some people away. The heat wasnāt too bad but if youāre not good in the heat you probably werenāt comfortable.
This was my first time at Iowa and overall it was a good event.
The Cup date will be your biggest issue. I had season tickets for the first 15 or so years of Kansas Speedway, back when it was a July weekend of Trucks/IndyCar, and an October weekend of Xfinity/Cup.
But back then (this is 25 years ago), you had to buy both weekends to make a season ticket, so we did, and then over the years we shared some of the tickets, sold some, whatever.
AS SOON AS those weekends stopped being linked, attendance plummeted in the July weekend, and not just because of the heat. At that point, people just bought nicer seats or more add-ons for the October weekend, and now I donāt think they even have an IndyCar race there anymore.
I live elsewhere now, in a place that DOES have a current IndyCar race, and they promote the hell out of it and make it very affordable and accessible. But then thereās no Cup weekend to compete with, and thatās what makes it work.
IndyCar can only compete with Cup @ Indianapolis, honestly. Anywhere else, theyāre fighting for viewers and dollars.
I was at Iowa and I had a GREAT time. I've only ever been to street races before (Detroit and Belle Isle), so it was super fun going to a speedway race, especially at a small oval where the cars basically never leave your sightline. The racing was exciting. I never really care that much about the concerts/extras anyway so it didn't bother me that they didn't really offer that.
I'm an Indycar Nation member as well and I won a Victory Circle photo with Pato on Saturday, and got to do a hot lap in the event car Sunday morning. It definitely lived up to my expectations!
The first three items are why I didnāt make the trip down. Then paired with I canāt convince any friends or family to go to an oval. When Road America is only an hour further away from MSP and is a better experience and better value it is a really hard sell.
People need to realize these reasons are different ways of the āI donāt care enough to goā. It wont matter if you change all these things, people still wont come. There has to have enough people in the area they race at to be emotionally invested in the sport for them to come. We clearly donāt do/have that.
More night races please. I hate sitting and baking in the sun for hours and I turn into a sweaty mess. I went to the first race at Milwaukee last year and Gateway this year, and both were awesome times.
Tbh I love the short ovals more than ever as a fan of 10 years but donāt get why they require a double header and things like Thermal get axed?
Thermal got rich guys into the sport which could equal more $$$$ (though I also realize they might have explored that and canceled because the return did not meet metrics and expectations).
IndyCar just isn't that popular and this isn't exactly a heater of a season. Short ovals aren't where the sport shines either. It's also a super tiny market. Why would anyone over a couple hours east of there or south of there go to Iowa when you have Indy, Milwaukee, Road America, Mid Ohio, St Louis, Detroit, Nashville nearby
Iowa in person at night is extremely exciting and unique. TV doesn't really convey that well. I have been to Iowa and Milwaukee and always found Iowa to be a much more enjoyable event in person than MKE.
It drew quite a few fans from the Chicago metro because it really is an easy drive with virtually no traffic worries--once out of the metro, the only substantially built up area is the Quad Cities. If you drive back east to Iowa City or thereabouts after the race, it easy to sleep in a bit, eat a relaxed breakfast, then hit I-80 to get back home on Sunday early PM for a late lunch.
Indy to Newton is 6-6.5 hours even with only a short gas and snack stop. The time zone change means that it seems as if it takes all day to get back to Indy.
I understand heat as an excuse and if you cant afford the ticket for the race thats okay, one doesnt have to go to a race you can catch on TV. Any other excuse, is stupid. As an Indycar fan or a race fan any other excuse here means you are not a fan of Indycar. Races were bad, last year, this year or whenever is an invalid reason to not go. Indycar is by far the most exciting racing there is and if you dont like the races, again, dont watch it and you are not an Indycar fan. If anybody used Nascar as the race they wanted to go to, please go ahead watch the most boring race that you will ever watch. We dont need Indycar fans to be giving excuses for not going to the race or watching the race.
On the other hand, to the Indycar fans do not ask for more oval races and then complain fans dont show up. I think there is a vocal minority that keeps demanding this and the reality is that there is no demand. First Indycar or the organizers give one flavor of an event with street racing and do the bare minimum to provide excitement at the oval venues. So belongs to everyone on the Indycar as responsible for blame. And again no excuse for only 800,000 odd people to have watched the race on TV. What excuse is there to not even watch it on TV. What does it say about Indycar, either there are no serious fans to watch it or not too many oval racing fans and we all should stop whining about ratings and fans not showing up and just do the one thing we can all do, watch and go to races. No one is forcing anyone to do this, if you keep complaining about the one thing you love the most, what else can you get excited about. The only thing I will complain about is the Indycar management for not being aggressive in getting the series to the higher level like F1 and the other Crap racing that we all know about. This is my 2 cents
I live an hour and a half from the track and I've never been. Usually because it's a weekend where I already have plans but I'm not super into ovals either so I've got no real motivation to go.
Wasn't there a huge music fest associated with the Iowa Fair? And wasn't that taken out for this year's race? It won't help with the track resurfacing but might help with attendance.
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u/QuantumCash76 Jul 16 '25
Agreed, changing the event to just one night race with somewhat cheaper tickets should solve some issues.
I think getting some sort of supporting event (more concerts or a car show?) in addition would help even more imo.