Iowa

Designed with the Rusty Wallace seal of approval, Iowa Speedway is a seven-eighths-mile tri-oval located in Newton, Iowa, about 30 miles east of Des Moines, the state's capital and most populous city.

Wallace, the 1989 Cup Series champion, served as a consultant during the construction of the facility, which began in June 2005. Wallace envisioned Iowa as a Midwest version of Richmond International Raceway, working with architect Paxton Waters to pattern the venue after the Virginia short track (where Wallace had six wins, a career-tying 22 top-five finishes and a career-high 30 top-10s in 44 races), albeit with a few modifications.

Waters runs a design firm focusing mostly on motorsports facilities, and was lead designer on Auto Club (formerly California) Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway in addition to several other smaller tracks.

Iowa Speedway opened in September 2006 with a USAR Hooters Pro Cup event and has hosted various racing series including ARCA, USAC, ASA Late Models and the IRL.

NASCAR held its first event at Iowa in May 2007 with a combination Camping World (formerly Grand National) East-West Series race. On that day, a 17-year-old East Series regular Joey Logano beat Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick, a former West Series champion, for the victory.

Iowa Speedway, dubbed a "Rusty Wallace Signature Series Track," is 60 feet wide and has banking that varies between 12 and 14 degrees, leading to what Wallace believes will allow for more side-by-side racing.

Iowa has 50 garages, 28 suits and 25,000 permanent seats with a multi-tiered motorhome viewing area along the backstretch than can increase its capacity to up to 30,000. Cameras embedded in the track surface provide for unique television views.

Built with the SAFER Barrier as part of the design, Iowa is the only track in the world with the new-age safety feature around the entire perimeter of the track.