@nascarcasm: Why Iowa Speedway is the same as ‘Field of Dreams’

Iowa Speedway and the baseball field depicted in 1989's classic film “Field of Dreams" are basically the same. Here is indisputable evidence why.

Like the original “Field Of Dreams," the idea for Iowa Speedway was conceived when Rusty Wallace heard a mysterious voice while he was wandering through a cornfield.

According to Wallace, the voice said “If you build it ... 'it’ being a short track with the characteristics of Richmond Raceway with banking from 12 to 14 degrees in the turns with a 1.3-mile road course in the infield ... they will come."

Just like the actual “Field of Dreams," sometimes you look out there and Ray Liotta's sort of just wandering around.

Ray Kinsella so enjoyed hanging out with a really handsome baseball player and a revered older gentleman in a hat that he showed up at the NASCAR banquet years later to do the same thing.

Just like the actual “Field of Dreams," legends of the sport sometimes magically emerge from the corn that surrounds the track. However, it's usually just Red Byron. And he usually just beats the hell out of someone, smokes a cigar, then heads back into the corn.

Iowa Speedway also has a voice that repeats “ ... Go the distance." However, some engines don’t always listen.

Just like in “Field of Dreams," the races are sometimes red-flagged for several minutes so James Earl Jones can wander onto the track and deliver a meandering monologue on the legacy of the sport in American culture.

In “Field of Dreams," visitors always ask “Is this Heaven?" Visitors to Iowa Speedway ask that, too. The place did give us Landon Cassill, so I'd get the two mixed up also.

“Field of Dreams" had “Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Coincidentally, our very own “Shoeless" Daniel Suarez once raced at Iowa Speedway.