Audio By Carbonatix
Absolutely nobody showed up to watch IndyCar at Iowa Speedway. The series is unlikely to return to Newton in the future after a disastrous showing for two pretty solid races.
Maybe it’s an oval thing. Maybe it’s an Iowa thing. Either way, it was pathetic.
IndyCar hosted its 23rd race at Iowa Speedway over the weekend. That is more than any other series. The NASCAR Xfinity Series is second on the list with 21. There is a history here.
IndyCar has an Iowa problem.
However, attendance for IndyCar races at Iowa Speedway has slowly declined. There was a lot of drama involving its sponsorships as well as some behind-the-scenes challenges related to the track and its structure. The repaving in 2024 led to single-file racing, which contributed to decreased fan interest. Hy-Vee’s decision to withdrawal as the title sponsor of the race and a corresponding lack of additional entertainment also had an impact on the attendance.
Carrie Underwood, Post Malone and Blake Shelton performed at races in recent years. Even though the numbers were skewed by thousands of ticket giveaways, approximately 80,000 fans showed up in 2022, 2023 and 2024. It was a solid turnout!
Attendance plummeted.
This year’s race was a disaster— and not just for Sting Ray Robb, whose hauler caught on fire to close out a really difficult weekend. IndyCar failed to put butts in the seats.
Only 6,000 tickets were sold in total for a track with a grandstand capacity of 24,000. This is how it looked after driver introductions, just prior to the invocation and national anthem:
Here is a look at the crowd during the race:
Side-by-side for the lead ⚔@KKirkwoodRacing and @AlexPalou battle on the restart for P1! pic.twitter.com/L5ogWOq7t9
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 13, 2025
To be fair, T.V. ratings were way up through the first eight races of the 2025 IndyCar season. FOX averaged 2.007 million viewers per race, an increase of 27 percent from 2024. I would imagine the numbers will reflect a similar trend for a great finish in Iowa. People at home were thoroughly entertained.
Fans in the grandstands at the Iowa Speedway were just as entertained by the 275-mile IndyCar race. There just wasn’t that many of them there.
In contrast to the poor attendance for IndyCar, NASCAR sold out its Cup Series race at the Iowa Speedway less than one month prior. It was the second sellout for NASCAR in back-to-back years.
This could be and should be the death of IndyCar at Iowa. I do not expect the series to return despite the plan to do so in 2026. RIP.