NASCAR VP makes admission as Iowa repave controversy continues

NASCAR senior Vice President of competition Elton Sawyer has admitted there are questions to answer after the controversy surrounding the partial repaving of the Iowa Speedway ahead of the inaugural Cup Series race.

In preparation for the event's debut at the circuit, officials opted to repave the track which has waited since its first season of racing back in 2006 to host the flagship NASCAR series.

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However, only two of the three lanes were given a makeover, prompting two-time champion Joey Logano to call it “Probably the most interesting repave-ish thing we’ve seen.”

The track is owned by NASCAR, and the botched repave job - which was initially unplanned, was down to timing and weather.

What is happening now with the Iowa Speedway repaving?

Though the drivers did not have the full width of the track available to them if they wanted to run on the newest asphalt, Iowa still provided a good spectacle.

However, if NASCAR is to return, the issue is certain to be re-visited.

Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Sawyer, who has been in his position as VP since 2023, said the sanctioning body will consider a full repaving.

However, he emphasized how important it was to see “great racing” on the mix of the old and new track.

“Our goal going into Iowa when we announced it last October was not to repave,” said Sawyer. “We wanted to get that first race on that old pavement and kind of get a data point.

“But that just wasn’t the case. Some areas needed attention and we did that, and we have what we had there this past weekend.

"Again, the unknowns of how the racetrack was going to race. Now we sit here on Tuesday afterwards and we had great racing.

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“We had side-by-side, we had two lanes. So, I’m sure we’ll have a lot of dialogue around if we go back, do you repave the whole facility? Do you just repave that third lane up by the wall?

"A lot of questions to answer on that, but I think the number one thing is we had really, really good racing this past weekend.

"No matter what we do, we need to make sure that we’re either heading in a positive direction to make the racing better, or to leave it as is and have another data point out there next year.”

It is as yet unclear whether NASCAR will return to IOWA, with a full 2025 schedule for the championship still to be published.

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