The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series moves to the Iowa Speedway this week (in the first race on NBC/USA of the season), the circuit’s fourth smallest track at just 0.875 miles. 

Iowa trails only the Martinsville Speedway (0.526 miles), the Bristol Motor Speedway (.0533 miles), and the Richmond Raceway (0.75 miles) for the shortest Cup Series tracks to feature this season. 

Longtime driver and current analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr was asked about short tracks in NASCAR last year when the circuit announced it would be moving back to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway (also under a mile).

“I think we’re learning a lot, I’ve been very critical of the short track package,” he said. “Fans have been critical, and everybody wants NASCAR to get it right and everybody’s got a different opinion, myself included — it’s the car, it’s this, it’s that ,and the other.

“But I think where we’ve kind of landed, at least it seems at the moment, is that we can certainly learn a lot by messing with a tire, and Goodyear seems to be willing to be a bit aggressive with the tire.

“Hopefully, we continue to see that develop as we go further along the schedule and racing at these short tracks throughout the rest of the year [and] Goodyear continuing to push the tire and get more aggressive with the tire.”

Denny Hamlin captured the Cook Out 400 earlier this year at the Martinsville short track, while Kyle Larson claimed victory in the Food City 500 at the Bristol short track. 

This weekend’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol proceeds races later in the campaign, both in Richmond and in New Hampshire.

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NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer Ben Kennedy hinted that short tracks could be on the menu for playoff and championship races in upcoming years. 

“Never say never, but I think we’ve unanimously agreed that (championship weekend) needs to look and feel like what we would expect traditional NASCAR racing to look and feel like,” he said in May. Short tracks, intermediate tracks, (one-) mile tracks are all on the board.”