Iowa Speedway becomes IndyCar's destination race weekend for fast cars, big concerts

NEWTON, Iowa – As the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend prepares for its second year as perhaps the most ambitious event on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule, the mastermind behind the concept of combining mega-stars of entertainment with a racing doubleheader described what he considers both a curse and a strength.

“We don’t do anything halfway or hands off,” Hy-Vee chairman of the board Randy Edeker said Thursday at the Hy-Vee headquarters in West Des Moines, Iowa.

By joining forces with Roger Penske, Bud Denker and Michael Montri of the Penske Corp., Hy-Vee has not only saved Iowa Speedway from racing irrelevancy, but it also turned the town of Newton (pop. just over 15,000) into the unlikely “Entertainment Capital of the Midwest” for the second straight year.

Just as Sturgis, South Dakota comes alive for 10 days with its famed Sturgis Motorcycle Rally beginning the first Friday of August every year, IndyCar, Hy-Vee, and Penske Entertainment are trying to make this weekend an annual destination event.

It's more than just an IndyCar weekend that features the high-speed racing machines and the big names of the Indianapolis 500 racing around the 0.894-mile Iowa Speedway oval in twin 250-mile races Saturday and Sunday.

That would be enough to set this weekend apart from the other events on the IndyCar schedule as the only doubleheader race weekend of the season.

What really sets it apart is Edeker’s vision and strategy to combine the high-speed weekend of racing with four of the biggest names in entertainment.

"American Idol" winner and multimedia superstar Carrie Underwood will kick off the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend with a performance prior to Saturday's race. Country music icon and six-time Grammy Award nominee Kenny Chesney will perform following the race.

The action continues the Sunday with a prerace concert by three-time Grammy Award winner and country music power group Zac Brown Band. The race will be followed by a set from British singer-songwriter and global chart-topping artist Ed Sheeran.

The lineup could be part of a music festival that would generate interest among many of today’s entertainment fans. The back-to-back races would spark interest in IndyCar’s passionate fanbase.

But combining the two completely divergent fan bases was all part of Edeker’s grand plan of promotion.

He wanted to create brand awareness for Hy-Vee, a Des Moines-based supermarket chain in eight states that is Iowa’s largest employer. Edeker believed IndyCar provided the company with the perfect vehicle to create brand awareness on a national scale.

Edeker also wanted to generate tourism to Iowa by enticing visitors to this homespun state that proudly embraces Middle America ideals.

Another goal was to bring new eyeballs to help IndyCar build its fanbase.

The Hy-Vee Race Weekend puts IndyCar in front of a Generation Z crowd here to see Ed Sheeran perform. It might be the first step in turning those Sheeran loyalists into IndyCar fans.

At the very least, the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend has achieved big-time “event” status.

“When we had our first conversation with Roger Penske and Bud Denker (President of the Penske Corporation) about what we were going to create, we wanted to create a destination race around a short oval,” Edeker told NBC Sports. “We wanted to create an action-packed event.

“We think we have done that. We have invested a lot.”

Opened in 2006, Iowa Speedway is a beautiful, high-banked short oval that actually was designed by NASCAR Cup Series champion and Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace. When its original ownership group had difficulty keeping it open, NASCAR bought the facility in 2013 and kept it open for a few years, but the facility had begun to go dormant in recent years.

When Roger Penske purchased IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Indianapolis 500 on Nov. 4, 2019, he wanted to make sure IndyCar’s schedule was diverse.

The next year, however, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the sporting landscape, including IndyCar.

Doubleheader race weekends helped save the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season and one was at Iowa Speedway. To make that happen, however, Penske had to lease the track from NASCAR.

As COVID restrictions were lifted, Iowa Speedway was not on the IndyCar schedule in 2021. But the combined force of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and city officials from Newton believed Iowa Speedway needed to be saved.

They contacted Edeker and Roger Penske. In August of 2021, their efforts were able to save Iowa Speedway and get it on the 2022 schedule. Penske Entertainment has leased the track from NASCAR, and they oversee the facility as part of that lease.

“Really, it’s about helping Central Iowa and helping the city of Newton,” Edeker said. “The track was built years ago, and we are investing in it and helping create a destination event for people to come and try Iowa, get to see Iowa, and come and visit.

“It helps Iowa become a more competitive state. We have a lot of Iowa businesses that invest in the race and sponsor it. We appreciate them and want to help them for their support. We couldn’t do it without all the local businesses and the support of the governor and the city. It’s a collective effort.

“Hopefully, we’ll get more and more people to keep coming to the event. Our acts alone should bring people to Iowa and for the people that don’t know Indy racing, once they watch it, it’s infectious and you become a massive fan of Indy racing. That’s all part of the big picture and supporting the Indy race group and Roger Penske and all of his team.”

According to Denker, Hy-Vee’s philosophy of combining entertainment and racing attracted new fans to last year’s race with 70 percent of the crowd previously never having attended a race.

“That in my mind is the most important thing to IndyCar to help bring new users into our sport,” Denker said. “We’ve taken what we have had as a race, and Hy-Vee has made it better and better.”

When the initial deal with Hy-Vee, IndyCar and Iowa Speedway was completed in 2021, Edeker since has relinquished that role to Jeremy Gosch since becoming the Hy-Vee chairman of the board.

Edeker remains the point man for the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa, and Gosch is alongside as the CEO helping to implement the company’s vision.

“We’ve taken IndyCar and made it our flag in the sand, our ‘North Star’ for our stores,” Gosch said. “They are activating around IndyCar for the entire season from March through September. This event for us is the cornerstone of that activation. We have a lot going on all month with our stores activating it. We do a variety of things around IndyCar.

“It also helps the morale with the excitement of our people around the event, the employees we bring in and the volunteers for the event. We have our own employee section. We have people coming out from all parts of our company.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to highlight our company.”

The combination of big-name entertainment with IndyCar was a strategy about exposing two groups to a different product while still providing a reason to see what their original interests.

“You have the diehard Indy fans that are thrilled to have a race here and those fans are more excited about the actual race than the concerts,” Edeker explained. “They are coming to see the two races.

“That group started talking right away. But we have a fair amount of people waiting to see who our concerts are going to be now, and they come for the concerts. That is how you introduce new fans to the sport. People may come for one concert or another, but once they see the Indy race, they become fans.

“That’s part of the investment with Penske to help build the fan base in Iowa. Back in the day, Iowa had the largest amount of open wheel race fans in the country per capita. That was a credit to Knoxville Speedway. It has a great following.

“I think this is a way to invest in a sport that is on the upswing in Iowa to build back our fan base and help this event be a bigger deal down the road. It’s going to be important for everybody involved.”

In the first decade of Iowa Speedway, the grandstands included mostly die-hard, grass-roots racing fans, many of whom were local Iowans and some from IndyCar’s home base of Indianapolis, Indiana.

When Hy-Vee turned it from a racing weekend into the current “Big Event” format, crowds increased dramatically last year, despite temperatures that soared over 100 degrees.

Hy-Vee invested heavily into building temporary suites in Turns 1 and 4 that were brought in from the Waste Management PGA Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona.

This year, a new three-story, 33-suite structure is being built in the infield on the entry to pit Lane off the fourth turn, rising 50 feet into the air on a 7-foot platform.

Those same suites will be used in Las Vegas at the Formula One race in November.

Those structures are being constructed to meet the high demand from Hy-Vee’s corporate partners, suppliers, and vendors.

“We’ve had a great season with support from our sponsors, whether they be through our industry of retail grocery, or through the State of Iowa,” Hy-Vee executive vice president and chief marketing officer Anna Stoermer told NBC Sports. “It’s been a really successful year. We have 104 different sponsors joining us this weekend. We are very thankful for their support. Without them, this event would not be taking place.

“They support everything from purchasing a suite with us to marketing and branding within Iowa Speedway and within our retail stores. It’s been a really great partnership for us as a grocery retail business and also with our communities in Iowa.”

That is one reason why the company was so responsive when Governor Reynolds made the original request to save Iowa Speedway in 2021.

“With Hy-Vee, we are the largest employer in Iowa so typically, if there is something the state needs, they are very comfortable asking Hy-Vee to step in and help,” Stoermer said. “With it being an event like this, where we could create a destination weekend for people to travel from outside the state to enjoy our great state of Iowa, we knew we had to really do something that stood out and stood above the rest of the races on the series.

“We have done that with the entertainment we have and with Penske Entertainment being the true promoter of the race, they have been a great partner letting us bring our dreams to life at the Iowa Speedway.

“It’s a little abnormal for a title sponsor to involve themselves the way Hy-Vee has, but Penske Entertainment has been a great partner helping us make sure we can build the suites, bring the entertainment and put a stage in the middle of the racetrack so everyone can see the concerts. It’s been really unique for us to figure this out together and make it a great event.”

Michael Montri is Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend president and is also IndyCar’s vice president for promoter relations. He has indicated that ticket demand has increased over last year as the company hopes to have both races sold out through walk-up sales.

“We are up year over year both in revenue and for tickets sold,” Montri told NBC Sports. “For us to gather new fans, new eyeballs, to the IndyCar Series, is a huge positive.”

Edeker said more tickets have been sold than at this point last year.

“We added 5,000 extra seats,” he said. “From a ticket sales standpoint, we are really happy. We think we are in really good shape.

In addition to the new F1-style suites along pit lane, Edeker said there have been many new additions for fans that attend the race weekend. Friday will be free admission for IndyCar and Indy NXT practices and an IndyCar pit stop competition. There also will be a new beer garden behind the grandstands with over a dozen musical acts performing during the weekend.

"Some of our supplier partners are bringing in kiosks," Edeker said. "We have more fan material to buy, lots of shirts. We also have lots of food. Being a food company, we are very focused on the quality of the food. We’ve invested heavily to make sure we have great partners bringing great food to all of the people attending the race."

The race weekend has a high degree of corporate involvement and entertainment, but its premise was to create an event to attract new fans to IndyCar.

When the ticket pricing structure was announced last December, the prices were doubled for most tickets from last year, creating some acrimony among fans.

“The reality is if you were going to see Kenny Chesney or Ed Sheeran, they sell out concerts,” Edeker said. “I was in Boston, and Kenny Chesney sold three concerts out in one day. We are bringing that level of entertainment to Iowa.

“The fact Ed Sheeran is coming to Iowa Speedway. Ed Sheeran can sell out a football stadium in one day. To bring that kind of entertainment here, we don’t worry about it. There are diehard race fans that think our ticket prices are more than other places. The reality is this is the package we are putting together.

“Four huge concerts and two great races in one weekend, more than that counting the Indy NXT race. That is part of our strategy, the race event we are putting together, and this is the ticket price, and we are working to put the best entertainment out there and create an event that is a destination.

“In the long term, the diehard Indy fans should really appreciate what we are doing because we trying to build the sport to be bigger, build the fan base, and we are doing it with entertainment.

“Last year, there were people that came for the entertainment and never saw an Indy race and they said, ‘Man, I liked it.’ This is a big investment for Indy because you have this diverse entertainment fans that are coming and the only thing in common for both days is an Indy race.

“The biggest benefit to our race is growing the fan base around the IndyCar races. People came to the concerts, saw the race, and really liked it.”

As the point man for Penske Entertainment at Iowa Speedway, Montri believes "all signs point to a long-term future" for the Hy-Vee Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway. IndyCar’s relationship with Hy-Vee is solid. That relationship may grow even more in the future.

“Yes, I think it will,” Stoermer said. “Every year we add something. Last year, we were a sponsor at the Nashville race. This year, we used our Vivid Clear RX brand at the Detroit Grand Prix. We expanded what we were doing in Detroit and that was a great experience as well.

“The Penske Entertainment people are really great people. We want to see them succeed. We will continue to support them within our eight states and wherever they ask for our help.”

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500