Chad Leistikow

cleistik@dmreg.com

NASCAR VP Steve O%27Donnell spoke with the Des Moines Register on Thursday

He stressed that NASCAR is focused on improving existing events at Iowa Speedway



The Sprint Cup schedule for 2015 is a hot topic with new TV partner NBC coming aboard

GRIMES, Ia. -- For race fans (and a fellow named Brad Keselowski) who pine for the day that Iowa Speedway lands on the Sprint Cup schedule, the words of NASCAR's Steve O'Donnell carry lots of weight.

The sanctioning body's vice president of racing operations is the primary keeper of the hard-to-crack 36-race Cup schedule. During a stop Thursday in Iowa to meet with sponsors, O'Donnell addressed myriad scheduling questions that impact not only now-owned-by-NASCAR Iowa Speedway in Newton, but famed dirt track Knoxville Raceway and beyond.

As NASCAR considers Cup schedule changes in 2015 timed with welcoming a new TV partner in NBC, O'Donnell said any deeper conversations on specifics were still months away.

But that doesn't mean there's not plenty of good water-cooler fodder to discuss just three weeks out from NASCAR's first Iowa Speedway show of 2014.

Such as: What about a recent blog post from Keselowski? The 2012 Sprint Cup champion has been outspoken about his desire to see Iowa Speedway, a 7/8-mile track that produces high-quality racing, added to the Cup schedule.

Keselowski, in his pie-in-the-sky vision, floated the idea of doubleheader weeks. For example, Iowa would hold a midweek summer Cup race before the traveling NASCAR circus heads to Kansas Speedway three-plus hours away for the weekend.

Far-fetched? Maybe not — at least the midweek concept.

"One of the challenges of our sport is that it's an event," O'Donnell said. "Fans come for three days. They bring their campers and bring their families. If we could make that work somewhere for midweek, we'd certainly consider it."

A midweek green flag would not be limited to Cup, O'Donnell said, as NASCAR eyes creative ways to attract more eyeballs to all forms of stock-car racing.

"Are there opportunities to get away from what's a hugely competitive sports landscape on weekends?" he said. "And if it works for a track, we've certainly seen it works for a television partner."

Because O'Donnell has input on the schedules in all three NASCAR national series, his words also carry meaning when it comes to the Camping World Truck Series' recent dirt-track foray. The trucks ran at Tony Stewart's Eldora Speedway in July and it was, by all accounts, a smashing success. They'll return there this summer, too.

Would NASCAR ever consider a second dirt-track race?

In a word, yes.

And Knoxville Raceway would be a popular landing spot among fans — particularly in light of legislation sent to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad that would give the "sprint car capital of the world" $2 million in sales-tax rebates over 10 years.

"We are certainly looking at it," O'Donnell said of the trucks at Knoxville. "We wanted to see, obviously, how Eldora went,

"No secret that Knoxville is a premier facility in the U.S. If we could do something that's in partnership that helps elevate Knoxville and also does the same for Iowa (Speedway), we are looking at different opportunities there.

"For us, one of the key messages we want to get out is that we want racing to grow in Iowa."

But like with all of Thursday's scheduling talk, everything is at best in the discussion phase. The same goes for a possible Sprint Cup race in Iowa.

The message there hasn't changed. Since NASCAR purchased the track in November, it has stressed that it was focused on the existing shows in Newton — the Nationwide Series, the IndyCar Series and trucks.

"We would never say never to a Sprint Cup race (in Iowa)," O'Donnell said. "But obviously that schedule's full right now. Our main focus right now is to get those events that are currently on the schedule to be mainstay events, and to be events that fans have to come to see."

Another idea — and again, this is water-cooler talk — is for a Nationwide All-Star Race, which currently does not exist.

"It has been (discussed)," O'Donnell said. "As we look at the Nationwide schedule in general, we're looking to create some quote-unquote majors. That would be looking at the championship format. We've talked about an All-Star Race or some type of special event, similar to what you saw with the Trucks going to Eldora.

"If there's something we could create around Iowa, that's something that's being discussed internally."