Following the curtain call at the Brickyard 400, the NASCAR Cup Series sets its sights on the 0.875-mile bullring at Iowa Speedway, returning for only the second time in its history. With the Truck Series hitting pause until next Friday’s showdown at Watkins Glen, the Xfinity Series will once again link arms with the Cup Series in this second act at the short track in Newton.
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And this time around, NASCAR has sweetened the pot, raising the bar with a heftier purse, giving drivers every reason to dig deep and master the difficulties of the short track.
The Cup Series purse climbs to $9,797,935, up from last year’s $8,881,630, covering everything from finishing positions to historical performance and year-end points bonuses. Meanwhile, the Xfinity Series will chase a boosted prize fund of $1,651,939, a sizable jump from the $1,408,568 offered last season. But cashing in won’t be a walk in the park.
Purses for Iowa weekend, including all payouts, all positions, plus year-end points fund, contingency awards, etc., and for Cup, all charter-based payouts for competing and historical performance.
Cup: $9,797,935
Xfinity: $1,651,939
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 30, 2025
The track’s layout, with 10 degrees of banking on the frontstretch, a modest four on the backstretch, and progressive banking ranging from 12 to 14 degrees in the turns, will promise to keep drivers at the edge of their seats.
With the Next Gen car continuing to wrestle with short-track setups, all eyes will be on whether tire fall-off comes into play and how pit strategies evolve under pressure.
Favorites for the Iowa Corn 350 race
Last year’s victor, Ryan Blaney, will undoubtedly lead the charge when it comes to fan support at Iowa Speedway. With a two-tire call from crew chief Jonathan Hassler during the final caution of last year’s race, Blaney wrested control of the lead and never looked back. He paced the field for the final 88 laps to enter his name in the record books as the first driver to win at Iowa in all three national NASCAR series, Truck, Xfinity, and Cup.
However, Blaney won’t have all the eyes to himself. Short track maestros Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, who have collectively bagged eight wins in the last 14 short track battles, will arrive as heavy favorites among seasoned NASCAR loyalists.
Christopher Bell, with back-to-back Xfinity wins at Iowa in 2018 and 2019, is no stranger to victory lane at this track. Alex Bowman, who took the checkered flag in the ARCA Menards Series in 2012, Chase Briscoe with a 2019 Xfinity win and a 2016 ARCA Menards triumph, and Chris Buescher, who conquered the Xfinity field in 2015, all bring winning history at Iowa to the table.
Adding further firepower to the mix, Kyle Busch, with wins in the 2010 Xfinity Series and the 2009 ARCA East/West showdown, and William Byron, who swept through Iowa in the Truck and Xfinity Series in 2016 and 2017, respectively, are names fans won’t want to take their attention off.
