MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Ahead of last year’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, all Cody Ware had to go on was his work in the simulator. The NASCAR Cup Series driver had never made a start at Iowa in any series.
In 2026, Ware returns to the .875-mile oval with firsthand experience, allowing the 30-year-old racer to juxtapose his sim sessions with the reality of what he felt a year ago in the Hawkeye State.
“I learned the track is very abrasive,” said Ware when asked about the difference between racing Iowa in simulation and turning actual laps on its asphalt. “They’ve done some asphalt work, but it’s disconnected as far as where the new patches of pavement are compared to the old, and so that created a lack of forward drive. It definitely was one of the tougher races we had last year. But it was also tangible experience, too. We didn’t have that before.”
Simulation is incredibly valuable. The immersive, full-motion platform technology allows drivers and their teams to optimize their setups for individual track configurations, and for drivers to log practice laps ahead of an upcoming race weekend. It is as close to the real thing as drivers and teams can get, with a massive wrap-around, high-definition video screen that mimics the track from a driver’s perspective, complete with all the markers needed to note brake points and acceleration zones.
“For any race weekend, the sim is crucial,” Ware said. “It gives the team a chance to get the car dialed in, get us right for qualifying and, hopefully, get us a decent starting position. Without the sim, it would take me all of practice and qualifying to even have a semblance of what I need in the car.”
In this brave new world of computer and video technology, simulation is incredibly realistic, and drivers go to extra lengths to make it even more authentic.
“I wear my driving shoes to replicate the pedal feel inside the racecar, but the main thing is just the repetition and learning,” Ware said. “For me, the biggest thing is just the muscle memory, getting visuals, picking up markers, knowing what I need to look for on the race track before I actually get to the racetrack.”
Located less than 40 miles east of Des Moines, Iowa Speedway is a D-shaped oval that features variable banking. Its turns are banked between 12-14 degrees, the frontstretch is banked at 10 degrees, and the backstretch has just 4 degrees of banking.
Its layout was designed by NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace, and its similarity to the .75-mile Richmond (Va.) Raceway is no coincidence. Wallace claimed Richmond as one of his favorite tracks, and when he joined Iowa’s design team in 2003, Wallace used Richmond as his baseline.
Construction of Iowa began on June 21, 2005, and the facility made its public debut on Sept. 15, 2006, with a Hooters Pro Cup Series race during which driver Woody Howard became the track’s first victor. ARCA Menards Series races followed in 2006 and the IndyCar Series joined Iowa’s lineup in 2007.
The facility hosted the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series from 2009 through 2019, holding a total of 33 races (20 O’Reilly Series races and 13 Truck Series races). NASCAR had been absent from Iowa since 2020, with the 2024 Cup/O’Reilly double bill providing a welcome return to a track many in the industry have come to love.
“I was probably one of the only guys last year that hadn’t competed in a national series race at Iowa before, so to be able to go back with a Cup race under my belt is going to be pretty huge. That will definitely lessen that learning curve this time around,” Ware said.
