DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -The Iowa Speedway was made great strides since it opened in 2006.
The Rusty Wallace-designed track has landed NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races for later this summer, and officials expect to draw more than 40,000 fans for the first time on Sunday for the third annual Iowa Corn Indy 250.
The track recently added 6,500 temporary seats, boosting the seating capacity to 36,500. With hospitality tents, suites and standing-room only tickets thrown in, Iowa Speedway president Jerry Jauron said he expects to draw about 42,000 for the Iowa 250.
The inaugural Iowa 250 race drew nearly 36,000 in 2007, and last year it drew more than 39,000.
"It is amazing, for a private track, to do what Iowa Speedway has done," Jauron said.
The real test for the track will come on Aug. 1, when it hosts its first Nationwide race, the U.S. Cellular 250. Jauron said the track has the capacity to expand to 60,000 seats, and he anticipates that they'll put in as many temporary seats as they can for the Nationwide event.
"Some venues, across all sports, are taking seats out. Iowa Speedway's adding them, at least on a temporary basis."
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THE LOANER: Ryan Hunter-Reay will run his first race for A.J. Foyt Racing after taking over for Vitor Meira, who broke two bones in his back in a crash at the Indianapolis 500.
Vision Racing had struggled to find primary sponsorship for Hunter-Reay's No. 21 car. Vision owner Tony George approached A.J. Foyt last week in Texas about having Hunter-Reay fill in for Meira, and he drove the No. 14 car for Foyt on Sunday.
Hunter-Reay plans to run for Foyt for the rest of the season.
"I guess you could call it a loan. I'm still a Vision Racing driver," Hunter-Reay said. "This is a great way to finish out the season. I'll just concentrate on punching above my weight there."
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MARCO'S BACK: Marco Andretti has always run well at Iowa, a 7/8-mile oval that's the second shortest on the IRL series behind Richmond. Andretti finished second here in 2007 and third in 2008 behind current Andretti-Green Racing teammate Hideki Mutoh.
Andretti is in eighth place after finishing seventh in 2008, and he's hoping that a return to one of his favorite tracks will help kick-start a push up the points standings.
"I didn't think I'd be sitting eighth at this point, but I'm still very optimistic, definitely, about the next few races if not the whole rest of the season," Andretti said. "I've always enjoyed coming to Iowa."
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SPARKPLUGS: Helio Castroneves was supposed to fly from Washington, D.C., on Friday to Des Moines, about a 40-minute drive from Newton, but he ran into an unspecified issue and had to change flights. IRL spokesman John Griffin said Castroneves would instead fly into Omaha, which is about 3 hours away, and be driven to Newton from there. ... Heavy rains swept through central Iowa on Friday afternoon, washing out an Indy Lights practice. The 45-minute session was postponed until Saturday morning. Rain forced officials to cancel Iowa 250 qualifying last year.
