Hy-Vee pumps millions into Iowa for IndyCar extravaganza
NEWTON, Iowa — The longtime premise in Iowa of “If you build it, he will come” originates with the 1989 “Field of Dreams” movie.
A twist on the slogan could be used this weekend at Iowa Speedway, where sponsor Hy-Vee has taken an “if you promote it, they will come” approach to the starstudded IndyCar doubleheader that is being billed as one of the most anticipated race events of the year.
The grocery chain headquartered in West Des Moines has spent approximately $10 million to rejuvenate the 7/8-mile (1.4 km) paved oval built in 2006 to recruit top musical acts to perform Saturday and Sunday and stage family-friendly events all over the Iowa Speedway facility.
“I think this is a big, big deal for the city, and I don’t say this in a disparaging way, but if you look at a lot of these small towns in Iowa, these small towns are struggling and they need a boost,” Hy-Vee CEO Randy Edeker said. “We feel like Hy-Vee should be investing in smalltown Iowa right now. We should be out helping them grow, finding something that we can be proud of and put together three or four days that will be great for the city.”
Hy-Vee opened Iowa Speedway for free to fans for
Friday’s practices and expects about 40,000 spectators a day for the Saturday and Sunday races. The grocer wrote checks to sign Tim McGraw, Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton and Florida Georgia Line for pre- and postrace concerts, and there’s a competition among food trucks located across the property.
It’s the kind of push that could turn Iowa Speedway into a destination IndyCar race the way its current street-course stops in St. Petersburg, Long Beach, Nashville, Toronto and next year Detroit are celebrated. Those weekends are part IndyCar race, part street festival and all-day family fun.
The race is being promoted in Hy-Vee stores across Iowa with ample signage and life-size cutouts of IndyCar driver Jack Harvey, who is in his first season sponsored by Hy-Vee at Rahal Letterman Lanigan. The British driver hails from a small English town nearly 4,000 miles away and HyVee has made Iowa Speedway feel like Harvey’s home race.
He said he gets stopped all over the Des Moines area — unfathomable to a Brit who has made his U.S. home in northside Indianapolis.
“I really hadn’t spent too much time in Iowa before, and I live in Indy and I’m from the U.K., and this feels like a home race for me,“Harvey said. “The amount of people that stop us to wish us good luck or say so on social media is just beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. You even walk into a Hy-Vee Fast and Fresh and you still can’t really escape us, which is hilarious in so many ways, just to see my face everywhere.”
NASCAR owns Iowa Speedway but the track is leased by Penske Entertainment for the IndyCar races, and Penske has full rights to transform the facility with the massive red Hy-Vee banners and open-air temporary suites located in Turn 1.