Kyle Larson not worried about state of Iowa’s racetrack despite drawing concern from Denny Hamlin

Kyle Larson has said he is far from worried about the repaved track at Iowa for Sunday's Iowa Corn 350, unlike Denny Hamlin. In his recent interview, the Hendrick Motorsports driver revealed that the condition of the Iowa Speedway does not bother him.

NASCAR is in Iowa for the 17th Cup Series race of the season. After adding the track to its calendar in 2023, the governing body introduced the Cup Series race this year, the racetrack's very first in its history.

Amid this, there were talks about the Iowa Speedway track's partial re-pavement, which raised multiple eyebrows. One among them was Denny Hamlin, who recently questioned NASCAR's treatment of the Iowa Speedway.

However, Kyle Larson did not seem to have an issue with the newly paved track. The Hendrick Motorsports driver is in scintillating form this season and would expect to continue his successful run at Iowa on Sunday.

Speaking about the track, the #5 driver said in an interview with Frontstrech's Mark Kristl:

"I don't know. I'm not sure why people are blowing so many tires right now. See, I haven't have time to talk to the team, I don't think even they've time to, you know, study tires on our end, as an organization. So, yeah, I'm not really sure what the answer is yet." (0:35 - 0:49)

Although not announced officially, reports say that the Speedway authority made a few changes to the layout during the Goodyear test in May this year. This justifies why Hamlin was unhappy with the current condition and decided to be a whistleblower. On this, he said:

"It shows where NASCAR is a little different. We don't have standards when it comes to facilities. We have standards, but they are very very loose. I don't buy the fact that we ran out of time."

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"Repairs not going to be an issue," says Elton Sawyer, senior VP of NASCAR

NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350 - Practice NEWTON, IOWA - JUNE 14: A general view of cars on track during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350

NASCAR responded to Denny Hamlin's claim on the Iowa track and clarified their vision. Elton Sawyer, the current Senior Vice President of NASCAR, revealed that the repairs made in Iowa Speedway will not be an issue.

"Aesthetically, it looks a little different than what we would normally go into a facility (and see). But we’re confident the repairs are to a high level, and it’s not going to be an issue and we’re still going to have some multi groove racing around the racetrack. We’re looking forward to getting out there and getting cars on the racetrack and seeing exactly how things unfold," Sawyer stated.

Iowa Speedway is relatively new to the sport, compared to other race tracks as it opened its door to NASCAR in 2006. However, NASCAR hosted their last race on this track back in 2019, when Xfinity and Truck Series races were regular from 2011 to 2019.