“We’re confident”: NASCAR insists there’s no reason to worry about Iowa repave Denny Hamlin called out

NASCAR is all set to take the Cup racing to Iowa Speedway for the first time this Sunday. Ahead of the race, the racetrack underwent a partial repave, one which raised some eyebrows, with Denny Hamlin notably calling out the way the racetrack looked.

However, NASCAR's Elton Sawyer suggests there's no reason to worry. Sawyer admitted that while there wasn't enough time for a full repave, they went with the best possible option, which was to tackle the individual parts of the track that needed work. As quoted by Racer.com, Sawyer said,

"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."

He added that as they head into the weekend, they're not expecting any issues with the surface of the racetrack. It's worth mentioning that Iowa Speedway is a relatively new racetrack, having opened its doors to racing in 2006. Since 2019, the track has been under the ownership of NASCAR.

The last time NASCAR hosted a race on the track was in 2019, as the Xfinity and Truck races ran there from 2011 until 2019.

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Denny Hamlin is not a fan of the way Iowa Speedway's track looks ahead of NASCAR's return

On a recent episode of "Actions Detrimental" podcast, Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts on the state of Iowa Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver claimed the track "does not look great."

Hamlin pointed to the inconsistent lanes, with one on the bottom and then another partial one on the top. The #11 driver further shrugged off NASCAR's reasoning of not having enough time to do a full repave with pretty strong words.

"You didn’t have time for that? I don’t know. It shows where NASCAR is a little different. We don’t have standards when it comes to facilities. We have standards but they’re very, very loose. We don’t have surface standards or anything like that. I don’t buy the fact that we ran out of time and it’s too cold. Like, they literally just patched this thing up," Hamlin said.

Hamlin claimed that although he praised NASCAR recently for their paving jobs some time ago, but when it came to Iowa repave, it's not "ideal". He wished the race could've been held on the old Iowa surface. But considering it wasn't in good shape and if it were to rain on Sunday, it would've turned out "really bad."

Having said that, Denny Hamlin admitted that he understands NASCAR having to pave tracks but leaving "two at least full lanes" unpaved was confusing according to him.