Whenever someone starts talking about adding a new track to the Sprint Cup schedule, Iowa seems to be at the top of the list.  Iowa is a great race track and does a wonderful job hosting the Trucks, Xfinity and IndyCars.  But, it's the wrong place to look if we're putting a new track on the Cup schedule.

The first problem is geography.  Iowa Speedway is only 230 miles from Kansas and 275 from Chicagoland.  There is a pretty good possibility that, in today's sports environment, they would cannibalize fans from those other tracks.  Indianapolis is a perfect example of how that can happen.  When the first Brickyard was run, Michigan was the closest track; 225 miles away.  Now, both Chicagoland and Kentucky are closer.  Folks in Indy believe that's one of the factors in their attendance drop.

Then, there's the question: how important is a good crowd at your Xfinity and Truck races?  As Kentucky has reinforced, once you add a Cup date, folks tend to focus their spending on the Cup date and leave the stands largely empty for the others.

So, where are the great untapped areas?  The Rocky Mountain states, but, outside of Denver and Salt Lake, there aren't a lot of people.  There are in the northwest, but, that area comes with its own set of challenges.  I didn't say finding new tracks for Cup races would be easy, I just don't believe Iowa is the right answer.