Newton reaches two milestones thanks in part to Iowa Speedway

NEWTON Iowa — The Iowa Speedway came to town on the heels of Newton losing it’s largest employer — Maytag.

The first goal achieved was increasing Newton’s population. While the Iowa Speedway did not directly cause the population to rise, it has been a factor in drawing visitors to the area.

The speedway did attract one resident, who stayed and wanted to help grow the town in a more direct way.

“I myself moved here for Iowa Speedway, obviously, I came here to be the vice president and general manager for Iowa Speedway in 2006,” said Craig Armstrong. “It was still under construction and I got to see the very first race and a lot of of the really important historical moments in Iowa Speedway’s development.”

After working in Newton at the Iowa Speedway, it came time to move on to a new speedway job somewhere, but Armstrong did not want to leave Newton.

“I fell in love with Newton, I mean I just fell in love with the character of the city,” said Armstrong. “I grew up in Portland, Oregon, which is right now you know approaching 1 million, it was a great place to grow up, but I gotta tell you living here in Newton, we have all the assets of a big city.”

Armstrong worked for the City of Newton in Economic Development after leaving the Iowa Speedway. That was ten years ago. He’s seen the city grow, as 52% of the families buying new homes were coming from outside of Newton. The city began a $10,000 cash incentive for people to build new homes in town.

Since 2015, there have been 110 new homes constructed, at a total value of around $30 million dollars.

At the last census the Newton population was at 15,700, just over Newton’s highest population ever during the Maytag heydays in 1970, at 15,600.

“I couldn’t find anything that I would be able to to buy over in Grinnell, places available here plus we’ve got grandkids and great grandkids,” Said Sam Reaves who built a house here using the $10,000 grant.

“There was an incentive, we did get $10,000. We moved in two days before the derecho, four years ago and my daughter and my son-in-law and three grandchildren live on the other side of town,” said Amy Roth, who moved here with her husband from Aurora, IL.

The other goal was directly on the Iowa Speedway, attracting it’s first NASCAR Cup race this weekend.

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