Indy car driver Ed Carpenter says he is not surprised that attendance is on the rise at the Iowa Speedway in Newton. The Indycar Series returns fror the third straight year on June 21st for the Iowa Corn Indy 250.

Carpenter says he’s raced in Iowa a long time and always had big crowds for spring car races, and he realizes what great fans there are in Iowa. Carpenter has finished in the top ten at the Indianapolis 500 the past two years and is hoping for better luck when he returns to Iowa in less than three weeks.

He says at Iowa he’s had good races, but had some weird stuff happen. Last year a suspension failure took him out of the race.

Carpenter says while he has been at at Iowa the past two years he is taking nothing for granted.