The Iowa Speedway in Newton would get eight-million dollars in state taxpayer support over the next four years under a proposal approved by the Iowa Senate Tuesday night. Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, says the money would help the track prepare to host a Sprint Cup race. “The Sprint Cup is the ‘Holy Grail’ of NASCAR racing,” Dotzler says. “It’s the ‘big boys and girls’ race and it’s the one that’s most popular — probably one of the most popular sporting events in America, really.” The Newton track is popular with the drivers, according to Dotzler.

“Last year the Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, after he won the national championship at the Sprint Cup, said we need to come to Iowa,”Dotzler says. “NASCAR needs to change. We need to get back to what racing was about: short-track racing, door-to-door banging racing. And the Iowa Speedway offers some of the most exciting races in the country and they’re excited. It’s a racer’s track.” The Senate proposal would send two-million dollars in each of the next four years to the operators of the Newton track, for marketing and infrastructure improvements.

“Because you draw huge crowds — we had 60,000 at the Nationwide race — they have to put up additional bleachers,” Dotzler says. “There’s rest room stuff; there’s additional parking; there’s a lot of things that need to be done at the track to get it really ‘Cup’ ready and that’s what these dollars would be about.” Dotzler admits there’s “no guarantee” the Iowa Speedway will land a Sprint Cup race within four years. “But the people that are in the know about NASCAR are saying that Iowa’s kind of next in line,” Dotzler says. “They’re looking to Iowa, but we’ve kind of got to get our ducks in a row before they’re going to make that committment and it’s a big committment ’cause it’s a big-time thing and it’s pretty exciting for Iowa.”

Dotzler says the Iowa Speedway owners will invest far more than the state would spend on the track, as getting a big race like this could require an outlay of millions for the rights alone. The proposal to send state tax dollars to the Iowa Speedway was included in a huge bill dealing with a wide variety of taxing, spending and policy issues that cleared the Iowa Senate Tuesday night. No one objected or even mentioned the eight-million dollars for the track during Senate debate and the governor isn’t ruling out the idea.

A spokesman for Governor Branstad says Branstad “will need to review the legislation in its final form prior to indicating the action he will take.” A spokeswoman for Republicans who control the debate agenda in the Iowa House says the G-O-P “will take a look at” the proposal and “then make a decision.” The Iowa Speedway has permanent seating for 30-thousand fans and held its first race in the fall of 2006. The track itself is seven-eighths of a mile and was designed by driver Rusty Wallace. Senator Dotzler, by the way, has eight season tickets to the Iowa Speedway and describes himself as a “life-long racing fan.”

“I grew up in racing,” Dotzler says. “My first job was working at a stock car track, selling peanuts and ice cream when I was in junior high school.” Several years ago, before the Newton race track was built, legislators voted to let the track to keep sales tax revenue from sales of tickets and other track merchandise to help finance construction. That tax plan was extended to developers of a sports complex around the Field of Dreams in Dyersville.

(Radio Iowa)

CHICAGO (AP) — Travis Wood pitched impressively into the seventh inning to outduel Lance Lynn, Nate Schierholtz hit a two-run homer and the Chicago Cubs snapped the St. Louis Cardinals’ six-game winning streak with a 2-1 victory Tuesday night. The Cardinals’ streak was their longest since an eight-game run July 11-21, 2010. Wood (2-3) allowed one run and five hits while striking out eight in 6 2-3 innings for his first win since April 27 at Miami.

Carlos Marmol relieved Wood with two outs in the seventh and pitched 1 1-3 scoreless innings. In the eighth he allowed a single to Yadier Molina and walked Jon Jay before getting out of the inning by picking Molina off between second and third. Lynn (5-1) was trying to become the National League’s first pitcher to win six games.

CHICAGO (AP) — St. Louis Cardinals closer Jason Motte had season-ending Tommy John surgery Tuesday. Motte tweeted the ligament replacement surgery on his right elbow “went well.” “One day closer to getting back out there then yesterday,” he wrote on Twitter. The Cardinals announced before their game against the Cubs that they had activated first baseman Matt Adams (right oblique) from the disabled list.

Motte was placed on the Cardinals’ disabled list March 29 with right elbow soreness. After trying to rehab the injury and play catch, the team decided he should have the elbow-ligament replacement procedure. Motte saved 42 games in 2012 with a 2.75 ERA. Edward Mujica has taken over as the closer for St. Louis. He has converted all eight of his chances and has a 2.08 ERA.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs have hired longtime Bears personnel man Chris Ballard to be their director of player personnel. Chiefs general manager John Dorsey announced the move Tuesday. Ballard has spent the past 12 seasons with the Bears, rising from an area scout to serving last season as their director of pro scouting. Among the player he helped draft were running back Matt Forte, cornerback Charles Tillman and defensive tackle Tommie Harris.

Before joining the NFL, Ballard spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville, where he helped tutor current Chiefs assistant defensive backs coach Al Harris. Dorsey said that Ballard is respected around the league, and called him “a tremendous talent evaluator and a great fit for our staff.”

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Joey Logano will run a NASCAR Nationwide race in Iowa in June, the night before competing in a Sprint Cup event at Pocono. The Iowa Speedway says Logano will return to its .875-mile track for its Nationwide opener on June 8. Logano beat Kevin Harvick in a K&N Pro Series race at Iowa in 2007 and led the first competitive lap ever run at the track as a 16-year-old in 2006.

Logano says that racing at Iowa and Pocono should be fun and that he’s looking to go “two-for-two” for the weekend. Logano is the biggest driver yet committed to Iowa’s first Nationwide race of the season. The track will host another Nationwide race in August in addition to an IndyCar event and two Camping World Trucks series races.