NASCAR’s Cassill cut his teeth at Newton Kart Klub

Landon Cassill grew up racing at the Newton Kart Klub. His 4-year-old son competed in his first race at the NKK last summer.

Cassill loves what Iowa Speedway has become, but to him, the Newton Kart Klub has much more sentimental value.

“Iowa Speedway is near and dear to my heart,” Cassill said. “I was one of the first drivers to race on that track. But the Newton Kart Klub has nostalgia points for me. I raced there when I was 8 years old.”

Cassill, who won four state championships at the NKK in 2011, hasn’t been able to drive his Chevrolet Camaro on any track right now because of COVID-19.

But what he is doing is competing in eNASCAR’s iRacing Pro Invitational Series, a virtual racing simulation that has recently been simulcast on Fox TV affiliates.

“It’s been going on for about a decade really, but it’s taken off lately because we can’t be on the actual tracks right now,” Cassill said.

“It’s been a heck of a journey. They use realistic race tracks and the driving is so similar to the real world.”

Cassill started fifth and finished fourth at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 125 at Texas Motor Speedway.

“It was a great race for me,” Cassill said. “We had good speed and good speed in testing. I made a conservative move that hurt me during the race but I felt like it helped me later as it saved my car and my tires.”

A lot of the current drivers are competing in iRacing while the regular NASCAR seasons are on hold.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished sixth in the race at Texas, while Kyle Larson was ninth, Kurt Busch finished 10th and Clint Bowyer was 11th.

Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Greg Biffle also competed in the simulated race.

Fox Sports also used Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon to call the race at Texas. The first iRacing event of the series had more than 770,000 viewers.

“It’s just as intense as a normal race,” Cassill said. “It’s really cool. You make the same motions that you do in a racecar but you are not risking your life to do it.”

Cassill said there’s not official point standings for iRacing, but he sits around sixth overall if you added up the points like a real-life NASCAR series.

He was 20th in the latest race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Cassill, a Cedar Rapids native, hopes his success in iRacing can lead to more sponsorships for the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

He has started three Xfinity races this season but did not finish any of them.

“That is basically intentional,” Cassill said. “The biggest thing for us right now is sponsorship. We don’t have the budget to get through a whole race but we have to start the race to get more funding. iRacing is hopefully something we can pick up sponsors for.

Contact Troy Hyde at
641-792-3121 ext. 6536 or thyde@newtondailynews.com