Since its inception in 2005, Iowa Speedway has been a family affair. The 7/8-mile speedway located in the hills outside Newton was developed and built by a family company, then sold in June to another.

Brothers Stan and Conrad Clement, along with other family members, bought the speedway on June 30 from Manatt’s Inc. — a family construction business based in Brooklyn, Iowa.

“The Manatt family that owned it — Manatt’s Construction — they had a five-year plan when they financed it and built it,” Conrad said. “And they wanted to be out of it in five years, so that’s what we were doing.”

Conrad, the new chairman, came on board in June with his sons Tracy and Eric, who each now own a minority stake. They joined Stan and his sons Luke and Tyler. Stan, who was CEO since the beginning of Iowa Speedway, simply reunited a family that has been in business together for years.

“We’d always been in agribusiness, Conrad and I together years back,” Stan said. “[We were] in the grain elevator business back in the ’70s and ’80s, and I’ve always been kind of a little bit in the development and real estate kind of thing. We had Clement Grain Co.”

Both just high school graduates, Stan and Conrad are the very definition of self-made men. The brothers worked right from graduation, both climbing the proverbial ladder of success to become the heads of companies.

“I was the president, chairman and CEO of Featherlite Inc. for 18 years,” Conrad said. “We sold that company. Eric, my youngest son, he’s still the executive vice president and general manager of Featherlite, Inc.”

The trailer-building company — which provides the large haulers that transport cars and equipment from shop to track on race weekends —connected Conrad with motorsports in a big way. He said he’s been involved with NASCAR, IndyCar and many other major motorsports since 1991 with Featherlite.

But when Stan saw the opportunity to take over ownership of the Speedway when the Manatts’ five-year plan was up, he brought in his older brother — and also gave NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace, who designed the track, 5 percent ownership — to help further the goals he and his family have for the facility.

“That’s our long-range goal, there’s no question about that,” Conrad said of getting a Sprint Cup race at Iowa Speedway. “There’s just no dates available, and [NASCAR is] not going to extend the schedule out, one of [the other dates] has to be moved from another race, and that’s easier said than done. It takes time.

“We feel we’ll be able to get that done. We’ve got the track. Everybody likes the Iowa Speedway.”

Iowa Speedway currently has the ability to seat more than 48,000 people, but would likely need to expand to 70,000 to 80,000 to facilitate a Sprint Cup crowd. That, both Stan and Conrad said, is easy enough to accomplish.

“The infrastructure is here, it was built for expansion,” Conrad said. “There’s really no limit. It’s just a matter of how high.”

Conrad went on to say he thought the chances of getting a Sprint Cup date at Iowa Speedway was in the “high 90 percents” in the next “two-three-four years.” Stan echoed his brother by, not surprisingly, saying he believes his facility is second to none.

“I don’t know what [track] it’d be,” Stan said of any other tracks being ahead of Iowa Speedway for the shot at a Sprint Cup date. “There’s nobody better than us. We like to brag a little bit, but it’s the truth.”