NEWTON, Iowa — Sukup IndyCar Race Weekend action was halted Friday afternoon thanks to rain during the Indy NXT practice. Things took another turn when a tornado warning was issued, with the sirens blaring. Practice and qualifying were postponed until Saturday morning. 

There were a few voices throughout the speedway that provided important information to the fans, crews, and workers: the public announcers. 

Todd Steinkamp has been a track announcer at Iowa Speedway for 13 years. 

“I started back in 2012. The color announcer was sick. They asked if I would fill in, and then the next year, their main announcer was not going to be here anymore. And they said, Would you be interested? Because we’d had a relationship with them through our radio station,” Steinkamp said. “I said, sure, and from there, here we are now in 2025 and still having fun out here.”

He doesn’t have to travel far, as he lives near Marshalltown. His day job is owning and running KIX 101.1. But when NASCAR or IndyCar is in town, he’s at “The Fastest Short Track on the Planet.”

“It’s an honor. To have fans come up and say oh I love listening to you on the PA or on the radio. It’s not something I take for granted by any means,” he said. “It’s a job, but they’re paying us to have some fun and that’s pretty cool too.”

Fun with thousands listening, as he sits up above in the booth with his PA partner. 

“Typically where myself and Lou call the races from is from right down here. We’ll simply throw on our headsets. We have communications back to the IndyCar trucks, so we will talk to them.”

And now, Steinkamp is traveling to a few other tracks to work race weekends.

“For NASCAR, I’ve done Las Vegas. I did 3 races out there. Last year I did Milwaukee and Detroit. I do here in Iowa and then I go to Nashville at the end of August for the championship race there.”