How did the Iron Bowl get its nickname and was it related to a local racetrack?

When did the rival football game between Auburn and the University of Alabama become known as the “Iron Bowl?” And why?
By this time, many people know the nickname comes from the iron industry that defined Birmingham, the city where the games were initially played. Click through the gallery at the top of this story for more photos.
But…could it have been inspired by another iconic Iron Bowl in Birmingham, a stock-car and motorcycle racing track that closed in 1961? Let’s check the history.
The speedway
In 1939, two Birmingham men, J.P. Bolton and Shine Franklin, built a track for International Motor Contest Association races, according to BhamWiki.
The Birmingham News is filled with advertisements for races and stories about the winners throughout its existence.
The 3/8th-mile oval dirt track speedway on Tarrant-Huffman Road closed in 1942 because of World War II and reopened in 1946. Following reopening, most events were stock car races. The Iron Bowl track closed for good in 1961, apparently in the same era when people began casually referring to the Auburn-Alabama game as the Iron Bowl.
The track was located only two miles from Eastlake Park, where the first Auburn-Alabama game was played, and just 10 miles or so from Legion Field.
While there’s no evidence the two were connected, the timing and their locations does create curiosity.
The Iron Bowl football game
While some sources claim the name “Iron Bowl” was coined in the 1950s and used unofficially, a search of Birmingham News editions on newspapers.com showed it wasn’t used in an article until 1965, which jibes with a story by Jeremy Gray on AL.com stating that the nickname was first spoken in 1964 by Auburn head coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan.
In 1964, Auburn was touted by Sports Illustrated as the best in the nation. Coach Jordan was asked by reporters if he thought his team would make it to a postseason bowl game.
Bryan recalled Jordan’s response in a 1995 article: “We’ve got our bowl game. We have it every year. It’s the Iron Bowl in Birmingham.”
The series of football games between the state’s biggest rivals has been played sporadically since 1893. That first game was played at Lakeview Park in Birmingham at a time when football stadiums didn’t even exist, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. It was called simply the “Auburn-Alabama game.”
After Legion Field was completed on Graymont Avenue in downtown Birmingham in 1927, the matchups were played there because it was considered a “neutral” location.
The series wasn’t played between 1907-1948 due to contractual disagreements over per diem pay. Since 1948, the game has been played annually.
In 1989, the game was played at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare stadium for the first time. These days, the two colleges play at their home stadiums in alternate years.
The name “Iron Bowl” is now also used for games that predate the creation of the nickname.