NEWTON, Iowa — Christopher Bell likes that the NASCAR Cup Series will be at Iowa Speedway for the first time.

Heading into Sunday’s race, the .875-mile track isn’t quite the one he remembers.

Bell has seven top-five finishes in nine starts at the track in NASCAR’s other series, including two wins in the Xfinity Series.

But the track has a different look this weekend after a partial repaving in the turns. The top-to-bottom racing that was a characteristic of the track in the past may not be there for Sunday’s 350-lap race.

“If we were on the old pavement, I feel like it would be a big advantage to have,” Bell said. “But with the repave we have, it’s essentially a new racetrack. I really think it’s anybody’s ballgame.”

An estimated 40,000 fans are expected for Sunday’s race. Tickets for Saturday and Sunday were sold out by the spring, and Friday’s Cup and Xfinity practice as well as an ARCA Menards Series race were nearly sold out.

The first Cup race is an accomplishment after years of the track trying to get on the schedule.

The track, designed by NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace, opened in 2006. The IndyCar Series held its first race at the track in 2007, with NASCAR’s Xfinity and Truck series coming to the track in 2009.

NASCAR purchased the track in 2013 to save it from financial problems, but it seemed destined for closing after the COVID-19 pandemic, when only an ARCA Menards Series race was held there in 2021. But the IndyCar Series, which skipped coming to the track in 2021, came back with doubleheaders in 2022 and 2023 that drew near-capacity crowds.

NASCAR then announced last fall that the track would be getting a Cup Series race this season, as well as a return of the Xfinity Series.

Eighteen of the drivers in Sunday’s field have at least one win at the track in one of NASCAR’s other series.

“I walked out here and I felt like it was a lot bigger than I remembered,” said Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won three Xfinity Series races here. “I felt like it was a pretty small short track, but obviously you get going pretty quick here.”

“It’s still Iowa, but it’s not the same Iowa,” said Chase Briscoe, who won the last Xfinity Series race at the track in 2019.

Bell had the same wistfulness.

“I miss the old Iowa,” he said.

Larson up front

Kyle Larson will start on the pole after posting a fast lap of 136.458 mph. Ryan Blaney was second at 136.311.

Saturday morning’s rain wiped out Xfinity Series qualifying and forced NASCAR to alter the Cup Series qualifying. Drivers went out in two groups, with the top five in each group filling the top 10 qualifying spots.

Larson was the last driver to go through qualifying.

“It helped to go at last,” Larson said. “I’m sure the track was getting a little bit better.”

If you build it

Joey Logano was 16 years old when he competed in the first race at Iowa Speedway, finishing 40th in a Hooters Pro Cup event. So he wasn’t surprised at the reception the Cup drivers have received this weekend.

“They love it,” said Logano, who won at the track less than a year later in a K&N Pro Series race. “I noticed that 20 years ago or whatever it was when the stands were packed for a Pro Cup race. So you can imagine what it’s like to get a Cup race. I joked around, I said, ‘I don’t know where all of these fans are coming from, there are a lot of corn fields out here.’ It’s kind of like the Field of Dreams.”

Hawkeye State

Corey LaJoie will get some attention from Iowa fans just because of his paint scheme. LaJoie’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet is carrying the Tigerhawk logo of the University of Iowa’s sports teams.

Gainbridge is LaJoie’s primary sponsor, and former Iowa’s women’s basketball player Caitlin Clark, who has her own endorsement deal with Gainbridge, made note of LaJoie’s car in a video released on social media on Friday.

“I know I’ll be rooting for the black-and-gold car,” said Clark, the reigning national player of the year who finished her college career as the NCAA’s Division I all-time scoring leader. She was the No. 1 pick in this year’s WNBA draft.

Actor Ethan Hawke praised the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in an interview with late-night host Stephen Colbert in May.

Hawke, who has starred in movies including “Before Sunrise,” “Training Day,” and “Boyhood,” is the director of “Wildcat,” a new film that depicts renowned author Flannery O’Connor. “Wildcat” is also the title of one of O’Connor’s works. Hawke’s daughter and “Stranger Things” actress Maya Hawke stars as O’Connor.

He was a guest on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” last month to discuss the new movie.

O’Connor was described by the New York Times as one of “the nation’s most promising writers” upon her death in 1964 at 39-years-old. She wrote short stories and novels including, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” “Wise Blood” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge.”

She attended the University of Iowa from 1945 to 1947, first pursuing journalism and was later accepted into the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, according to Lit City. O’Connor spent another year in Iowa City after she obtained her master’s degree.

What does Ethan Hawke say about the Iowa Writers’ Program?

Hawke explained a clip from “Wildcat” that Colbert was about to play and described O’Connor as a devout young woman at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

“Which is one of the most stunning,” Hawke began, pausing as some applause could be heard from the audience. “Yes, yes, let’s hear it for Iowa.”

“The writers that came out of this program, Wikipedia it, it will blow you away,” he said. “They change the way we think, this community of people.”

Hawke was introduced to O’Connor’s work through his mother, “trying to provoke” his inner feminist while he read male authors such as Jack Kerouac and Ernest Hemingway.

“She’s trying to get you to read something good,” Colbert quipped.

Hawke described to Colbert how his daughter approached him with interest about O’Connor’s work and discussed the author’s thought-provoking writing.

“Wildcat” marks Hawke’s first time directing his daughter. The film received a theatrical release in May.

Paris Barraza is a trending and general assignment reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at pbarraza@registermedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

greg wickencamp is a lifelong Iowan.

Community members from across the state took part in the national Teach Truth Day of Action on Saturday, June 8. The gathering responded to a national call from the Zinn Education Project and other nonprofit organizations, with more than 160 cities across the United States participating. Educators and social workers organized the event, with help from local nonprofits like the Antelope Lending Library, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Corridor Community Action Network, Great Plains Action Society, and the Human Restoration Project. Organizers and attendees advocated for public access to a robust and critical education—something conservative lawmakers have recently sought to ban in Iowa and across the country.

Once a leader in education, Iowa now faces teacher shortages, shuttering of districts and gutted libraries, and reduced access to crucial support services for children in poverty or with disabilities. Iowa’s GOP has been a nationwide leader in effectively banning books and critical histories, criminalizing LGBTQ+ youth, and funneling public money to private, unaccountable religious schools. This has earned the Reynolds’ administration kudos from anti-democratic moneyed networks and anti-student extremist groups.

The June 8 event took place at the historic College Green Park, blocks away from where John Brown and his band were once chased out of town by those advocating law and order. Brown and his raid on Harper’s Ferry would be a major catalyst for the Civil War and the end of slavery. In addition to training for the raid in West Branch, Iowa, he returned to Iowa many times, carefully navigating the divided political landscape.

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