Iowa
Iowa Democratic Party chair steps down after caucus move
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The top of the Iowa Democratic Celebration plans to step down within the wake of a vote by the nationwide celebration to place the South Carolina major forward of Iowa’s caucuses, which have lengthy been the primary presidential nominating contest within the nation.
Ross Wilburn introduced Saturday that he gained’t run for reelection as celebration chairman in January.
“Nobody can predict the longer term. However I’ve the utmost religion that whoever takes up the mantle subsequent will information our celebration with grace by way of the challenges forward, as all of us proceed to work on rising our celebration and electing Democrats who will battle for the concepts we all know are supported by a robust majority of Iowans,” Wilburn mentioned in a press release.
Along with shedding their first-in-the-nation standing, Democrats misplaced a number of key races within the state final month as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley cruised to reelection and two longtime Democratic workplace holders misplaced their positions.
The following chairman will lead Iowa Democrats as they determine whether or not to conform with the nationwide celebration’s determination or comply with a state regulation that requires the caucuses to be held a minimum of eight days earlier than some other presidential nominating contest.
If the state celebration doesn’t go together with the nationwide celebration’s determination, Iowa Democrats will run the chance that its delegates won’t rely towards the nationwide nominating whole.
Wilburn, who was the celebration’s first Black chairman, will stay a state consultant.
Copyright 2022 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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Iowa
Sam Mayer celebrates Iowa Xfinity win but also explains what 'makes me so mad'
NEWTON, Iowa — Runner-up Riley Herbst ran into winner Sam Mayer’s car after Saturday’s Xfinity race at Iowa Speedway but when Mayer explained what “makes me so mad,” he wasn’t referencing that contact.
Mayer, who turns 21 on June 26, earned his second victory of the season and his sixth in 99 career Xfinity starts.
Sam Mayer scored his sixth career Xfinity win Saturday at Iowa
While NASCAR’s Silly Season has focused on where the Stewart-Haas Racing drivers could go or where Craftsman Truck Series driver Corey Heim could be headed, Mayer’s name rarely is mentioned among the young prospects for potential Cup rides.
Asked about that after the race, Mayer said: “Yeah, it kind of pisses me off, to be honest with you. I feel like we’ve proved ourselves a lot more. Like I’m dead serious. It makes me so mad that my name isn’t in more hats for race teams. So hopefully today kind of put my name in a couple of them. We’re working really hard. I want to go Sunday racing, obviously, one day. How soon? I don’t know.
“Me, (Herbst), all those guys, there are so many people in the top five and top 10 that have something to prove. If you can be top dog in those guys, I feel like you deserve it.”
Mayer’s win was his seventh top-four finish in the last nine races. His Iowa victory marked his first victory on a short track. His other wins had come at road courses (Road America, Watkins Glen and Charlotte Roval) and 1.5-mile tracks (Homestead and Texas).
Highlights: NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa
Watch the best moments from the NASCAR Xfinity Series HyVee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway.
As for what happened after the race? Herbst ran into Mayer’s car and flattened Mayer’s left rear tire.
“I like racing Sam, but stage one or two he just absolutely brooms me,” Herbst told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns after the race. “We were racing clean for fourth and takes us back to 10th and then doors me down the back straightaway before the green-white-checker. It’s just frustrating the way he wants to do that.”
Herbst later said: “There’s no issue. I was just frustrated by the way … he slid me, I think it was stage one or two and he wasn’t clear. He drove both of us up to the fence in Turns 1 and 2. … At the end, it was fair racing on the green-white-checkered. It was fun. I enjoy racing Sam, but I was frustrated early in the race.”
Said Mayer of the contact after the race from Herbst: “I knew immediately it was either … ‘I hate you’ or ‘Congratulations.’ I think that we know the answer to that unfortunately. I feel really bad. Obviously I got into him earlier.
“It was so top dominant there at the end. We were all fighting for literally four feet of asphalt around the whole race track. Just did all I could to get there and just overstepped it a little bit.”
Herbst recaps runner-up finish, racing with Mayer
Riley Herbst comes up just short in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway and expresses his frustration with the way Sam Mayer raced him on the final restart, but feels encouraged with the No. 98’s speed.
Iowa
NASCAR's Cup Series comes to Iowa, but it's not the same track the drivers remember
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.
Chase Briscoe does a burnout after winning a NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race, Saturday, July 27, 2019, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. Iowa Speedway, which opened in 2006, gets its long awaited NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, June 16, 2024. Credit: AP/Matthew Putney
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.
Chase Briscoe does a burnout after winning a NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race, Saturday, July 27, 2019, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. Iowa Speedway, which opened in 2006, gets its long awaited NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, June 16, 2024. Credit: AP/Matthew Putney
“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.
Iowa
Ethan Hawke praises Iowa Writers’ Workshop in interview about alum Flannery O’Connor movie
![Ethan Hawke praises Iowa Writers’ Workshop in interview about alum Flannery O’Connor movie](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/05/08/USAT/73609194007-gty-2148349114.jpg?auto=webp&crop=5470,3076,x8,y69&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Maya Hawke plays Flannery O’Connor in ‘Wildcat’ movie with Ethan Hawke
Maya Hawke (“Asteroid City,” “Do Revenge”) stars as writer Flannery O’Connor in new drama “Wildcat,” directed by dad Ethan Hawke (“Boyhood”).
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.
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