- Superstars Racing Experience is a six-week IROC-style race series featuring drivers from NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA
- Drivers race on short tracks in series-prepared cars.
- Opening night is at Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Conn. (ESPN, 9 p.m. EST)
The Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) Series returns on July 13, and past series champ and co-founder Tony Stewart says the goal for Season 3 is not all that different from what it was when the series first came off the drawing board.
The recipe for success is still fairly simple: Condense an entire night of short-track racing into a two-hour TV window, bring racing superstars from different disciplines, and keep things entertaining for the fans.
This year’s action can be found on six consecutive Thursdays on ESPN. Opening night will be from Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Conn. (ESPN, 9 p.m. EST)
As part of ESPN’s first-year coverage of SRX, the network is bringing back its Thursday Night Thunder branding that was previously used for the network’s popular short-track racing coverage that dates back to the 1980s. In fact, Tony Stewart won the last Thursday Night Thunder event that closed the door to that Thursday night showcase on the network in 2002.
“That’s one thing that I feel like has been super impressive to watch is how we keep trying to evolve and find ways to make things better,” 2021 SRX champion Stewart said. “And it’s that way across the entire two-hour program is how do we make this better for the drivers, how do we make it better for the fans, how do we make it better for TV?
“We’re always constantly trying to figure out what we’ve already done and make it better, and that’s something that’s really important to us.”
Stewart and event organizers have had no trouble selling the idea to tracks and drivers. No fewer than 44 tracks checked in to see if they could be on this year’s schedule.
It’s also a popular series for drivers. Regulars running for the championship include 2022 champion Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Paul Tracy from IndyCar; Hailie Deegan, Brad Keselowski, Bobby Labonte, Ryan Newman and Ken Schrader from NASCAR; and Stewart (NASCAR/IndyCar/NHRA).
Part-time SRX drivers this year are Ron Capps from NHRA, Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden and Tony Kanaan from IndyCar; and Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth and Daniel Suarez from NASCAR.
And, no, Stewart hasn’t been able to convince everyone he’s asked to join the SRX.
“I still want to get Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. and Jeff Gordon in cars,” Stewart said. “That’s two guys that are superstars, and that’s what this series is about is about—superstar drivers. Those are two guys that for sure belong in this series and have earned their right to drive in this series. I know the fans would love to see both of those guys back behind the wheel of race cars again.
“I think they both have pretty full plates is the main reason (they’re not in). You know, Jeff is obviously very active with Hendrick Motorsports, and Dale Jr. has got his plethora of projects that he’s a part of. For those two guys in particular, with all the business interests that they have, it made it a little complicated to get them in for six weeks.”
The eye-opener of those on the driver roster for the series is the number of current NASCAR Cup Series, NTT IndyCar Series and NHRA drivers who are planning to make time in their schedules to participate in the Thursday-night short track event. Those drivers, says SRX CEO Don Hawk, have the blessing of their respective series for the extracurricular racing.
“I’ve been in direct communication with (NASCAR CEO and chairman) Jim France, and we’re good,” said Don Hawk, CEO of the SRX series. “I’ve been in direct communication with (IndyCar chief) Roger Penske, and we’re good. I’ve been in direct communication with (NHRA president Glen) Cromwell, and we’re good.
“I promise you, when I started getting drivers texting me saying, ‘I want to race,’ and they were full-time in Cup. I called Jim France, and we are good.”
Despite what you might think, three-time NHRA champion Ron Capps is no stranger to turning left on a racetrack.
Capps, a three-time NHRA drag racing champion who is scheduled to race in the SRX event at Eldora on August 10, is excited to get the chance to mix things up with some of the best racers from other disciplines and get a little out of his comfort zone. He’s no stranger to dirt-track racing and was even part of every one of Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream dirt Late Model races held at Eldora from 2005-12.
Like the SRX, the Prelude to the Dream was set up in the spirit of the old International Race of Champions that featured drivers from different disciplines.
2023 SRX Schedule
- July 13 – Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway; 9 p.m., ESPN
- July 20 – Thunder Road Speedbowl, Barre, Vermont; 9 p.m., ESPN
- July 27 – Motor Mile Speedway, Redford, Va.; 9 p.m., ESPN
- Aug. 3 – Berlin Raceway, Grand Rapids, Mich.; 9 p.m., ESPN
- Aug. 10 – Eldora Speedway, New Weston, Ohio; 9 p.m., ESPN
- Aug. 27 – Lucas Oile Speedway, Wheatland, Mo.; 9 p.m., ESPN
“I looked forward to that every year,” Capps said. “It was pretty neat to go run with pretty much the best racers in the world. I was one of the few to do every one of those. It’s an event Tony Stewart started pretty much and a IROC type of thing. His plan was to take all these NASCAR and IndyCar drivers and put them in dirt Late Models and see how everybody does in something they’re not comfortable with and all in the same type of car. It just exploded the first couple of years.”
Now, Capps is back to race with NASCAR and IndyCar regulars once again. The three-time Funny Car champion is not only carrying the torch for NHRA, but is featured in some of the ESPN promos on the air.
“I was super pumped when I saw it,” Capps said. “Man, to be mentioned with those guys and sandwiched between the drivers they put me in with. It’s going to be nuts.”
Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011. He won several Michigan Associated Press and national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for auto racing coverage and was named the 2000 Michigan Auto Racing Fan Club’s Michigan Motorsports Writer of the Year. A Michigan native, Mike spent three years after college working in southwest Florida before realizing that the land of Disney and endless summer was no match for the challenge of freezing rain, potholes and long, cold winters in the Motor City.
Read the full article here