All Eyes on Marco Andretti Ahead of SRX Championship at Sharon Speedway in Ohio

• The second six-week season of the Superstar Racing Experience concludes Saturday night at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio.

• Marco Andretti comes into Saturday’s race as the series leader, with just 15 points separating the four championship contenders.

• Whether he repeats as series champion or not, Tony Stewart suggested there may be a slight change in the SRX structure for its third season in 2023.

We’ve barely had time enough to blink and, voila, here we are already: the second six-week season of the Superstar Racing Experience concludes Saturday night at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio (8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount-Plus).

IndyCar driver Marco Andretti and NASCAR driver Ryan Newman are both in contention to win the first championships of any type in their respective careers, while former NASCAR Cup champs Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte are also in the championship hunt. Stewart, who was one of the SRX’s co-founders, is also going for his second consecutive SRX title.

Andretti comes into Saturday’s race as the series leader, with just 15 points separating the four championship contenders.

While Andretti’s father, Michael, and legendary grandfather, Mario, won several championships between them, Marco has not, something he wants to change once and for all on Saturday.

“I don't want to finish second anymore, that’s my plan,” Andretti said. “It definitely would be nice to go out in the best way: on top.”

For the second straight season, Andretti has been running only a partial race schedule. He competed in the Indianapolis 500 in May and is in SRX for the second straight season. He’d like nothing better than to lift the championship trophy Saturday night at Ohio’s Sharon Speedway, which is co-owned by sprint car racing legend Dave Blaney.

Speaking of Blaney, he and his son, NASCAR star Ryan Blaney, will be the “ringers” in Saturday’s SRX event.

Stewart comes into the championship race having earned two wins this season. Including SRX’s debut campaign last year, Stewart is the only driver to have won more than once in the series, with two wins in 2021 and two others this season, including this past Saturday at Pevely, Mo.

Andretti (last year), Newman and Labonte (both this year) all have just one win apiece in the series. Also of note: even though he hasn’t won this year, Andretti has vaulted to the top of the standings due to consistency: he’s finished runner-up in each of the last three races.

“That's from being steady in the heat races like we have—there’s points for the heat races, too—and the last three podiums,” Andretti said. “I'm just trying to be consistent and try to obviously average out better than the others. Now I’ve gotta do it for three races this weekend.”

Stewart has slowed down his own post-NASCAR exploits. He has driven a significantly scaled-down sprint car schedule, mainly to oversee his new NHRA drag racing team that features wife and Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett (won for the first time for the team this past Sunday near Denver) and Funny Car driver Matt Hagan.

“I don't want to come across as retired; I'm not retired,” Stewart said emphatically. “But I’ve stepped aside from running my sprint car this year because of our NHRA program, and to a certain degree, having these six weeks and the competition level that we're racing with.”

After the NASCAR Hall of Famer won the SRX race in Missouri Saturday night, he flew to Denver to watch his wife win her first Top Fuel race for their new team on Sunday.

“To win at Pevely and then less than 24 hours later, to go out to Denver and Leah wins, our first Top Fuel win, made for a pretty special weekend, let alone the fact that we're married … and then got to compare notes when we got home on Sunday night,” Stewart said.

Whether he repeats as series champion or not, Stewart suggested there may be a slight change in the SRX structure for its third season in 2023.

“I really want to try to find a short road course that we could run these cars on at least one event,” Stewart said. “I think that would really be a cool deal for us. It's definitely something that's on my wish list.”

Stewart also hopes to attract even more current and former racing stars from different series for Season 3.

“The series is called Superstar Racing Experience—it's the first word and that is the most crucial part of it,” Stewart said. “I mean, it's having people and drivers that race fans resonate with and have a history with seeing some of these guys. Some of us are at the end of our careers and some guys are not formally retired but are almost retired.

“The fans still want to see guys like us race. And then you have people like Haley Deegan, you have these young guns at each track that we're getting the opportunity to race with. And then last week, the ringer was 67-year-old Kenny Schrader at his own race track.

“It just shows there's great racecar drivers and to get to race with guys that you never had the opportunity to run with because they run different series. And to come race with older guys that you may have started with and then they retired and now race with younger drivers that are on their way up like Ernie Francis and Hailie Deegan and drivers like that, it’s really made the series very well-rounded and a lot of fun because it's not just a bunch of old guys out racing around.”

Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski