SRX Closes Its Doors, Co-Founder Tony Stewart's All-Star Series Will Not Race in 2024

Will the Superstar Racing Experience’s loss suddenly be the gain for the returning IROC series?

In a surprising turn of events, SRX announced late Thursday afternoon that it will be postponing its fourth season, which was due to run for six weeks starting this July.

The suburban Charlotte, N.C.-based organization issued a statement that, in part said,

“It is with deep disappointment that we announce the postponement of SRX’s fourth season. We entered the next phase of our racing series with great anticipation and excitement for what was ahead. Our expectations, however, have been tempered by market factors that have proven to be too much to overcome. Time has run out to put forth the kind of events our fans, partners, drivers and tracks deserve.”

The series, which has raced for six consecutive weeks mid-summer for each of the last three years, did not say it was completely shutting down or going out of business, leaving the door open with the following comment:

“We are actively exploring strategic options for the series’ long-term potential. We made the announcement now to allow our partners the time and flexibility to best serve their interests.”

Here is SRX’s full statement:

SRX’s announcement comes four days after SRX co-founder Ray Evernham, who stepped aside from active involvement with the series after its first season in 2022, announced that he and former NASCAR team owner Rob Kauffman had purchased the assets and brand name of the former International Race of Champions (IROC), which went out of business back in 2006.

SRX had been patterned in-part after IROC’s legacy, attracting drivers from other series such as NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA and others, to compete at short tracks primarily in the northeast and east. Virtually every one of the 18 SRX races to date had been a sellout.

In the announcement revealing IROC’s return, it said the series would host at least one race later this season with the inference it may be in vintage IROC cars, which remains to be seen. Speculation was that IROC’s return would potentially go head-to-head with SRX.

But now, in light of SRX’s hiatus, it will be interesting to see if we may have actually seen the final race in SRX annals, held this past summer, and whether IROC will suddenly increase its goal of just one race in 2024 to more events, including the potential of possibly racing at some of the venues already planned to compete upon by SRX.

Tony Stewart (also a SRX co-founder), Marco Andretti and Ryan Newman won SRX’s first three championships, respectively. CBS televised the series on six consecutive Saturday nights in prime time before ESPN acquired TV rights for the third season and shifted races to Thursday nights – still six weeks in a row – and brought back an old prior racing moniker that ESPN previously used known as “Thursday Night Thunder.”

Evernham has never publicly stated completely why he would no longer be part of SRX’s day-to-day operations after the first season, although he did say at the time he announced that news that he would remain as a series investor.

Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on X/Twitter @JerryBonkowski