Yahoo Autos Tony Stewart's SRX Series Is Giving Short Track Pros a Big Opportunity
Superstar Racing Experience, Tony Stewart's vision of what auto racing could be if not for the burdens of manufacturers, sponsors, and fans, makes no sense. That is the best thing it has going.
Stewart and his co-founder, former NASCAR owner and crew chief Ray Evernham, envision SRX as halfway between the International Race Of Champions series of eras past, a spectacle that pitted drivers of various disciplines against each other in spec stock cars, and something entirely different. It would be a vision of how much better racing could be when all of the politics and the job aspects that go into being a racing driver were taken away, leaving nothing but very powerful, very simple cars competing on various paved short ovals and dirt tracks.
The selling point for this is the car. Superstar Racing Experience is a series with a focus on drivers and seemingly very few ambitions past what it will be on day 1, so the car is not exactly on the cutting edge of anything. It’s a relatively simple stock car with a relatively radical design, a collection of simple angles accentuated by a vaguely X-shaped grille and a massive Charger Daytona-style rear wing. Underneath its scalloped hood an ARCA-spec motor from spec racing motor manufacturer Ilmor produces 700 horsepower. The series is racing exclusively on short ovals, so the simple aerodynamics and functionally dubious wing are relative non-issues. The goal is much more straightforward: a field of simple, identical cars producing enough horsepower to make driving a challenge.
In theory the appeal of a driver-focused series is the driver lineup. In practice, the list of superstars in the Superstar Racing Experience raises some questions. It’s true that SRX draws from an impressive group of names, drivers who have won major races and championships in both stock car and open-wheel racing. But the roster is mostly older, semi-retired racers who seem to have been chosen more for their proximity to Stewart and interest in the series than for their current success.
The series will have ten full-time entrants. Five (Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Willy T. Ribbs, Paul Tracy, and Marco Andretti) come from IndyCar; as a group, those five have won a single IndyCar race since 2014. Four (Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, and Stewart himself) come from NASCAR; that group's last two wins in top-level competition both belong to Stewart, one in 2016 and one in 2013. The tenth car will go to Ernie Francis, Jr., a Trans-Am champion whose national racing resume, in its entirety, comprises one NASCAR Xfinity Series race in 2017.
In short, the names are big but the talent is not. This is where SRX brings in its best idea: a car reserved for short track stars with no national fame, changing hands every weekend. Six-time NASCAR Modified Tour champion Doug Coby will have the car for one race, USAC Silver Crown champion Kody Swanson will have the car for another, and USAC and NASCAR modifieds mainstay Bobby Santos III will for a third. At Knoxville, the car will go to four-time track champion Bobby Brown. For one race at Slinger Speedway, the seat in the car will actually be part of another prize, awarded to the winner of the track's famous Slinger Nationals four days before the SRX race.
Given the combination of age and relative stock car experience in the rest of the field, there is a real chance that the driver in this "ringer" car will be the co-favorite, along with Stewart, in every race on the schedule. While the Superstar Racing Experience might seem designed to provide something fun to do for drivers who have long since lost interest in the job of professional racing, a win for one of the up-and-coming drivers could actually help launch their careers on a more significant, or at least more visible, national stage. If that ever actually happens, SRX could be more than just something for Tony Stewart to do with his free time.
All six SRX races will air on CBS, all will be run at a short track, and all will happen on Saturday nights. Races are scheduled to begin in June.
Via RACER
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