Superstar Racing Experience (SRX), officially known as the Camping World SRX Series, is an American

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

series founded by

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed Smoke, is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, current NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, and current co-owner of the Superstar Racing Experience. He is a ...

Ray Evernham Raymond Donald Evernham Jr. (born August 26, 1957) is an American consultant for Hendrick Companies, formerly an auto racing crew chief for Bill Davis Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, owner of his own team Evernham Motorsports from 2001 to 2 ...

, Sandy Montag and George Pyne. The formation of the series was announced on July 13, 2020, and debuted on June 12, 2021, televised on CBS. On January 31, 2022, the series was renewed for a second season due to premiere on June 18, 2022.

History

On July 13, 2020, it was reported that SRX was in preparation for a 2021 debut season. The series' founders included former

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

driver and current team owner

, former

team owner and crew chief

as well as former NASCAR executive George Pyne and sports agent Sandy Montag. Initially, series management was split between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. Camping World acquired the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

to the series on June 1, 2021, dubbing it the Camping World SRX Series. On January 20, 2022, Don Hawk was named

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of SRX. On March 30, Evernham announced via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that he was no longer in charge of SRX, but has kept his role as an investor of the sport.

Championship

SRX draws direct contrast from NASCAR when aiming for shorter races at shorter tracks, and also with the random pairing of driver and crew chief for each race. Founder

compared it to

IROC International Race of Champions (IROC) was a North American auto racing competition, created by Les Richter, Roger Penske and Mike Phelps, promoted as an equivalent of an American motorsports All-Star Game. Despite its name, the IROC was primar ...

by comparing the aspects of identical cars and an all-star cast of drivers.

Cars

SRX cars were completely designed by founder

and were in concept stage when the series was founded in July 2020. Teaser photos of the car showed it has a high rear spoiler and is said to have high horsepower and low downforce.

Fury Race Cars Fury Race Cars, officially styled as FURY Race Cars, is an American race car manufacturer and professional late model and stock car racing team. The company was founded in 2016 by Darius Grala, Tony Eury Jr. and Jeff Fultz, all championship-winn ...

serves as the cars' chassis designer and builder. The cars use naturally aspirated

Ilmor Ilmor is a British independent high-performance motor racing engineering company. It was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in November 1983. With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and maintenance offices in Plymouth, Mic ...

V8 396 cui engines, which are primarily featured in the ARCA Menards Series, with components from Edelbrock, while brakes are provided by Performance Friction Corporation (PFC). Drivers receive their cars before each race via random draw. A driver's car retains its color for the full season for easy identification.

Drivers

The series' lineup is made up of younger up and coming drivers looking for exposure in addition to the older and retired drivers. In addition to those running the full schedule, the series provides a "

Rocky Balboa Robert "Rocky" Balboa (also known by his ring name The Italian Stallion), is a fictional title character and the protagonist of the ''Rocky'' film series. The character was created by Sylvester Stallone, who has also portrayed him in all eigh ...

" car for a local champion at each track and a "ringer" entry for notable drivers making cameo appearances. The drivers for the inaugural SRX season included

, Bobby Labonte, Hélio Castroneves,

Ernie Francis Jr. Ernie Francis Jr. (born January 23, 1998) is an American sports car racing and stock car racing driver who currently competes in Indy NXT driving for Force Indy. He previously ran full time in the Trans-Am Series, running the 98 car for Breathles ...

, Paul Tracy,

Bill Elliott William Clyde Elliott (born October 8, 1955), also known as Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, Million Dollar Bill, or Wild Bill is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He competes full time in the Camping World Superstar Racing ...

Willy T. Ribbs William Theodore Ribbs Jr. (born January 3, 1955) is a retired American race car driver, racing owner, and sport shooter known for being the first African-American man to have tested a Formula One car (he did so in 1986) and to compete in the Ind ...

Michael Waltrip Michael Curtis Waltrip (born April 30, 1963) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, racing commentator, and published author. He competes full time in the Camping World Superstar Racing Experience. He is the younger brother o ...

, and

Marco Andretti Marco Michael Andretti (born March 13, 1987) is an American auto racing driver who drives the No. 98 car for Bryan Herta Autosport, Andretti Herta Autosport part-time in the IndyCar Series. He is the third generation of the famous Andretti racin ...

for all six races. Part-time drivers and Local Legend drivers include:

Tony Kanaan Antoine Rizkallah "Tony" Kanaan Filho (born 31 December 1974), nicknamed TK, is a Brazilian racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 6 Toyota Corolla E210 for Full Time Bassani a ...

, Hailie Deegan,

Greg Biffle Gregory Jack Biffle (born December 23, 1969) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 44 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for NY Racing Team and full-time in the ...

Scott Speed Scott Andrew Speed (born January 24, 1983) is an American race car driver who has competed in numerous disciplines, including open-wheel, stock car, and rallycross racing. In , Speed became the first American driver to race in Formula One since ...

, Doug Coby, Brian Brown,

Scott Bloomquist Scott Bloomquist (born November 14, 1963) is a nationally touring Dirt Super Late Model race car driver in the United States. Bloomquist was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa.Kody Swanson Kody Swanson (born March 3, 1988) is an American professional sprint car racing driver. He is a seven-time USAC USAC Silver Crown Series champion in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, plus a three-time Little 500 winner. Swanson is curr ...

, Luke Fenhaus and Chase Elliott.

Tracks

Races are primarily held on half-mile dirt and asphalt short tracks. The six tracks from the series' first season was Stafford Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway, Eldora Speedway, Lucas Oil Raceway,

Slinger Speedway The Slinger Speedway (also known as Slinger Super Speedway) is a quarter mile paved oval automobile race track with 33-degree banked corners located in Slinger, Wisconsin. The track is billed as the "World's Fastest Quarter Mile Oval." The curre ...

, and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. The 2022 schedule featured Five Flags Speedway,

South Boston Speedway South Boston Speedway, or "SoBo", is a short track located just outside South Boston, Virginia. SoBo is located approximately east of another area familiar to most NASCAR fans, Martinsville. It is owned by Mattco, Inc., the Mattioli family tr ...

, Stafford Motor Speedway, Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, I-55 Raceway and

Sharon Speedway Sharon Speedway is a 3/8-mile dirt oval race track located in Hartford Township, Ohio and named for the nearby city of Sharon, Pennsylvania. It opened in 1929, making it one of the oldest continuously running dirt ovals in the United States. The ...

. The 2023 schedule will feature Stafford and Eldora, but will also feature new tracks Thunder Road SpeedBowl, Motor Mile Speedway,

Berlin Raceway Berlin Raceway is a 7/16 mile long paved oval race track in Marne, Michigan, United States, near Grand Rapids. The track races weekly as part of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. It has also held touring series events on the ARCA Menard ...

and

Lucas Oil Speedway Lucas Oil Speedway is a motorsports racing facility located at the intersection of U.S. Route 54 and Missouri Route 83, in Wheatland, Missouri, United States. Its primary circuit is a dirt track banked oval motorsport race track. Co-located ...

Race format

Races last 90 minutes without pit stops, though there is also a "halftime" for adjustments to be made to the car. Two 12-minute

heat race Dirt track racing is a form of motorsport held on clay or dirt surfaced oval race tracks often used for thoroughbred horse racing. Dirt track racing started in the United States before World War I and became widespread during the 1920s and 1930s ...

s take place before the feature; the final lap begins when time runs out and the leader crosses the start/finish line. A random draw sets the starting lineup for the first heat, while the second is determined by an inversion of the first race's finishing results. The duration of the heats was originally set to 15 minutes before being changed following the inaugural race. The feature race is 100 laps long at all paved ovals but Slinger, where the distance is 150 laps, while the dirt tracks have 50-lap features. The starting order is based on average finishing position between the two heats. There are also unlimited attempts at a

green–white–checker finish In North American auto racing, a green–white–checker finish (GWC) is a racing restart procedure one in which the race is restarted from a caution period with 2 laps remaining. When the race distance is extended to accommodate such a finish, i ...

Statistics

Series champions

Drivers

Media

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

aired the 2021 six-race season in two-hour primetime Saturday night television windows on the main CBS network. On April 14, 2021, CBS announced their broadcast team for the inaugural season. Veteran motorsports announcer

Allen Bestwick Allen Bestwick (born September 24, 1961) is an American sportscaster. He is the lead play-by-play voice for University of Connecticut women’s basketball telecasts for SNY, the lead track announcer at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the l ...

served as lead announcer, with

Lindsay Czarniak Lindsay Ann Czarniak (born ) is an American sports anchor and reporter. She currently works for Fox Sports as a sideline reporter for NFL games. After spending six years with WRC-TV, the NBC owned-and-operated station in Washington, D.C., Czarn ...

as host,

Brad Daugherty Brad Daugherty may refer to: * Brad Daugherty (basketball) (born 1965), American NBA player, currently a television sportscaster * Brad Daugherty (poker player) (born 1951), American poker player {{Hndis, Daugherty, Brad ...

as roaming reporter, and

Matt Yocum Matthew Yocum (born April 8, 1968) is a long-standing reporter in motorsports, best known for being a NASCAR pit reporter. He works for CBS as a pit reporter to cover the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) as of 2021. He most recently worked in tha ...

on pit road. Three driver analysts,

Danica Patrick Danica Sue Patrick (; born March 25, 1982) is an American former professional racing driver. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win by a woman ...

(Stafford and Knoxville), James Hinchcliffe (Eldora, Slinger and Nashville Fairgrounds), and

Dario Franchitti George Dario Marino Franchitti, MBE (born 19 May 1973) is a British former racing driver and current motorsport commentator from Scotland. He is a four time IndyCar Series champion ( 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011), a three-time winner of the Indiana ...

(Lucas Oil) were the

color analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

s for the inaugural season. Bestwick, Yocum, Daugherty, and Czarniak returned for the 2022 season, while 2021 driver

joined the broadcast team as an analyst. Conor Daly was signed as a driver analyst. A video game based on the series, titled ''SRX: The Game'' and developed by Monster Games, was released for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

, and

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

on May 28, 2021. The 2023 season, made up of six races like in previous years, will air on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

on Thursday nights from July 13th to August 17th.

References

External links

Official website
{{CBS Sports * 2020 establishments in the United States Auto racing organizations in the United States Stock car racing series in the United States Professional sports leagues in the United States Tony Stewart CBS Sports One-make series

History

Championship

Cars

Drivers

Tracks

Race format

Statistics

Series champions

Drivers

Media

See also

References

External links