The newly formed Superstar Racing Experience series and Stafford Motor Speedway management announced Friday morning that the SRX Series will be scheduling a 2021 event at the historic half-mile facility.
No date for the event was announced.
The SRX Series is the brainchild of former NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and legendary NASCAR crew chief Ray Evernham.
“We’re really looking forward to this one,” Stafford Speedway chief operating officer Paul Arute told RaceDayCT. “All of us at Stafford can’t thank Tony Stewart, Ray Evernham, and the entire SRX team enough for bringing this event to Stafford. It will be a treat for all of us race fans and we can’t wait to release more details in the coming months.”
As described on the series website: “SRX will re-ignite the passion of the die-hard motorsports fan and reintroduce racing to a whole new generation.
“Featuring an unprecedented line-up of all-star drivers and crews, this supercharged spectacle is hellbent on recapturing the glory days of racing and getting things back on track. Big engines, bigger personalities, and big-time drama and intensity irresistible. This will be the most exhilarating racing on the planet.”
Thus far the driver lineup announced for the series includes Stewart, Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte, Paul Tracy, Mark Webber and Willy T. Ribbs.
The series is expected to run six events in 2021. Stafford was the third track announced for the 2021 schedule. The series also announced it will run at Eldora Speedway in New Weston, Ohio. The half-mile high banked dirt track is owned by Stewart. The series also announced it will visit Lucas Oil Raceway. The .686-mile oval is located in Indianapolis.
“SRX is a series where the cars will be so evenly matched that talent instead of equipment will win the race,” Stewart said in a press release announcing the series in July. “The competition will be intense, and thanks to the vision of such strong leaders in the sports and entertainment industry, millions will be able to watch live and in primetime on CBS.”
Said Evernham: “We’ve set this up to bring the focus back to the drivers and their ability to compete head-to-head as opposed to the car deciding who wins. That’s going to create a unique dynamic for fans at the track and everywhere else. Adding superstar-caliber drivers and our unique racing features, you’re going to see all kinds of emotions playing out live. It’s going to be quite exciting and rekindle why a lot of people love short-track racing.”
WOW!!! I’m there
Networks are going more and more to reality shows because of cost and low ratings and this is essentially a prime time reality show.
The benefit to Stafford can’t be overstated. Network TV so the crowd is merely ambiance. They could give the tickets away and it would still be a huge benefit exposure wise. The entire country will learn about Stafford and hopefully get acquainted with the racing they can see on StaffordSpeedway.TV. From anywhere. Local exposure equally beneficial.
From the year of the pandemic to this. The Arutes must be over the moon on this turn of events. It’s got to be a massive pay day in relative terms for the track one would think.
Does this event have any connection to Stafford signing early for 3 NWMT events? Those dots are really far apart but I’ll be working to connect them with a plausible conspiracy theory.
The more those Fury cars are banging away the better the ratings will be. Unfortunately for most of these guys that kind of bare knuckle racing is a distant memory so it may end up a waste of a good short track. Fingers crossed there are hard feelings and tempers flaring.
Would be nice for each location to have local driver in the field but I guess that is not happening. Rocco instead of our man Shawn against Stewart would be a fair fight no offense to Mr. Courchesne.
That would be pretty cool. Give the local hot shoe on his home turf a ride against the legends of motorsports would get the local crowd a good reason to attend. Lets see how kidrock stacks up against the former champions of Nascar? I doubt it would happen as the legends may not want the extra competition that has far superior experience on the track. They may look bad and this is nothing but an ego boost for the legends.
Anyway, I will say I am excited for it. Some national TV for Stafford can certainly help boost exposure and increase attendance thereafter. I hope Stafford utilizes this event to showcase some of their weekly divisions. There may be new patrons in attendance that night, lets make fans of them. They come for the legends in stock cars and leave thinking those crazy looking SK’s put on a much better show. Lets go back next week. Should be an excellent opportunity for Stafford.
Where are all the Covid Debbie Downers?? Oh wait, this does not involve the WMT.
The new stimulus might include help for live entertainment venues. Hopefully race tracks will qualify. Stay tuned.
Though the Stafford race should be entertaining ,This XRS super star racing looks and smells more like the Robby Gordon Super Truck Series . { Just ask Robby how that went } I’ll give it 1 year !
This event is a national TV audience for Stafford. My guess is none of the weekly divisions will be involved in the TV broadcast if even at all. From a national perspective nobody cares about the locals. The SRX will bring its own field of stars and cars. Stafford is just providing the facility which is built for quality TV production. As it is a national TV broadcast there won’t be any SK drivers involved. The only guy who is rumored to even have a shot is the six time Nascar WMT champion that hails from CT.
The level of stupidity regarding this event on FB and how the locals will kick everyone’s butt is over the top. This event isn’t about or for the locals drivers.
This kind of seems like the “Fastmaster’s” races ESPN tried for a season decades ago as part of the USAC Thursday\Saturday Thunder telecasts. With that some legendary drivers who had been not very active for a while proceeded to tear up very, very expensive Jaguars. And that was hard to believe at the time since those were essentially on a “roval” and it was not intended to be slam bang short track racing
We know it’s prime time, highly structured and they are filling 90 minutes less commercial time. It going to have to have a series of hooks and drama that non race fans can enjoy. While it does not appear any local divisions are a part of this it’s still exposure for Stafford. They stated part of the mission is to highlight local short track racing. Ideally if this product is exciting it will cross over and benefit the tracks regular product.
Don’t give up on a local hero being included in the mix nor a celebrity either.
Ray Evernham, Racing News, 7/26/2020
“We’re looking at about 12 cars. Now, that may just be 10 full-time drivers. The other two cars might be made up of teams of drivers. We’ve got guys from extreme motorsports and global rallycross that can’t make all the races but they wanna swap out and run a couple.”
“Then, we want to maybe give a Rocky Balboa shot to a guy like Doug Coby, the late model guys or maybe a sprint car guy like David Gravel or Donny Schatz. You will see some surprise drivers.”
“And, there may be some celebrities. We’ve had celebrities call us up. Some of them can wheel and some of them may just be the caution we need.”
Stafford was on Evernham’s radar and look what happened. Coby on his radar may prove to be a good thing as well.
Reality TV shows like Pawn Stars, Survivor, Deadliest Catch, whatever are edited and produced to highlight drama. This is live but you can bet CBS is not going for a live NASCAR race. They’re going to want unpredictability and drama. You get 10 are 12 cars out there having a good clean race and you’re going and good clean race with low ratings.
Now StaffordSpeedway.TV is produced as I understand it out of an apartment on race night. What a contrast it will be having CBS/Viacom roll up with trailers of production equipment. and literally swallow up the track.
You can thank Jack Arute for much of this. Stafford would not even be on the radar if it weren’t for the facility, lighting, sound and video upgrades he put in motion long ago.
Stupid, ignorant or otherwise if this is getting buzz on Twitter, Facebook or any other social media platform it’s a good thing. It may even benefit the track in advance of the event. If you’re a local short track racing purist be prepared to move out of the way because this in not going to be for you.
Batter up RaceDayCT. Would I be wrong in saying this is the single biggest event associated with any Connecticut short track ever? The only other competition being the Thompson Speedway Grand National events but this is bigger then that. As the unicorn of Connecticut racing news much of the responsibility for reporting on this will fall to the only race news reporter left in Connecticut with the chops to cover this, one Mr. Shawn Courchesne. Am I over stating that? Buckle up, 2021 is going to be a busy year.
Still need to fill out the driver list, they are after all THE draw.
Would like to see Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Jerry Marquis, The Reg, Bobby Santos and the local celebrities such as Shawn Courchesne.
um I think Jeff Godon has a job=FOX
Jimmie Johnson= INDY
Carl Edwards has not been near a racetrack since he retired
Jerry Marquis not been seen in awhile
The Reg works IN North Car
This makes my Christmas! I’m there! Any guesses at ticket prices? I know it depends on the date and full line card but could it be done for $40?
Personality will be key too.
If I live in Fargo ND or Tempe AZ or San Antonio TX why do I care about local celebrities?? CBS will want someone like Tom Cruise or Vin Diesel. Paul Tracey, Helio, Tony Kanaan love the camera. Awesome Bill has a huge following. As does Smoke. This is still all about $$$$.
That youtube kid who is about to get into the boxing ring with Merriweather would be a great choice. He has like 50 million followers. Young people would tunel in for that.
Sounds kind of cool, but Id much rather see the Open Mods and WMT. I know financially it would be next to impossible, but if they could run these drivers in an LM race AND a Modified race, then have a combined score to count for “the championship”, you have a true view of just how good each driver is. It would be cool to see who did well in both a “door car” and “open wheel car”.
I guess we’ll see won’t we? Perhaps it’s being too cynical but this is less to do with determining who the best driver is and more to do with watchable, prime time content capable of delivering viewers and attracting advertisers.
The celebrity will need to have real racing experience and there are a lot that do. Plug dream boat Patrick Dempsey into a car and watch the female audience numbers jump.
Would a local racer be a waste of a car seat? Perhaps. Maybe not. Especially for the dirt track race with a country full of fans wanting to see their favorite in the mix doing battle with Stewart.
If this is the single biggest even associated with any short track in CT ever then this single biggest event associated with any short track in CT ever is one I could give two craps about. But if I happen to be home and the TV happens to be tuned to CBS I might watch. Which in the end is what it’s all about. TV viewers. You’re dreaming if you think there won’t still be a limit of stand capacity throughout next year. I’m betting chances are slim to none that this series makes it to a second season.
Sounds like the new IROC series, Hope it takes off and does great, Thnx Tony and Ray for remembering Stafford,,
Good for Stafford but this is like the Senior Tour for auto racing. Were are the grass roots short track drivers?
This event is to racing what cable news entertainment is to news. Kind of the similar but not really.
I think it could be very cool… The realist in me thinks ONE of the mentioned stars may show up at most events.
If half of the following list: Tony Stewart, Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte, Paul Tracy, Mark Webber and Willy T. Ribbs show up at Stafford, I’d be shocked. I’d be happily amazed if two showed up at the same time.
We’ll see, and I hope to be wrong and amazed.
“um I think Jeff Godon has a job=FOX
Jimmie Johnson= INDY
Carl Edwards has not been near a racetrack since he retired
Jerry Marquis not been seen in awhile
The Reg works IN North Car”
Paul Tracy is a commentator, and TK and Helio still have sports car or Indy rides.
I’m with you…
With serious experience in the music biz, I’m skeptical but hope this plays out as advertised.
Negative waves in the forum.
I’ll take the other side of your observation 2020 that we’re looking at capacity limits for all of 2021. The summer season is not a good hunting ground for Covid19 and with the vaccines well on their way to meeting up with large numbers of arms by fall I’m thinking it will be a different landscape entirely.
Won’t be able to muster big talent for the races you say. I’ll take the opposite side of that one as well. I’d bet they have very well known and intriguing fields of drivers even if they don’t include all those name dropped. Evernham seems to be happy with the response he’s gotten and really what is the point if you don’t have the stars. This isn’t an open where you see who shows up. They’ll have the drivers under contract and I’d bet it’s for big money. We’ll know who the cast of characters are going in. They will show up because it will be in their contracts. If they negotiate trailers at the races to spend their idle time they will be there as well.
I could be wrong. Probably am wrong but just think we all need to think outside the racing box. This is big time network television, with big time money and personalities that has little to do with local racing other then the facility.
Did you know Carl Edwards ran a modified tour race? Finished 39th at loudon in 2006. I did a little research on the back flipping, prelude winning, runner up in points finishing Nascar driver. I was curious what he was doing since he left racing. Wikipedia doesn’t have much other than some race announcing and a few cameos in film, tv. and music videos. I liked him and always wondered why he left Nascar.
I am not sure if this 12 car race for Seniors of motorsport excellence takes off or not. I will say I watched a few of those Big 3 old timer basketball games a few summers ago. I was curious enough to seek out information on the Mike Tyson fight they had a few weeks ago the morning after. I am not a big basketball fan nor fight fan. Something about nostalgia makes me interested in these events. I am sure I will check out this one as well. I still think this is an excellent opportunity for Stafford Speedway. You are going to get new eyeballs on your facility through a national tv audience. I hope they run a commercial for the local track like the college football games. At least let the audience know what night they run.
Doug- it will be embarrassing if you have capacity limits there. I have traveled to tracks all across FL and they are packed! Outdoor transmission is extremely low so unless you’re sharing beer or food there should be no issues.
As for the Stafford deal, not down I just thought that it was sold as a series to compete against NASCAR with Grass roots drivers, and so far I don’t see it. The current roster reminds me of the Senior PGA Tour Meets IROC; if they add in a Bubba Pollard, Bobby Santos, etc I Am would feel better.
Chris…embarrassing for who? It’s not like the track has any control over the capacity rules.
Is this going to be a tv production thing only? No other racing going on that day? If that is the case why would you want to go to watch unless you just want to see the drivers up close. It will be so much better on tv. Would like to see these car run on both Thompson race tracks
What can I say, we’ve covered the safety protocol at races deal ad nauseam. Now I suppose we’re going to have to read responses insulting you and that whole line of thinking. In this case fans are secondary.
Fans are atmosphere for these events mostly. Always preferable to have packed stands but like football not critical. This is network content fans optional. In fact it’s the perfect pandemic content with no fans if it came to that but it won’t.
So what are we talking about for audience. SNL can get 9 million viewers so if the content is right that would probably be a high water mark. They won’t get that but I’d bet they are shooting for numbers that far exceed a regular Saturday night of reruns.
I don’t understand your reference to NASCAR Chris if I read that right. It’s being sold not to compete in any way with NASCAR. Tony Stewart made that point specifically. Millions of people aren’t going to be tuning in to see Santos and Pollard. They want big names and glitz that will appeal to superficial entertainment junkies not just racing fans. Coby, Santos or Pollard could be ad on candidates for local color but they would be there only if they could provide drama and a story line. I don’t know about Santos and Pollard but Coby would be a natural showman for this type of event. He’s in sales. Rocco my choice but he struggles to control his use of F bombs at times.
I know I’m the only one beating this drum now but I still think you’re stuck on racing when they seem to be shooting for something much broader. The best example I can think of is Friday Night Smackdown. Friday being the worst ratings work week night.
Danika Patrick should be considered. Maybe she still has something left to beat up on the old guys.
But this is looking like rustling up some warm bodies from a racing nursing home.
This could be an excellent opportunity for Kyle Larson to get back out with the regular people and rehab his public perception.
Pretty soon, Micheal Waltrip and Kenny Wallace will be on the roster. 🤢 🤮
This is all about the drawing power of the drivers. There should be a huge roster of potential drivers, and each event roster can (and should?) change, from race to race. The SRX series should also explore drivers from DIRT, Silver Crown, WoO, NHRA, etc. If that happens, all other series that are providing drivers can get exposure, a good thing for racing.
Stafford is getting national attention for participating in the SRX.
I was waiting for somebody to bring up a wrestling reference. All this is going to be is a made for tv “show”. Hopefully the winner won’t be pre determined. SRX will re-ignite the passion of the die-hard motorsports fan and reintroduce racing to a whole new generation. The first part? I really doubt. The second part, good luck. The actual race would need to be secondary and you’d have to manufacture in some kind of drama.
Am I reading that right? A few references mocking the aging drivers. Like they aren’t capable of putting on a good show. You’re thinking Wade Cole. A guy everyone loved but raced about like you’d expect his age to race. Then there was Paul Newman. Racer and celebrity. Actually the gold standard in that category. Paul Newman may have raced in one of these events and people would have watched because he was Paul Newman. There may be another guy out there as fun to see as him. Keep an open mind.
OK then I’ve walked the plank on this one. Right out there all alone thinking this is just about the best thing that could have landed in the local racing community. That will benefit the racing community but will be more entertainment then racing that a lot of you traditionalists can’t wrap your head around. I also predicted Stafford was an unlikely site in spite of Evernham’s soft spot for the track so the odds I’m 100% wrong are where the smart money will be.
Did he say wrestling winners were pre determined. Say it ain’t so!
From interviews I’ve heard on Sirius XM NASCAR, this is entirely a made for TV series. CBS is highly invested in it. Races are supposed to air on Saturday nights. I believe they will be aired live. The drivers are intended to be a mix of Superstars of the past, A current star or two, and a local or regional driver or two. I suspect it will be a standalone event. I, for one, am very excited for it. A spectacle for sure. My mind keeps going to the Funkmaster Flex race at Waterford. That sort of spectacle?
Sounds like IROC but better on grassroot short tracks.
I just bought my tickets!!!! So excited!!!!!