What to know for the 2023 SRX season
The 2023 Superstar Racing Experience season features a new schedule and new, familiar faces.
All six races air Thursdays on ESPN at 9 p.m. ET, with host Nicole Briscoe, lap-by-lap announcer Allen Bestwick, analyst Joey Logano and pit reporter Matt Yocum.
The season kicks off with two races at Stafford Motor Speedway. Ryan Newman and Doug Coby are the past SRX winners at Stafford.
Stafford took over the second race, scheduled to be held July 20 at Thunder Road Speedbowl in Vermont, due to flooding there.
Gone are Five Flags Speedway, South Boston, Nashville Fairgrounds, Pevely and Sharon Speedway and its place are this schedule for 2023:
- Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs, Conn., July 13
- Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs, Conn., July 20
- Motor Mile Speedway, Radford, Va., July 27
- Berlin Raceway, Grand Rapids, Mich., August 3
- Eldora Speedway, New Weston, Ohio, August 10
- Lucas Oil Speedway, Wheatland, MO, August 17
“It was also fun to lay the schedule out, work with Don Hawk and all the tracks, tracks that submitted requests for races and figure out logistics, I really enjoyed that part of it, trying to figure out how we get through six straight Thursday nights,” Stewart said.
Stewart said Thursday night races also opens up the series to drivers who had scheduling conflicts with the Saturday night races.
“The amount of NASCAR Cup drivers that raised their hand and said, ‘hey, we want to race.’ We can’t run all of them but we want to run these two races or those two races or this one race, just the amount of excitement that we had from the current Cup roster was phenomenal,” Stewart said. “For them to go back to their roots and go to a lot of these short tracks, I think that means a lot.”
Brad Keselowski will become the first active full-time Cup Series driver to race SRX full-time. Keselowski, Ken Schrader and Hailie Deegan will all make their first SRX championship bid.
Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart, Paul Tracy and defending champion Marco Andretti, who have competed full-time in every season so far, will also compete against them for the SRX title.
Keselowski isn’t the only active Cup Series driver running full-time. Ryan Newman will run for the championship this season. They’ll be joined by five other active Cup Series drivers at various points:
- Kevin Harvick – Stafford, Berlin
- Kyle Busch – Berlin, Motor Mile
- Denny Hamlin – Stafford
- Austin Dillon – Eldora
- Ryan Preece – Stafford II
- Daniel Suarez – Stafford II
At Berlin, Kasey Kahne will make his return to major-league stock car racing.
Kenny Wallace (Stafford II, Lucas Oil), Ron Capps (Eldora) and Clint Bowyer (Stafford, Motor Mile, Lucas Oil) will each make their SRX debut this season.
Other drivers returning to SRX are:
- Tony Kanaan (Stafford, Stafford II, Eldora)
- Greg Biffle (Stafford II)
- Helio Castroneves (Motor Mile, Berlin, Lucas Oil)
- Ernie Francis Jr (Lucas Oil)
- Matt Kenseth (Eldora)
- Josef Newgarden (Motor Mile)
Original SRX drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay and Michael Waltrip aren’t scheduled to run any races this season.
The race format will be similar with two heats and a feature event. Tune in to ESPN at 9 p.m. ET to catch the racing and learn more.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com
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