SRX hits the dirt at Eldora, which former NASCAR Cup champ is coming along for the ride?
With Kyle Busch out of the way, it’ll be someone else’s turn to win a main event in the Superstar Racing Experience. But that driver will have to get dirty to make it happen.
Round five of the 2023 SRX series moves from the asphalt to the high-banked, half-mile clay oval at Eldora Speedway in Western Ohio (Thursday, 9 p.m., ESPN).
SRX’s three full-time former Cup Series champs welcome a fourth champion to the field this week as Matt Kenseth makes his lone SRX start of the summer. He joins past Cup champs Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte and Brad Keselowski.
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Thursday night’s other “guests” and part-timers are Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Tony Kanaan and the most interesting entry in the field, drag-racing champion Ron Capps, who has built his racing legend in quarter-mile bursts on asphalt.
Capps, the three-time and reigning Funny Car champ, actually has some dirt-racing (and Eldora) experience, having raced eight times in the old Prelude to the Dream between 2005-12. Eldora’s half-mile of clay, banked at 24 degrees in the corners, has Capps suggesting he’s definitely “out of my comfort zone.”
Thursday night’s field is rounded out by SRX full-timers Hailie Deegan, Ken Schrader, Marco Andretti, and 2023 points leader Ryan Newman, who won three weeks ago at Stafford Speedway in Connecticut. Denny Hamlin, in his lone start, won the summer opener, while Busch swept the past two weeks to successfully complete his two-week run.
The SRX will complete its third summertime season next week at another dirt track, Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri.
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Here’s the points rundown among the seven full-time SRX drivers through four of the six events:
1. Ryan Newman 146
2. Brad Keselowski 113
3. Marco Andretti 112
4. Tony Stewart 95
7. Bobby Labonte 72
SRX Racing TV schedule 2023
Thursday, July 13: Stafford Motor Speedway (Denny Hamlin)
Thursday, July 20: Stafford Motor Speedway (Ryan Newman)
Thursday, July 27: Motor Mile Speedway (Kyle Busch)
Thursday, Aug. 3: Berlin Raceway (Kyle Busch)
Thursday, Aug. 10: Eldora Speedway, 9 p.m. on ESPN
Thursday, Aug. 17: Lucas Oil Speedway, 9 p.m. on ESPN
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: SRX Racing heads to Eldora, and this former NASCAR Cup champ is racing
