Two big names from the NASCAR world, Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham are teaming up on a series after every racing fan’s heart: the Superstar Racing Experience, or SRX for short. The series spans six races—all oval short tracks—and much like the classic International Race of Champions, SRX will pull some of the biggest names in racing in and put them in the same car to even the playing field. The series unveiled that car on Monday, and holy moly, it sounds rad.
Admittedly, the looks are polarizing, but there’s no denying that the sound that comes out of its exhaust is heavenly. IROC’s most famous car was the Chevrolet Camaro and they ran Pontiac Firebirds after that, so it’s only fitting that I’m seeing a bit of F-body in the shape
.
It’s very much a stock car, with a body over a caged chassis. Maybe that’s a letdown if you were somehow expecting to see Eldora-ready versions of the Porsche Carrera RSRs that ran in the original IROC races, but personally, I think it looks like a fun ride. It’s much simpler with a lot of modern race cars, with retired NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr. noting on Twitter that “you can drive it across the lawn,” presumably thanks to the lack of a splitter.
Also, listen to it. It sounds like the business.
SRX is already shaping up to be a big deal. The project is led by retired NASCAR driver Tony Stewart and legendary NASCAR crew chief Ray Evernham (and I feel like these brief descriptions under-sell both).
The series already has a varied but star-studded lineup that includes both well-established racers such as Tony Kanaan, Willy T. Ribbs, Helio Castroneves and yes, Stewart himself, as well as upcoming talent like Trans Am’s Ernie Francis, Jr. You can see the driver line-up so far and schedule at SRX’s website here.
Correction: Tuesday, March 9, 2021 9:59 a.m. ET: A typo in an earlier version of this article mislabeled the series the “Supercar Racing Experience,” which has since been fixed above.
[H/T r/NASCAR!]
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