(ROSSBURG, OHIO)—Ever wonder whether some of today’s race drivers could do well on dirt? Or whether the old guys still have it? Guys like Helio Castroneves, a four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 who has only driven on pavement, or Bill Elliott, who is 65 now, or Paul Tracy who earns a living by telling people about INDYCAR races instead of driving in them, is 50 and hasn’t driven in a race for 15 years, or Bobby LaBonte who has finally made the transition from track to booth?
They’re racing in the SRX series—Superstar Racing Experience, which ran its third race of the season Saturday night at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway, a dirt track. Stewart and NASCAR championship crew chief (three of Jeff Gordon’s four titles) are the creators of the new series that matches drivers from different eras and disciplines in cars that are as equal as they can be
The man who does his best to make sure the cars are as equal as possible is Fenton native Ken Schrader, a year older than Elliott, who still competes from time to time at his own track at Pevely and in Modified Stocks, Midgets and ARCA cars in a lot of other places. He’s the chief test driver for the new series, which he says focuses on “good ol’ racecars that let the driver’s ability shine through.”
He talked about the series at Knoxville (Iowa) dirt track a couple of weeks ago—and reminisced a little about some of his runs there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzIEslHM88Q
Stewart won the race on his home track Saturday night, coming from last place (12th) at the start of the Feature. But he had to hold off local star driver Kody Swanson to do it. And Castroneves, running the second race of his life on dirt, was third. Other drivers in the series: Willy T. Ribbs, Tony Kanaan, Michael Waltrip, Marco Andretti, Scott Speed, and Ernie Francis Jr. Francis is a seven time champion of the Trans-Am Series. Speed is a champion Rallycross driver.
The debut season for SRX Racing is only six races long. The remaining three races will be run at:
Lucas Oil Raceway (Indianapolis) next Saturday night; Slinger Speedway (Slinger Wisconsin) on July 10, and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on July 17. CBS is the broadcast partner for the series.
After the first three races, Stewart has a big points lead over Castroneves and Francis. Andretti, taking a break from fulltime INDYCAR competition, is fourth, ahead of Labonte, Tracy, Waltrip and Elliott. Kanaan and Ribbs round out the top ten.
(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s doubleheader weekend at Pocono was nothing if not unpredictable. Late race circumstances ended two winning streaks and produced unanticipated winners.
Kyle Busch, driving a crippled car, emerged on top of the Sunday race when he squeezed every last mile out of his fuel while two frontrunners had to make late splash-and-go pit stops. Busch’s transmission locked into fourth gear with more than 100 laps to go and he toasted the clutch trying to re-start in fourth gear—with a big push from his pit crew. Several competitors elected not to top off their tanks during a caution period with 45 laps left. But Brad Keselowski lost the gamble and the lead with eight laps left. William Byron had to pit with three left and Denny Hamlin pitted on an empty tank a lap later, giving Busch a big lead over Kyle Larson, who was trying to make up for his disappointing Saturday finish. Busch finished 8.6 seconds ahead of Larson, who also was trying to nurse his fuel supply to the end.
Busch’s win for Joe Gibbs Racing was the first time a Hendrick Motorsports driver had not finished first since May 9th—seven races, including the non-points All-Star Race.
Kyle Larson’s hopes of becoming the ninth driver in the modern NASCAR era (since 1972) to win four straight points-paying races came to an abrupt end with a blown tire on the last lap of Saturday’s Pocono race. Larson had waged a fierce battle with teammate Alex Bowman for most of the last twenty laps before finally getting past him with three to go.
But on the second turn of the “tricky triangle” track, Larson’s left front tire let go and put him into the wall. He kept his car going and finished ninth. Bowman crossed the finish line seven-tenths of a second ahead of Kyle Busch. It’s Bowman’s third win of the year.
Larson has built a good lead when the white flag signaled the start of the last lap but as he exited turn two he found his car “wouldn’t turn.” He thought some debris from another car punctured his tire.
Bowman’s win was the sixth straight for Hendrick Motorsports, its longest streak since 2007.
NASCAR goes road racing at Road America next weekend.
(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR took a little break last weekend and will be back on-track at Mid-Ohio on July 4. The track is one of Scott Dixon’s best venues. He’s won there six times and needs a win to tighten the championship points race. He’s third with two of the young lions of INDYCAR ahead of him: Alex Palou, up by 52 points and Pato O’Ward, who is 28 points ahead of Dixon.
(FORMULA 1)—This year is looking more like Max Verstappen’s year. He handily beat defending F1 champion Lewis Hamilton in the Styrian Grand Prix. Hamilton admitted his Mercedes had nothing to a challenge Verstappen’s Red Bull ride. Verstappen started from pole, took a good lead on the start and never lost command of the race. Hamilton was second and his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, was third.
(Styria is a state of Austria).
Verstappen has now won four races to Hamilton’s three. The victory is the third straight for the Red Bull team. He leads Hamilton by 18 points after Red Bull’s fourth straight win. The race was the eight F1 GP of the year. There are fifteen more chances for Mercedes and Hamilton to regain the dominant position in the series.
F1 returns to the same circuit next week. But that race will be the called The Austrian Grand Prix.
(Photo credit: SRX)