The Camping World SRX Series went to the Stafford Motor Speedway tonight for its first ever race, marking a historical day for racing. This is the first of six races on the 2021 schedule. The SRX Series had local favorite Doug Coby in the seat of one of the cars, the six-time Whelen Modified Tour champion will have his hands full going up against Daytona 500 champions and Indy 500 champions.
On the pole for the first heat race we saw Greg Biffle in the no.69 take the green, with 6:38 left of the heat Paul Tracy spun off of Michael Waltrip's car marking the first caution in SRX Series history. Despite the yellow the heat clock continued to tick as Tracy's car got worked on in the pits, the green flag waived once again with 1:32 left of heat one. At the end of heat one it would be Greg Biffle who takes down the win, overall in the Cup Series Biffle has 19 wins, but none on a short track. Going into heat two the field was inverted as Paul Tracy would have pole after finishing last multiple laps down due to the damage sustained for an earlier crash. Michael Waltrip would quickly take the lead from Tracy. With just over six minutes left of the second heat we saw a crash as a commercial break took place as Willy T Ribbs spun collecting two other cars. One of the drivers involved was heat one winner Greg Biffle, due to damage he would be credited with a DNF in the second heat. We went back to green with 1:42 left it would be local favorite Doug Coby who gets it done holding off Waltrip. The finishing order of heat 2 will set the starting grid for the feature.
Going to the green for the 100 lap feature Doug Coby led the 12 car field to the line. Greg Biffle was able to get into a backup car with 39 lap old tires, he would start p12. Going green would be halted as Bill Elliot's car stopped on the back straightaway, he would end up making the start on time. The racing did not last long as just four laps in Michael Waltrip would spin and go into the wall. Just 12 laps in we saw 2-wide action almost all around the entire field as Bill Elliot pulled of onto pit road again, shortly later Willy T Ribbs would spin, but the caution did not come out. Greg Biffle would take the lead with his fresher tire backup car. With 59 laps to go a yellow flag came out to get the field back together as multiple drivers were 2+ seconds away from each other, overall this shows that the SRX Series is more of a participation trophy series than a actual competitive racing series and I say this with all respect. Many people may like that idea, but personally I do not think that is true racing. Michael Waltrip would end up colliding with another car making him lose his spoiler, he would then be shown the black flag. Overall with less than 50 laps to go it has been Doug Coby leading with Greg Biffle a close second. The yellow flag would wave once again with Marco Andretti going around. Going in with 30 laps to go there was only 10 cars in contention/on the lead lap/still in the race. With 12-laps to go Paul Tracy went a lap down, he is the first SRX Series driver to go a lap down under the green flag. With 10-laps to go Doug Coby had a 1.40 second lead over Greg Biffle, but with 6-laps to go the yellow lights would shine as Marco Andretti's tire fell apart. Going green with 2-laps to go Coby and Biffle battled out but it would be Doug Coby who would win the Inaugural SRX Series event after leading 70+ laps.
FULL RACE RECAP AND ANALYSIS BELOW
Comments