Ever since the SRX series came about a few months back it has received all the hype possible, in a way that is a great thing as it brings more attention to racing in general, but at the same time it is setting itself up for failure and here's why.
The SRX Series was announced on July 13th, 2020 in the middle of a pandemic when most people did not know when life would fully get back to normal, with that said it got all the hype. The SRX Series or The Superstar Racing Experience will have a total of six races in 2021 marking its inaugural season to the racing world. In those six races the series would go from dirt tracks to pavement all across the country with some of the most well known drivers in the racing world with the likes of Paul Tracy and Michael Waltrip behind the wheel along with a local driver from the track they will be racing at.
Now to learn a little bit more about the Series I went to their website which did not work for many of its features, but the merch store worked fantastically and I mean this in the most un-sarcastic way possible, the SRX Series has some of the best merch I have ever seen. With part of their website being down I started to wonder how other people got information such as the full driver roster so I went over to the official Instagram of the SRX series and noticed some key things. In the bio it says "The biggest stars (Formula One car emoji) coming to you" First of all the grammar is not well and in a way the SRX Series is misleading people by saying "The biggest stars" Now I am not trying to bash the SRX or any of its drivers, but when you look in the racing world and all the superstars, both current and retired the SRX does not compare to the roster of protentional free agents available. The SRX Series is comprised of mainly IndyCar and NASCAR drivers along with drivers who have raced in other types of motorsports, the series also has four 'ringers' and four local favorite drivers, all together 17 drivers. 17 drivers is not a lot and when most of them will not even be on track at the same time you are looking anywhere from 9-13 drivers on the track.
The SRX Series is lacking stars from Formula One, Formula E, FIA WEC, V8 Supercars along with several other series. In no way am I trying to discredit SRX, but there is simply no way for them to say that they have the biggest stars, if anything they have some of the biggest stars. In a way I would like to compare this to the IROC Series which had a great fanbase with diverse drivers and in a way an alternative from the Cup Series but that is it. Even though it did not last long the love it got and still gets today is truly amazing. In an interview on Waltrip Unfiltered one of the SRX founders Tony Stewart said that "We basically created the old IROC Series on "Steroids" The biggest thing from that is that the SRX Series is not IROC and would never be able to compare to it racing wise, from the car body to the schedule there is no comparison.
Several days ago the SRX Series released its official video game to PS4, XBOX and PC, overall its a great game but what the SRX is doing with all this hype and sayings is just building it up for failure. When the XFL came back in 2018 it did almost the same exact thing minus making a video game. When the XFL entered its first week on national tv the ratings and fan attendance was out of this world, it was a true success. Going into week two the expectations were high and those expectations were not met as fan attendance and tv ratings fell dramatically. I feel that the same thing will happen with the SRX Series, going into Stafford, the fan attendance will be huge along with the tv ratings, but they will be no where near NASCAR. The first race will take place at Stafford Speedway on June 12th, 2021 and during that time the NASCAR Xfinity Series will be racing at Texas. The SRX Series is losing possible fans due to the series taking place while NASCAR is. If the SRX Series were to take place during the NASCAR offseason it would gain so much more publicity and fans.
The SRX Series is shaping its self up to be something great, but if something is to go wrong it will end up being one of the biggest sport series busts in history.
Overall I truly wish the best for the SRX Series and I hope to see it succeed.
Well, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I'm going to see the SRX race at Stafford and it sounds like great fun. Will be hard to beat the regular Friday night show at Stafford in terms of great racing, but we shall see.