When Superstar Racing Experience (SRX racing) partnered with ESPN to revive the Thursday Night Thunder branding, the moniker was validated by the six weeks of action across five tracks in July and August.
The racing was largely good-natured, fun but intense with one notable exception that led to an indefinite suspension.
The roster featured a great mix of current generation superstars versus legends across a variety of disciplines. The tracks delivered and the fans brought energy all summer.
With that in mind, here are the nine most memorable moments from Superstar Racing Experience in 2023.
Motor Mile Carnage
Even before the race at Pulaski County Speedway on July 28, Tony Stewart called a private drivers meeting in which he instilled upon his fellow legends that they tore up too much equipment the week before at Stafford Motor Speedway.
The message did not seem to hit home as SRX put on the most crash-filled race in series history in southern Virginia. The most notable crash involved Paul Tracy wiping out Josef Newgarden and collecting Hailie Deegan and Ken Schrader.
Schrader, infamously, said immediately after the crash that he was done racing SRX if Tracy was allowed back following two years of excessively hard driving in the summer mini series.
Even the finish was marred by controversy as leader Brad Keselowski was spun by Kyle Busch on the way to the front on Lap 57. It was just a lot to digest leaving the track that night.
Kyle Busch wins crash filled SRX finish
Paul Tracy fired
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the most astute observation about the Paul Tracy situation when he said ‘you’ve really made a mistake when you make Ken Schrader mad,’ because it’s generally hard to do … and because you’re not going to have any allies when it happens.
Thus, SRX was forced to indefinitely suspend Tracy after the incident at Motor Mile.
Thus, Schrader raced the remainder of the season, because he absolutely meant it when he said he wouldn’t come back otherwise. The Tracy car was filled with a variety of ringers for the final three races.
Lucas Oil Raceway finish
SRX saved its on-track best for the last race of the season at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri. Super Late Model ace Jonathan Davenport, making his series debut in the car left open by the Tracy suspension, dominated the race but Clint Bowyer kept it close. It was clear that Bowyer was waiting for his moment. Marco Andretti disrupted the plan on a restart with 20 laps to go, the two trading bump and runs over the final lap, allowing Brad Keselowski to drive to second. It was just all-around great racing.
Berlin pre-race
Words really don’t do justice to articulate what it was like to be in Marne, Michigan in the moments leading up to the start of the ESPN broadcast of the race at Berlin Raceway. The crowd really treated this event like it was the coolest thing they had ever been a part of. While track general manager Jeff Striegle did his part to rile them up before the broadcast begun, the crowd had been this excited all day. There’s a reason Berlin will once again host the series in 2024.
Champion Ryan Newman
The racing world has a tremendous amount of respect for Ryan Newman. He is one of the smartest guys in the industry, has enjoyed incredible longevity and also has been an unwitting test dummy of sorts for numerous safety innovations. Racers love racing with Newman and that respect is always reciprocated. So even though Tony Stewart fell short to Newman for the season long championship, he was proud that it was to Newman. For his part, Newman treated the championship as a major accomplishment too and you could tell it was something he values.
Logano interviews Busch … racing for the win
“You know, hearing you on my radio, it’s f—ing lighting a fire under my a–!”
It was television magic, and something that could only happen in SRX, when color analyst Joey Logano keyed up long-time rival Kyle Busch’s radio to talk to him during the race at Berlin right as he was trying to hold off Helio Castroneves for the lead. It’s something that everyone involved will remember fondly for a long time.
The finale post-race scene
It took getting to the end of the six-race season to really appreciate everything that was great about Superstar Racing Experience. There was beer flowing and hugs aplenty across Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Ken Schrader, Helio Castroneves, Clint Bowyer and Kenny Wallace. It was a bunch of dudes who share the same pure love of motorsports and a longstanding love for each other. You probably had to be there to really appreciate it but it makes you realize that despite the accolades and championships, these legends are still the same short track racers they were before they even had household names.
Eldora
It’s incredible that everyone left Eldora on August 10 feeling like they saw a satisfactory show because that looked impossible 15 minutes into the broadcast portion of the festivities when a massive crash knocked out half the field.
Austin Dillon suffered a ruptured coolant hose and everyone crashed when the drove over the fluid. SRX only had one true backup car and they spent the next hour having to rebuild the cars.
It really felt like the event was at risk in some way.
Austin Dillon even grabbed our cell phone to go under the hood to show race fans exactly what happened. It made for great content during the delay if nothing else.
And through it all, SRX was able to get multiple cars back on track. Hailie Deegan even drove a backup car to second-place behind Tony Stewart.
They put on a compelling race for those in attendance.
Stewart owns Eldora and the fans wanted nothing less than to celebrate with their hero. It was a signature response to a signature potential disaster.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.