The Superstar Racing Experience has added four new faces to the full-time roster for 2023, two of whom are already competing weekly in NASCAR.
In addition to respectively competing in the NASCAR Cup and Craftsman Truck Series, Brad Keselowski and Hailie Deegan will spend their summers vying for the SRX championship. It will be Keselowski’s first time competing for a title outside of the Cup Series, which he claimed in 2012, since he won the 2010 Xfinity Series crown.
“I’ve been watching the SRX series on TV over the years, and given our limited practice and qualifying time in motorsports now, this provides another outlet to gain track time and better my craft,” said Keselowski. “The addition of ESPN and return of Thursday Night Thunder is a huge plus as the series continues to deliver its exciting product to fans at home. This is an incredible opportunity for me to compete and I’m excited for it to kick off this summer.”
Deegan is set for her third full season in the Truck Series and first for ThorSport Racing. She and Keselowski are both Ford members. She has raced sporadically in SRX since the inaugural season in 2021, scoring a runner-up in her début at Knoxville.
“Ever since I did my first SRX race, I’ve been hoping that the schedule would work out to where I could race in it full time,” commented Deegan. “Coming back to the SRX series is already exciting as it is, but being able to run the full series makes it that much better. Going into this year, I was hoping I had no conflicts and could participate in the whole season.”
Despite their NASCAR commitments, Keselowski and Deegan are able to make time to run the entire SRX season as the latter’s races take place on Thursday nights as opposed to the weekend-based NASCAR.
“When we did the deal with ESPN for Thursday Night Thunder, I envisioned someone from IndyCar or NASCAR possibly trying to run all six races for the championship,” explained SRX CEO Don Hawk. “Brad was up to the challenge. I’ve known Brad for a long time, he doesn’t plan to fail. He methodically develops a strategy and then commits to it.
“Hailie was on the list that Tony (Stewart) and I had worked on from day one. The Thursday Night Thunder platform gives a superstar like her the ability to run all six SRX events, and the fans will love it. I’m a fan and think she’ll be very competitive week after week.”
Keselowski won’t be the only 2023 Cup full-timer entering SRX as Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are making two starts apiece as well. Denny Hamlin, Busch’s former team-mate at Joe Gibbs Racing, announced Wednesday his intention to race the season opener at Stafford Motor Speedway on 13 July.
“I am absolutely fired up to join the SRX season opener at Stafford Motor Speedway,” said Hamlin. “That track has so much history, to finally get to race there will be a bucket list item for me. It’s been fun watching
SRX grow over the past two years, and it’s an honour they asked me to join them.”
Also affirming their full-time campaigns on Tuesday were ex-Cup racers Ryan Newman and Bobby Labonte. Newman barely missed out on the 2022 championship by two points to Marco Andretti with a win at Stafford, while Labonte won the following week’s race at Nashville. Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion and 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, finished third in the points battle in 2021 and 2022.
“Last year was a great experience, and the trip for me and my girls to Victory Lane in Stafford will always be remembered,” Newman stated. “Being back on Thursday Night Thunder with Tony will be special as well.”
Labonte called it “quite an honour to be invited back to the SRX Series for a third year. Everybody has done a great job making the series more popular every year. We had a good run last year, won a race and contended for the championship. I am really excited to be competitive again this year, and compete for the 2023 series
championship.”
