zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
At Least SRX's Race Cars Will Look Great
At Least SRX's Race Cars Will Look Great-September 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:04

Image for article titled At Least SRX's Race Cars Will Look Great

No, there isn’t a new Cadillac SRX crossover running at Dakar. And this isn’t the Mitjet 2L-based racing series out of Las Vegas that never took off and was auctioning its assets last fall, . SRX is a 6-race summer circle-track series planning to kick off next year as a joint-venture between Tony ‘Smoke’ Stewart and car designer Ray Evernham. On Tuesday we got our first look at Ray’s full sketch of what the SRX platform is supposed to look like. The series sounds like a place for washed-up retired racers to spend their gray-haired days, but at least the car is bitchin’ as hell.

SRX first began putting out design sketches to the public on social media last week when it showed off this incredible front end with a huge deep splitter.

Image for article titled At Least SRX's Race Cars Will Look Great

For some reason the SRX accounts were overrun by people who definitely aren’t race car designers demanding that one of the most successful NASCAR crew chiefs of all time change his design to rid the car of its aero. It would seem NASCAR fans are wary of big splitters on race cars for some reason, despite the SRX cars clearly not being NASCAR stock cars in any way, shape, or form.

The same day that this design was unveiled, July 28th, Ray Evernham tweeted “Okay fans, Splitter’s gone” which seems like such a chickenshit move by the series already. What do the fans know about wind tunnels and how the cars will react to aero wash in the draft? Stick to your guns, Ray. Always stick to your guns. If simple things like car design are going to be dictated by the Twitter mob, this series isn’t going to make it very far.

When the back half of the car was unveiled on August 3rd, it was instantly easy to see why the big splitter existed in the first place. With a huge wing sticking up into the clean air above the roof line, the splitter was obviously intended to balance out the SRX chassis, both aerodynamically and visually. Now the car looks very rear-heavy. Obviously Mr. Evernham knows more about stock car-ish aero than I do, but I hope that the car debuts with at least a medium-sized splitter to help it look more cohesive front to back.

The series hopes to run six primetime races on CBS Sports next summer in short palatable 2-hour programs. The goal here is to have shorter races on short tracks without the huge top speeds that NASCAR traditionally has. These are quick sprints. Not only is that better for the television package, but it’s harder for these old duffers to find the stamina to race for hours at a time.

While the series was just founded last month, it’s aiming to deliver an IROC-style challenge as it will combine up-and-comers racing against the old guard of the sport. So who is racing? It’ll be twelve drivers ultimately, but the series has thus far only announced a trio of racers coming out of quasi-retirement.

Obviously as part-owner of the series, 49-year-old Tony Stewart was the first driver announced in the series. You may know him best from his three NASCAR championships and 49 wins from 1999 to 2016. Then again, you may also know him as the guy that ran over and killed Kevin Ward, Jr. during a sprint car race in 2014. Either way, he’s been out of professional racing for four seasons.

The second driver announced was 45-year-old Brazilian Indycar ace Tony Kanaan. Tony is running a partial retirement season in 2020 with A.J. Foyt Enterprises. Tony has a single Indy 500 win, in 2013, and a single IndyCar championship in 2004. While TK has scored two podiums in the last four seasons, he hasn’t stood on the top step since the final race of 2014.

The third driver announced is by far the most disappointing. 51-year-old Canadian IndyCar On NBC announcer Paul Tracy will drive one of the SRX cars next summer. Tracy did win a CART championship back in 2003, and fans say he won the 2002 Indy 500, though the record books say otherwise. He hasn’t raced full time for 13 years, and even his occasional one-off forays into open wheel racing ended in 2012. In addition to being a decade removed from the cockpit, Tracy is a downright obnoxious voice in the commentary booth and has the honor of three entries on the front page when you Google “”.

No offense to Tony Kanaan—offense to the other two—but I hope the remaining nine race seats are filled by more promising prospects. With such a cool car, I’d really like to see racers like Mr. Seven-Time Jimmie Johnson and a few young guns take up the fight.

Then again, maybe it’ll be like the XFL and it’ll fall apart two or three times before getting bought up by Dwayne Johnson for some reason.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
Last Year's Rolex 24 Winners Already Retired Because Their Tires Kept Failing
Last Year's Rolex 24 Winners Already Retired Because Their Tires Kept Failing
With around six and a half hours left in this year’s 24 Hours of Daytona race, 2017 24 Hours of Daytona winners Wayne Taylor Racing already threw in the towel, citing safety concerns with their Prototype class-spec Continental tires. Tire failures have dogged an otherwise fairly standard Rolex 24, with...
Sep 14, 2025
I Really Hope Fernando Alonso Isn't Cursed But He's Having Fun At Daytona
I Really Hope Fernando Alonso Isn't Cursed But He's Having Fun At Daytona
One of the most exciting recent developments in Formula One is the reappearance of drivers driving in other series. For some reason—an unwillingness to risk getting hurt or or whatever—that hasn’t happened much recently. But as F1's Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have found out at this year’s Rolex 24,...
Sep 14, 2025
All Of The Cool Little Details On The New BMW M8 GTE That Debuted At Daytona
All Of The Cool Little Details On The New BMW M8 GTE That Debuted At Daytona
We’ve been yearning for a new BMW 8 Series for years, and now, having debuted at the 2018 24 Hours of Daytona. One of the best parts about Daytona is the ability to get up close to the different cars and look at all of the interesting parts. We got...
Sep 14, 2025
The Jalopnik Bump Was Still Pretty Nice For The No. 69 Acura NSX GT3
The Jalopnik Bump Was Still Pretty Nice For The No. 69 Acura NSX GT3
While we always hope that the results in a win, sometimes we’re impressed enough with a team merely finishing the race. The Honda of America Racing Team (HART, for short) works in prep for their Acura NSX GT3 regular nine-to-five day jobs at Honda’s headquarters in Ohio, and they actually...
Sep 14, 2025
No. 5 Cadillac Prototype Wins The 24 Hours Of Daytona And Sets A New Record
No. 5 Cadillac Prototype Wins The 24 Hours Of Daytona And Sets A New Record
While there were plenty of teams that got lots of hype for or new cars at the Rolex 24 this year, it was the relatively low-key No. 5 Cadillac DPi-V.R of Mustang Sampling Racing that limped it in for the overall win. They didn’t just beat their own engine overheating...
Sep 14, 2025
This Year's 24 Hours Of Daytona Is The Most-Attended One In Years
This Year's 24 Hours Of Daytona Is The Most-Attended One In Years
The 24 Hours of Daytona—IMSA’s annual season-opening festival of utter vehicular masochism and pretty lights—is more alive than ever thanks to some big names and a deep field of cars. Not only did the infield sell out entirely, but the fastest prototypes are on pace to break the record number...
Sep 14, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved