# 2023 SRX Series

The 2023 Camping World SRX Series was the third season of the Superstar Racing Experience, a stock car racing series in the United States. The six-race season began at Stafford Motor Speedway on July 13 and ended at Lucas Oil Speedway on August 17.
Marco Andretti entered the season as the defending series champion and returned to run full-time in the SRX Series in 2023. Ryan Newman won the series championship by 45 points over Andretti and Brad Keselowski after winning one race during the season at Stafford II.

## Drivers
### Full-time drivers

| No. | Driver | Primary series | Background/accomplishments |
| 1 | Marco Andretti | IndyCar Series | 2003 Barber Formula Dodge Eastern class champion 2004 Barber Formula Dodge National class and Southern class champion 2 IndyCar Series wins 2022 SRX Champion |
| 5 | Hailie Deegan | NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series | 2020 ARCA Menards Series Rookie of the Year First female winner in the ARCA Menards Series West 2-time consecutive Truck Series Most Popular Driver (2021 and 2022) |
| 6 | Brad Keselowski | NASCAR Cup Series | 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion 75 NASCAR national series wins (35 in Cup, 39 in Xfinity, & 1 in Truck) NASCAR Cup Series team owner |
| 14 | Tony Stewart | NASCAR Cup Series | 3-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (2002, 2005, and 2011) 1996–97 IndyCar Series champion 62 NASCAR national series wins (49 in Cup, 11 in Xfinity, & 2 in Truck) NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series team co-owner 2021 SRX Champion |
| 18 | Bobby Labonte | NASCAR Cup Series | 2000 NASCAR Cup Series champion 1991 NASCAR Busch Series champion 32 NASCAR national series wins (21 in Cup, 10 in Xfinity, & 1 in Truck) |
| 39 | Ryan Newman | NASCAR Cup Series | 2008 Daytona 500 winner 26 NASCAR national series wins (18 in Cup, 7 in Xfinity, & 1 in Truck) |
| 52 | Ken Schrader | NASCAR Cup Series | 1985 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year 1983 USAC Sprint Car Series Champion 1982 USAC Silver Car Series Champion 4 NASCAR Cup Series wins |

### Part-time drivers

| No. | Driver | Primary series | Track(s) | Background/accomplishments |
| 06 | Hélio Castroneves | IndyCar Series | Pulaski County, Berlin, Lucas Oil Speedway | 4-time Indianapolis 500 winner (2001, 2002, 2009, and 2021) (tied for most all-time) 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship champion 3-time consecutive 24 Hours of Daytona winner (2021, 2022, and 2023) |
| 07 | Clint Bowyer | NASCAR Cup Series | Stafford I, Pulaski County, Lucas Oil Speedway | 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion 21 NASCAR national series wins (10 in Cup, 8 in Xfinity, & 3 in Truck) NASCAR on Fox Cup Series color commentator |
| 2 | Josef Newgarden | IndyCar Series | Pulaski County | 2-time IndyCar Series champion (2017 and 2019) 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner 27 IndyCar Series wins |
| 3 | Paul Tracy | IndyCar Series | Stafford I and II, Pulaski County | 1990 American Racing Series champion 2003 Champ Car World Series champion 31 CART/Champ Car wins 10 Indy Lights wins |
| 4 | Kevin Harvick | NASCAR Cup Series | Stafford I, Berlin | 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion 2-time NASCAR Busch Series champion (2001 and 2006) 2007 Daytona 500 winner 121 NASCAR national series wins (60 in Cup, 47 in Xfinity, & 14 in Truck) |
| 8 | Matt Kenseth | NASCAR Cup Series | Eldora | 2003 NASCAR Cup Series champion 2-time Daytona 500 winner (2009 and 2012) 68 NASCAR national series wins (39 in Cup & 29 in Xfinity) |
| 9 | Kasey Kahne | NASCAR Cup Series World of Outlaws | Berlin | 31 NASCAR national series wins (18 in Cup, 8 in Xfinity, & 5 in Truck) |
| 10 | Johnny Benson Jr. | NASCAR Cup Series | Berlin | 1995 NASCAR Busch Series champion 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the year 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin | NASCAR Cup Series | Stafford I | 3-time Daytona 500 winner (2016, 2019, and 2020) 71 NASCAR national series wins (51 in Cup, 18 in Xfinity, & 2 in Truck) NASCAR Cup Series team owner |
| 28 | Ron Capps | NHRA | Eldora | 3-time NHRA Funny Car champion 73 NHRA wins |
| 33 | Austin Dillon | NASCAR Cup Series | Eldora | 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion 2018 Daytona 500 Winner 20 NASCAR national series wins (4 in Cup, 9 in Xfinity, & 7 in Truck) |
| 36 | Kenny Wallace | NASCAR Cup Series | Stafford II, Lucas Oil Speedway | 9 NASCAR Xfinity Series wins Former NASCAR on Fox & Speed and NASCAR RaceDay analyst |
| 41 | Ryan Preece | NASCAR Cup Series | Stafford II | 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Champion |
| 49 | Jonathan Davenport | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series | Lucas Oil Speedway | 3-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Champion (2015, 2018, and 2019) |
| 51 | Kyle Busch | NASCAR Cup Series | Pulaski County, Berlin | 2-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (2015 and 2019) 2009 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion 229 NASCAR national series wins (most all-time) (63 in Cup, 102 in Xfinity, & 64 in Truck) NASCAR Truck Series team owner |
| 57 | Chase Briscoe | NASCAR Cup Series | Eldora | 14 NASCAR national series wins (1 in Cup, 11 in Xfinity & 2 in Truck) |
| 66 | Tony Kanaan | Stock Car Pro Series | Stafford I and II, Eldora | 2004 IndyCar Series champion 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner 16 IndyCar Series wins |
| 69 | Greg Biffle | NASCAR Cup Series | Stafford II | 2000 NASCAR Truck Series champion 2002 NASCAR Busch Series champion 56 NASCAR national series wins (19 in Cup, 20 in Xfinity, & 17 in Truck) |
| 99 | Daniel Suárez | NASCAR Cup Series | Stafford II | 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion 5 NASCAR national series wins (1 in Cup, 3 in Xfinity, & 1 in Truck) |
| 99 | Ernie Francis Jr. | Indy NXT | Lucas Oil Speedway | Seven-time consecutive Trans-Am Series champion (2014 through 2020) |
Notes:
* Ryan Hunter-Reay was also scheduled to be a full-time driver in the SRX in 2023, but he decided to pull out of the series after getting an IndyCar ride with Ed Carpenter Racing in June for the rest of the 2023 IndyCar Series season.
* Paul Tracy was scheduled to run full-time but was suspended after the race at Pulaski County and did not return to the SRX for the rest of the year.

## Schedule

The 2023 schedule was announced on December 21, 2022. All races were held on Thursday nights instead of Saturday nights. The 2023 season also started in July and ended in August for the first time. The first two seasons started in June and ended in July.
The 2023 SRX schedule featured a return to Stafford Motor Speedway for the third straight year (making it the only track on the SRX schedule in all three years of the series) and series co-founder Tony Stewart's Eldora Speedway dirt track for the first time since 2021. The other three tracks, two of which are paved and one (Lucas Oil Speedway) of which is a dirt track, were new to the SRX. The original schedule included the paved quarter-mile Thunder Road International SpeedBowl in Barre, Vermont as the second event of the season, but due to extensive flood damage in the area the event was moved to Stafford (making it the only track so far in SRX history to host back to back races), with Thunder Road being granted a guaranteed date in 2024.
The schedule was designed based on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule in order to attract drivers from that series to race in the SRX race on the Thursday before the weekend's Cup Series race. Each race except for the season finale at Lucas Oil Speedway was held at a track in the same area of the country as the track that the Cup Series raced at that weekend.
| No. | Track | Location | Type | Date |
| 1 | Stafford Motor Speedway | Stafford Springs, Connecticut | 0.5 mile, paved | July 13 |
| 2 | Stafford Motor Speedway | Stafford Springs, Connecticut | 0.5 mile, paved | July 20 |
| 3 | Pulaski County Motorsports Park | Fairlawn, Virginia | 0.416 mile, paved | July 27 |
| 4 | Berlin Raceway | Marne, Michigan | 0.4375 mile, paved | August 3 |
| 5 | Eldora Speedway | Rossburg, Ohio | 0.5 mile, dirt | August 10 |
| 6 | Lucas Oil Speedway | Wheatland, Missouri | 0.375 mile, dirt | August 17 |

### Broadcasting

All six races were broadcast live on TV in the United States on ESPN, replacing CBS and Paramount+.
On April 25, 2023, the lineup of commentators for the SRX in 2023 was announced. Lap-by-Lap Allen Bestwick and pit reporter Matt Yocum moved over from CBS and returned in 2023. Bestwick previously worked for ESPN on their NASCAR coverage from 2007 to 2014 (first as a pit reporter, then as a studio host and then as a play-by-play) and IndyCar Coverage from 2014 to 2018. There were three rotating guest color commentators in the booth: Joey Logano at Stafford I, Berlin and Eldora, Conor Daly at Pulaski County Motorsports Park and Lucas Oil Speedway, and Darrell Waltrip at Stafford II.
Lindsay Czarniak, who was the host role for the SRX on CBS in 2021 and 2022, did not return for this season. She previously worked for ESPN in the same role on their IndyCar coverage. On July 6, ESPN revealed that Nicole Briscoe, who was the studio host for NASCAR on ESPN from 2011 to 2014, would be the host on the SRX TV broadcasts in 2023, replacing Czarniak. There was no roving reporter this season, a role previously filled by Brad Daugherty in 2021 and Willy T. Ribbs in 2022, resulting in each broadcast only having four commentators (down from five).

## Results and standings
### Race results

| No. | Track | Heat 1 winner | Heat 2 winner | Feature race winner |
| 1 | Stafford Speedway | Denny Hamlin | Ryan Newman | Denny Hamlin |
| 2 | Stafford Speedway | Tony Stewart | Brad Keselowski | Ryan Newman |
| 3 | Motor Mile Speedway | Marco Andretti | Clint Bowyer | Kyle Busch |
| 4 | Berlin Raceway | Brad Keselowski | Ryan Newman | Kyle Busch |
| 5 | Eldora Speedway | Tony Stewart | Tony Stewart | Tony Stewart |
| 6 | Lucas Oil Speedway | Jonathan Davenport | Bobby Labonte | Jonathan Davenport |

### Drivers' championship

Points are awarded for both heat races as well as the feature:
| Points | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position | Position |
| Points | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th |
| Heat | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Feature | 25 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
(key) * – Most laps led (feature) $^1$ – Heat 1 winner $^2$ – Heat 2 winner
| Pos. | Driver | STA | STA | MMI | BER | ELD | LOS | Pts |
| 1 | Ryan Newman | 2$^2$ | 1 | 5 | 3$^2$ | 3 | 4 | 212 |
| 2 | Marco Andretti | 6 | 3 | 9$^1$ | 4 | 6 | 6 | 167 |
| 3 | Brad Keselowski | 9 | 10$^2$ | 4 | 2*$^1$ | 9 | 2 | 167 |
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 11 | 7$^1$ | 3 | 7 | 1*$^{12}$ | 7 | 164 |
| 5 | Ken Schrader | 7 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 150 |
| 6 | Bobby Labonte | 8 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 12$^2$ | 145 |
| 7 | Hailie Deegan | 5 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 140 |
| Part-time drivers (ineligible for points) |||||||||
| | Kyle Busch | | | 1* | 1 | | | 0 |
| | Denny Hamlin | 1*$^1$ | | | | | | 0 |
| | Jonathan Davenport | | | | | | 1*$^1$ | 0 |
| | Clint Bowyer | 3 | | 2$^2$ | | | 5 | 0 |
| | Daniel Suárez | | 2 | | | | | 0 |
| | Paul Tracy | 4 | 11 | 10 | | | | 0 |
| | Greg Biffle | | 5 | | | | | 0 |
| | Matt Kenseth | | | | | 5 | | 0 |
| | Hélio Castroneves | | | 6 | 8 | | 9 | 0 |
| | Chase Briscoe | | | | | 7 | | 0 |
| | Kenny Wallace | | 9 | | | | 8 | 0 |
| | Tony Kanaan | 10 | 12 | | | 12 | | 0 |
| | Kevin Harvick | 12 | | | 10 | | | 0 |
| | Ron Capps | | | | | 10 | | 0 |
| | Josef Newgarden | | | 11 | | | | 0 |
| | Kasey Kahne | | | | 11 | | | 0 |
| | Austin Dillon | | | | | 11 | | 0 |
| | Ernie Francis Jr. | | | | | | 11 | 0 |
| | Johnny Benson Jr. | | | | 12 | | | 0 |
| | Ryan Preece | | 13* | | | | | 0 |