CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick will all make their debuts this season in Tony Stewart’s summer all-star series, while four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves confirmed Wednesday he’ll return for a third season.
Busch, who left Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of last season and will drive for Richard Childress in NASCAR this year, will run the middle two Superstar Racing Experience events of the season. Busch will race at Motor Mile Speedway in Virginia in July, and again the following Thursday night at Berlin Raceway in Michigan.
SRX this summer will move from racing on Saturday nights at local short tracks to Thursday nights in a new television package with ESPN. The date change for the six consecutive weeks of racing is more conducive for several current stars who want to be part of the summer short track events but didn’t have the time during regular race weekends.
“I’ve been working with everyone at SRX trying to get one of their races on my schedule the last couple seasons and things didn’t work out, so when they announced they were having weeknight races in close proximity to a couple races on the Cup schedule, SRX and I immediately got together to plan something for this year,” Busch said. “I’ve won at Berlin in the Super Late Model and I really enjoy racing at these local short tracks across the country, so it’ll be fun to go back and support those tracks and the great fan bases that they have.”
Bowyer, a current NASCAR analyst for Fox, will be out of the broadcast booth by the time SRX begins its season and has picked three races for this summer. Bowyer will race in the opener at Stafford Speedway in Connecticut, at Motor Mile alongside Busch and then in the SRX finale at Lucas Oil Speedway in Indianapolis.
“Clint is a blast to watch wheel a racecar, microphone or simply watching him hold court in the garage,” said second-year SRX CEO Don Hawk. “He was on our short list (of drivers) and I’m thankful he said ‘Yes.’”
Harvick, who is retiring from NASCAR competition at the end of the season, was announced Tuesday to compete at Stafford and Berlin. Castroneves, who won last year’s SRX opener, will compete at Motor Mile, Berlin Speedway and Lucas Oil.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports