CHARLOTTE, NC — Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick will all make their debuts in Tony Stewart’s Summer All-Star series this season, while four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves confirmed on Wednesday that he will be back for a third season will return.
Busch, who left Joe Gibbs Racing late last season and will drive for Richard Childress in NASCAR this year, will officiate the middle two Superstar Racing Experience events of the season. Busch will race at Motor Mile Speedway in Virginia in July and again at Berlin Raceway in Michigan the following Thursday night.
SRX will switch from Saturday night racing at local short circuits to Thursday night racing in a this summer new TV package with ESPN. The date change for the six consecutive weeks of racing is more convenient for several current stars who want to compete in the summer short track events but haven’t been able to make time for regular race weekends.
“I’ve been working with everyone at SRX for the last couple of seasons to get one of their races into my schedule and things didn’t work out so when they announced they were having midweek races very close to a couple of races up Given the Cup schedule, SRX and I immediately sat down to plan something for this year,” said Busch. “I won in Berlin in the Super Late Model and really enjoy racing at these local short circuits around the country to race so it’s going to be fun to go back and support these tracks and the amazing fan bases they have.”
Bowyer, a current NASCAR analyst for Fox, will be off the broadcast booth for the start of the SRX season and has three races selected for this summer. Bowyer will compete in the opener at Stafford Speedway in Connecticut, on the Motor Mile alongside Busch and then in the SRX finale at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri.
“Clint is having a blast driving a race car, grabbing a mic or just watching him do courts in the garage,” said Don Hawk, second-year CEO of SRX. “He was on our shortlist (of drivers) and I’m grateful he said ‘yes’.”
Harvick who is Retired from NASCAR competition At the end of the season, it was announced on Tuesday that they would compete in Stafford and Berlin. Castroneves, who won last year’s SRX opener, will compete at the Motor Mile, Berlin Speedway and Lucas Oil.
