Messages show NASCAR wanted to ‘put a knife’ in SRX series

Countless unsealed documents and messages landed on the PACER service on Friday night in advance of the antitrust lawsuit trial involving NASCAR, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports. These uploads revealed many things, including that NASCAR had a big problem with the SRX series.

The SRX (Superstar Racing Experience) series first started in 2021 as the creation of Tony Stewart, Ray Evernham, George Pyne, and Sandy Montag. This series featured top drivers from multiple disciplines competing in identical cars on a variety of pavement and asphalt short tracks. It had a mix of regulars and guest stars.

As the messages showed, NASCAR did not view SRX as another short track series, especially after executives learned that Denny Hamlin had chosen to compete in the 2023 season opener at Stafford Speedway.

“Oh great, another owner racing in SRX,” an unidentified individual wrote in the 2023 exchange. NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell — then COO — responded by writing, “This is nascar. Pure and simple. Enough. We need legal to take a shot at this.”

NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps — then president — chimed in while writing, “These guys are just plain stupid. Need to put a knife in this trash series.”

The first two seasons of the SRX Series aired on CBS on Saturday nights. The third season aired on ESPN while moving to Thursday nights. These broadcasts featured some familiar voices such as pit reporter Michael Waltrip and guest analyst Joey Logano.

The series featured such full-time drivers in Stewart, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, and Marco Andretti competing against guest stars.

The list of guests over the three seasons included such names as Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Dave Blaney, Bill Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Hailie Deegan, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Justin Marks.

This particular exchange about the “trash series” was the second in two years from O’Donnell, Phelps, and other NASCAR executives. Back in 2022, they had another discussion about the series after learning that Marks would compete in SRX.

“Ummm. Justin Marks is racing srx?” O’Donnell wrote on June 29, 2022. Ben Kennedy responded by saying, “Saw that too. Disappointing.”

The unidentified executive then weighed in, saying, “They just don’t get it. I’m sure its cool for Justin to go get behind the wheel but there’s no regard for the bigger picture. And maybe that’s on us for not giving them that incentive, I don’t know.

“But you’ve got Marks, Chase (Elliott), Tony (Stewart) and (Ryan) Blaney racing on a network that competes against our rights holders. They outrated Xfinity and Trucks last weekend; it isn’t some local dirt track stuff.”

The conversation continued as O’Donnell went on a rant about the drivers and team owners choosing to race in the short track series.

“Actually you have one of the voices of Fox in Waltrip, an owner of Cup cars in Stewart, our most popular driver for years and one of our champs fathers etc. This is exhibit ‘a’ that nobody gives a (expletive) about what got them their careers. Pay em some money and they are all in. The guy who cried about safety every single day is in a box car without SAFER Barriers and not a care in the world.

“And by the way, who does Curtis (Polk, 23XI co-owner) have hanging with (Michael Jordan) over the weekend in Nashville? Not Ben, not me or (Scott) Prime or anyone – Marty Smith from ESPN. Coincidence? Lots to get our arms around but sadly any ‘goodwill’ seems to be lost. So smiles all around but behind the scenes we scheme and we win.”

“Wait until (Dale) Jr. says he is running an event,” O’Donnell continued. “Matter of time. They will go to North Wilkesboro with SM and Junior if we are not careful. We need to be the first back.”

O’Donnell then pitched the idea of beating SRX to these historic tracks by having an All-Star combination weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway and Bowman Gray Stadium with events on Friday and Sunday. The unidentified individual lauded the idea, as did Phelps.

“That’s the key – we need to have everyone understand that this could turn into LIV (Golf) if we don’t play our cards right,” Phelps wrote. “We are smarter than they are – but part of the issue is they don’t have the facts and don’t seem to want to take the time to learn or maybe they just don’t care.

“It’s all about the money and feeling like they have been heard and are respected. The SRX thing is just baffling to me. Why don’t they get it? Oh, they do get it, and it’s a huge FU to us.”

NASCAR ultimately saw the outcome it desired. It beat the SRX series to both Bowman Gray Stadium and North Wilkesboro Speedway. Bowman Gray hosted last season’s Clash and will do so again in 2026. North Wilkesboro hosted the All-Star Race three times (2022-2025) and will host a points race in 2026.

The SRX series ceased operations after the 2023 season and has remained inactive since. GMS Racing then purchased the physical assets from Evernham in September, which included 16 fully-built race cars.