Currently watching SRX Racing.
What I would really like to see is a NASCAR race of their top 30 drivers driving showroom stock versions of the race cars they drive.
Of course the showroom stock cars would need rollcages, but no other modifications.
There used to be a showroom stock series in the 80s and 90s run by the SCCA Pro Racing. I went to a number of those races and developed shocks for both Corvettes and Camaros that raced in that series. Shocks were something that could be changed in the Pro series. Brake pads as well because they could not hold up to the stresses of racing. The club racing SS classes, for a long time didn’t even allow the brake pad changes. I raced Saturn coupe in club racing and everyone used race pads. There was a gentlemen’s agreement not to protest brake pads.
If each of the highest performance versions of each of the NASCAR models were raced, it would be a Ford-Chevy event as the Toyota would be totally out-powered. There would have to be some balance of performance adjustments like IMSA uses.
The SRX series tries to equalize the playing field by racing on dirt in high powered cars. It takes great skill to drive on the low traction surface and the SRX tries to highlight that from drivers from a wide range of series. I like it.
The SRX race I’m watching is on an asphalt short track oval, Nashville.
I really liked of watching dirt track racing in the sixties.
BTW, Daytona has an upcoming opportunity to drive your own car on their track, but it will be escorted and limited to 55 MPH. I still might do it, proceeds are for charity.
I haven’t watched a NASCAR race in forever. The cookie cutter cars and corporate drivers who can’t utter one sentence without mentioning their sponsor just became too boring and irritating for me.
The racing at the 3/8 mile dirt track (and especially with the factory stock class) is far more exciting IMO. About 15 or 20 years ago there was a young lady running an early 70s 2 DR Chrysler Newport (those mile long land yachts) and she was cleaning house every weekend with that 440.
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They do a similar thing at the local track here about four times a year. You pay/donate $20 to whatever charity they are supporting. You show up, They take out on the track in groups of 5-10 cars. There are two pace cars. The one up front moves along at a pretty good clip, 70-75 MPH, the pace car in the back of the group maintains 55 MPH. You cannot pass the first pace car and you are expected to stay ahead of the 2nd pace car. What people have learned to do, is that they’ll let the first pace car get well out in front of the group, then hammer the gas down the straights until you catch back up. Rinse and repeat. In the release they make you sign, it expressly says not to do that, but everyone does it anyway and nobody seems to care.
They have a SRX series now with drivers… Tony Stewart. Helio Castroneves. Michael Waltrip, Marco Andretti, Bill Elliot, and others. THE one I have seen was on dirt.
For a few (many!) bucks more, you could take you own car on track, with a helmet, and learn to drive it at speed at most of the road-race tracks around the country. A full day runs about $450 with an instructor about $350 once you have collected enough skills not to need one. Much less if you become an instructor
Mid-west track, Mid-Ohio (my favorite!) in Lexington Ohio.
And bumpy Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida (my local track).
My total track count is 13 with 3 tracks run in 2 different configurations so 16 layouts. The full Daytona road course is on my bucket list!
pretty cool. was Sebring really that bumpy or was a little of it camera shake?
Sebring is THAT bumpy! The camera has video stabilization… but that can’t overcome the track. That place, overall, is the roughest track I have ever driven.
One portion of Grattan in Michigan got bumpy enough to blur my vision in a race car when I drove over it, but it was only about 50 yards long. And they re-paved it the next year.
At Sebring, the whole back and front straights and the turn 17 that connects them are old concrete with heaved joints. Been that way since the beginning. Race cars get pounded even harder than we do with their stiffer springs.
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Did they have an SRX series without drivers?
LOL what I meant that some drivers are retired, some from indy series.
during the pandemic they had unofficial NASCAR race’s that the drivers were using their computers or racing chair computer set ups. so I guess that would be drivers not being in their cars. LOL
I’m with you, I’d like to see racing with minimally modified cars and even better, on a road course that gets closer to real world conditions.
While today’s Pro racing is an admirable demonstration of the abilities of the drivers and the technology, it’s so far removed from the real world that without copius amounts of beer, it’s a pointless bore.
So give me back those days when a Stock Car race had cars that looked like and had the basic underpinnings of what I could buy at the dealers on Monday morning.
I was a Chevy fan but I’ll bet that Dodge sold a whole lot of Daytonas after Petty’s wins, nose cone or not… .
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dealers motto… Race on Sunday, sell on Monday.
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IMSA GTD or Trans Am XGT, SGT and GT cars are the closest to that racing right now. They are still real race cars with serious cages, safety gear, brakes and the like. They are built by companies contracted by the manufacturers to build the cars to world-wide GT3 and GT4 standards from production parts. Horsepower is usually lower than the production cars because the speed capability of a 750 HP CamMustDemonMerc GT is too great for the safety gear and the tracks they run. They keep power down in the 450 hp range.
These classes are designed for part-time racers. Top-tier pros (Platinum rated) drivers aren’t even allowed in to prevent a team with deep pockets to hire a top pro to dominate the rest of the field…and they would… and damage the series.
You say you want “minimally modified”… Why? What that means is “unequal” which leads to one model dominance. NASCAR doesn’t have that. All their cars are very equal and any of the 3 brands could win on any Sunday.
Why does it matter if they race what you can buy in the showroom? We had that series in the 80s and 90s and it wasn’t very successful. No manufacturer needs to prove their car will crack 150 mph, survive for 500 miles, or 24 hours of racing. They ALL build cars that will, and do. Long gone are the days when half the LeMans field would drop out. Now 90% finish and the top 10 finish on the lead lap. The top 3 finish within sight of each other.
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I may be a little old fashion here but I liked old days when it was you could build a faster car or could drive better than the other guy without big money involved like back in the moonshine running days.
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There is something to be said for nostalgia…
The days when a professional racer was built from the pocket and hands of the builder is long gone.
Thaankfully, it isn’t totally gone for the amateur racer. LeMons racing, Chumpcar (now Champcar) and a couple others have stepped in. Cheap builds and run what ya brung!
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Like I said I am old fashion my wife says I was born 100yr’s to late she says I should have been born in the 1800 hundreds. 
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Sad but true we will never see those days again.
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