Probably the most shocking factor in the first SRX evening of the 2022 season is just how competitive the drivers with almost exclusively IndyCar backgrounds were.
Last season, just six heats or feature races were won by IndyCar drivers, with Marco Andretti taking half of the wins by sweeping all three races at Slinger Speedway. Paul Tracy, who only had two top-five feature finishes last year still finished 11th on the night, but he did look very good in the first heat battling with Bubba Pollard and Tony Kanaan.
Kanaan also looked particularly strong, being the odd man out in a three-way battle between himself, Ryan Newman and Pollard for second in the closing laps of the feature race. Kanaan never finished above seventh in an SRX feature race prior to Saturday night, so a fourth had to be a big deal for the former Indianapolis 500 winner.
But the star of the evening, of course, had to be Helio Castroneves. The four time Indianapolis 500 winner revealed after his big win that he and SRX CEO Don Hawk had an agreement that Hawk would try and land the 46 year-old Brazilian a ride in the Daytona 500 if he won an SRX race this year. The reality is that a team would be foolish not to consider Castroneves for a seat in the Great American Race, as his participation would be a huge get for NASCAR if marketed correctly.
Helio Castroneves wasn’t even scheduled to race tonight. He literally got on a plane without getting the confirmation that he’d have a car. He just hoped.
Why?
Yeah, if he won a SRX race this year, CEO Don Hawk promised him a NASCAR ride.
It’s happening. pic.twitter.com/a6FWvIJlQI
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) June 19, 2022
It’ll be real interesting to see if this IndyCar run of dominance continues throughout this season or if it turns out to be more of a flash in the pan like Andretti’s Slinger dominance. Newcomer Ryan Hunter-Reay had a quiet night and finished eighth in his first major stock car race while Andretti finished just in front of him in seventh.
One driver who really seemed to struggle for much of the night, in contrast, was Tony Stewart. The defending series champion finished a solid third in heat one, but then just couldn’t come marching back at all in the second heat or the feature, finishing eighth and 10th respectively.
It’s crazy just how hot and humid the conditions were at Five Flags, with it feeling like 100 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the day due to humidity. The scene after the second heat with most…
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