SRX Preview: Stafford Motor Speedway

The first of two returning circuits this year in SRX, Stafford Motor Speedway, could be the track with the longest history in the country, beginning life as a horse track in 1870.

Yes, this track was hosting events closer to the end of the Civil War (1865) than it was to the formation of the National League of Baseball (1876). Stafford would eventually host car races, and after being paved, became the premier track for modern modified racecars. This was the stomping grounds of the legendary Richie Evans and recognized names such as Pete Hamilton, Geoffrey Bodine, Greg Sacks, the real “Mr. Excitement” Jimmy Spencer, and Steve Parks built names for themselves around this half-mile racetrack.

With nine degrees of banking in the first two turns and only seven degrees in turns three and four, each end of the racetrack is different. The SRX regulars last year found that out the hard way when Doug Coby became thus far the lone local ringer to win an SRX feature race. Coby knows this, his home track, like the back of his hand, and Coby’s six NASCAR Whelen Modified championships in the past ten years are almost certain to lead to his name being added both to the previous paragraph and NASCAR Hall of Fame consideration in a couple of decades.

Here is the entry list for Saturday night, with the guest drivers in bold:

Here’s a look at three notable Superstars competing this upcoming Saturday night:

This race is scheduled to be Bill Elliott’s last in this series for this year. It’s unclear if this will be the final race in a long career for the 66-year-old legend out of Dawsonville, Georgia. If it is, it’ll be hard to top his experience last year at SRX, when the senior Elliott went head-to-head with the younger Elliott at the Nashville Fairgrounds.

There are a lot of great accolades in the career of this NASCAR Hall of Famer, but there are a couple that generally go unmentioned. When Konami decided to publish the first official NASCAR licensed video game, the sport’s most popular driver not only graced the cover, the name of the game itself was Bill Elliott’s NASCAR Challenge. While primitive by today’s standards, the game jumpstarted a tradition that continues today, with Chase Elliott appearing on the cover for both 2020’s NASCAR Heat 5 and 2021’s NASCAR 21: Ignition.

Personally, I don’t think Bill Elliott gets enough credit for helping rebuild the Wood Brothers Racing organization in 2009. When WBR downsized itself to a part-time…