As NASCAR Hopes to Capture New Audiences, Will IROC Branch Out or Fall Into the SRX Pit?

In a surprising turn of events, Superstar Racing Experience recently announced that it will be postponing its fourth season, which was due to run for six weeks starting in July. A step back for SRX could be a big gain for the IROC series, which will breathe a new life after 18 years. The efforts of NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham and former NASCAR team owner Rob Kauffman have injected a new life into a long-lost series.

IROC is yet to reveal its plans for 2024, but it intends to have one race this season under its new brand. However, the journey won’t be a cakewalk, as the new owners will have to plan out a product that is fresh and caters to an audience pool. Like NASCAR, IROC will face a similar challenge in terms of how to attract more new viewers to the series. While the answer is not simple, NASCAR insiders Parker Klingerman and Landon Cassill shared one or two ideas that could set IROC apart from any other series.

Here’s how IROC can build a new racing series that is unique and attracts new viewers

IROC will need to tread carefully, especially in a day and age where motorsports in America is disjointed with everyone trying to figure out their best roadmap to follow. Despite the invigoration of IROC on the back of SRX’s blackout, some questions are lingering. Which cars will be used? Where will they race? Which drivers will compete? And how many races per season? If indeed IROC manages to figure out the best possible course, they might be onto something fruitful and special.

Answering most of the questions and laying out a roadmap for IROC to follow, Parker Klingerman, while hosting a show with Landon Cassill, said, “If you want to create a true IROC for our generation and younger, you’ve got to step out of being another NASCAR-esque thing, right? It has to be more than that; it needs to be something that people are like, Yeah, they go to a road course, they go to a small short track, they go to a speedway, they go to a street course.”

“It’s five races over the course of the season that somehow you work it out that drivers can come from all over…”That’s the future of IROC, there’s no manufacturer loyalty issues that you would run into these days. Those are the things that need to happen. Otherwise, it’s just a late model stock car once again to me it is grasping at nostalgia play and it’s not going to make a serious international race of champions.”

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SRX has been very NASCAR-centric, and this is where IROC will have to draw a line, or they could run into similar roadblocks.

Landon Cassill throws a sarcastic jibe at Kenny Wallace and Kenny Schrader

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In suggesting the best possible race car for the IROC series and a revenue model that is sustainable for drivers, Cassill adds his opinion on the prospect, saying, “I hope the first move isn’t just to put no offense to put Kenny Wallace and Kenny Schrader and cars at Berlin. I hope they develop a unique car. It’s going to be hard, so you gotta pay these guys; they don’t drive for free.”

“It’s expensive to develop race cars, but maybe it’s not just one race car; maybe they have two different types of race cars. An open-wheel car that they have and a fender car, whatever you wanna call it and they can race on those different types of tracks, and that’s how they can attract those guys.”

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SRX is yet to figure out its next move after a setback, while IROC can certainly learn not to make the same mistakes SRX made and hopefully bring out a fresh product that is not NASCAR-centric.