'Short Tracks Is Where Its At': Superstar Racing Experience Broadcast Crew Discuss What Fans Should Expect From Inaugural Season On CBS
(CBS Local)- The Superstar Racing Experience, a new six-week short track racing series featuring all-star drivers from across motorsports, is coming to CBS this summer. On Wednesday, CBS Sports announced the broadcast team for the series a stable of veteran motorsports broadcasters including Allen Bestwick, Brad Daugherty, Lindsay Czarniak and Matt Yocum. With the series gearing up for its inaugural season, the main question on people's minds is what to expect?
"Fun. What makes this series appealing is that it's going to be a lot of fun," Bestwick said on a media video call. "If you could take everything you learned about racing over 30 years and they hand you a clean sheet of paper and say, go ahead design something from scratch that you'll have a blast with on a Saturday night, that's what this is."
Yocum agrees and says that having spent a lot of time around one of the founders of the series, Ray Evernham, in the beginning of his career, the opportunity to get involved with SRX was like rejoining a family.
"It just seems like life goes full circle, I'm back with my family and my pals again," Yocum said. "The old IROC series was a ton of fun. All of the drivers were excited to come in because of the fun aspect that was involved."
The theme of relationships and family ran throughout the call, with Czarniak saying that the opportunity to work with the group at CBS Sports is a bit of a "dream come true."
"I love racing, I love different types of racing but honestly, the ability to work with this group specifically, every single person on this Zoom right now, I have worked with in some capacity," Czarniak said. "These are people that are genuinely awesome to work with so from my perspective this is kind of a dream come true."
The series will feature an all-star list of drivers including Tony Stewart, Tony Kanaan, Willy T Ribbs, Paul Tracy, Helio Castroneves, Bobby Labonte, Bill Elliott, Ernie Francis Jr., Michael Waltrip and Marco Andretti. In addition, some local drivers in each city will get their shot to take on the big names. For Daugherty, this type of racing is what he grew up on and it's why he's excited to see the series come to life.
"For me, the bottom line is, it's short track racing. This is how I got introduced to the sport," Daugherty said. "Short tracks is where it's at. Saturday night, some of the most iconic short tracks in the country. And we have a series with some of the most incredibly capable world class race car drivers."
Bestwick agrees pointing out that the drivers will be able to show their skills in a way that is different than at any other time during their career.
"We have some of the most accomplished, greatest drivers in the history of auto-racing in a car built to let them show their skills off where they're not a dependent on the engineer or pit crew," Bestwick said. "It's designed to allow them to show their skills against each other."
While the broadcast crew and drivers are more than familiar to race fans, producer Pam Miller says the goal of the broadcasts will be to make it accessible for anyone tuning in to watch on that particular Saturday night.
"Our philosophy is, this is prime-time on CBS and we want everybody to enjoy and learn about the drivers, people, stories and personalities. I want your grandmother, your aunt, your nephew, I want it to be a family entertaining fun evening," Miller said.
Bestwick, the play by play announcer for the broadcasts acknowledges that it will be a fine line to walk but says that's part of the challenge he enjoys, making everybody part of the conversation.
"That's part of the art of this and part of the art of television particularly racing," Bestwick said. "The hardcore fan that knows what a loose race car is doesn't want to hear you describe what a loose race car is 500 times. But you can't leave someone out of the conversation that doesn't have any idea what you're talking about. That's part of the art and part of the challenge of what we do, bringing everybody into the ten while not offending people who know everything."
In the end, whether you know racing or are just looking for something to watch on Saturday nights this summer, Yocum and Czarniak note that these drivers will provide plenty of entertainment.
"Being able to dig your buddy, it's everything to them," Yocum said. "Willy T (Ribbs) told me that he already has a workout coach, workout plan, already has a plan to shake off the rust on short tracks. Already lined up a dirt racing guru. The preparation on his side is taken care of. These guys are taking it so serious because at the end of the day you are racing for a trophy."
"There's going to be a hunger, there's going to be bragging rights, and you know there's going to be a lot of trash talk," Czarniak said.
Superstar Racing Experience's inaugural season begins on Saturday, June 12 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and streaming live via Paramount+.