INDIANAPOLIS – Anthony Macri is heading to Ohio to compete in the 37th and 38th Kings Royal events at Eldora Speedway after partnering with Indy Race Parts’ Bernie Stuebgen.
The deal for Macri to drive the No. 71 Indy Race Parts entry came together after Stuebgen called Macri’s crew chief in Pennsylvania, Jimmy Shuttlesworth, two weeks ago.
This will be the first time in Macri’s career that he will drive a 410 sprint car that’s not under his family banner when he races Stuebgen’s No. 71 at this week’s 37th and 38th Kings Royal.
“It’s definitely a cool experience, and just to get a ride in general,” Macri said. “Of course as good a car as it is, it’s pretty exciting to see what I can do and kind of see if I can stay up to the standards of the other drivers he’s had in it. We’ll see what we can do and go from there.”
“I was trying to think, if I were to run the Kings Royal, who would I want?” Stuebgen began. “I thought about it, then I thought, ‘You know, Macri isn’t a bad choice. He gets on the hammer.’”
Stuebgen’s race operation has been put on the back-burner for much of this year largely due to his truck and trailer being stolen the last week of March. Shane Lebic is lending Stuebgen a truck and trailer for the week.
Spencer Bayston, Stuebgen’s go-to driver for the No. 71 this year, recently joined Sam McGee Motorsports on the All Star Circuit of Champions tour.
That left Stuebgen to brainstorm how to get his race team moving again. That’s when he thought of Macri through a conversation with his engine builder, Charlie Garrett.
“I talked to Charlie Garrett, I talked to many different people, and at the end of the day, who do I hire?” Stuebgen said. “I liked Spencer, but I felt, in my gut, Spencer wanted to race more than I wanted to race as far as number of races. McGee asked me if they could hire [Spencer], and I said go ahead. There was no hard feelings there.”
Now, Stuebgen turns his attention to his next project in Macri.
As usual, Stuebgen, also a lead mechanic on Gio Scelzi’s No. 18 sprint car at KCP Racing, will serve as crew chief. Shuttlesworth, a veteran crew chief himself, will help maintain the car throughout the week.
The Stuebgen and Shuttlesworth pairing brings together two of sprint car racing’s most savvy minds, and Macri is eager to leverage the opportunity in the very ride that’s helped drivers such as Scelzi, Spencer Bayston, and Shane Stewart.
Outside of the 410, Macri has experience racing for Chris Dyson and Sean Michael in the 360 ranks, where the combination have three United Racing Club victories in the last two years.
The Dillsburg, Pa., native owns 17 wins in a sprint car since June 14 of last year, which is the most of any driver based out of Central Pennsylvania over that span. Fifteen of those wins are on big half miles that reach speeds a tick below Eldora.
Macri has two races under his belt at the Rossburg, Ohio, clay oval, both in which came at last year’s Governors Reign sanctioned by the All Star Circuit of Champions. Macri didn’t qualify for the main event on the first night, but on the second night, he finished 21st in one of the toughest, 46-car fields sprint car racing offered last year.
Now, with his seat freshly mounted in Indianapolis on Monday morning, he gets a chance to sharpen himself on the most lucrative stage in all of sprint car racing.
“We’ll see how that goes, and maybe do some more shows in the future,” Macri said. “It’s exciting, and I’m ready for it.”