Local champ Doug Coby joins Tony Stewart, Helio Castroneves and other racing legends at Stafford Motor Speedway to kick off the Superstar Racing Experience

Doug Coby is OK with driving what has been called the “Rocky Balboa” car, although he isn’t necessarily considering himself an underdog, not at a track he knows as well as Stafford Motor Speedway.

“I think they’re calling it ‘grass roots all-star’ now,“ said Coby, a six-time champion on the Whalen Modified Tour who will be competing against some of the biggest names in auto racing, including Indianapolis 500 champ Helio Castroneves, on Saturday in the debut of the Camping World Superstar Racing Experience (SRX).

“I look at us as perfectly capable of going out and winning this race. That’s how you have to present this to people across America who don’t know any of us who race the short tracks. I don’t think the people on the Modified Tour think of us as ‘Rocky Balboa,’ but it’s the people you have to convince that there are some really good short-trackers and that what brings the drama to it.”

Drama is the name of the race for the inaugural series, conceived last year by racing legend Tony Stewart, longtime NASCAR crew chief Ray Evernham, who is designing the cars, former NASCAR executive George Pyne and prominent sports agent Sandy Montag. The concept is launching with six races, televised in prime time by CBS this summer.

“What we wanted to do was find historic tracks that have a difficulty factor, a great following, a great DNA,” Evernham said. “When you look at Stafford Springs, it has sent many people up the ladder to stock car racing, guys who have gone off to Indy. The fans in that are love their motor sports and have been dying for something like this to happen.”

Stafford Motor Speedway, which is sold out to its 10,000 capacity, willkick things off Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.

Stewart, who won the last IROC championship in 2006, intends for SRX to recapture the elements of an all-star series, with all the cars being equal and random pairings of drivers and crew chiefs. It is intended to be a match of drivers’ skills in a made-for-TV format, with an emphasis on entertainment. There is already a video game version, SRX: The Game, created by Monster Games, released May 28 and available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam platforms.

“[The concept] is to be able to showcase not only what the drivers do on the track, but what they do off the track,” Stewart said. “What makes these drivers who they are? Having great personalities, that is what motor sports is lacking. It has gotten so put under the thumb of corporate America, do the right things, say the right things, that is what’s great about SRX.”

The racers signed on are well-seasoned, and well known, including Stewart, Ernie Francis Jr., Willie T. Ribbs, Michael Waltrip, Bill Elliott, Marco Andretti and Castrovenes, who won Indy for the fourth time on May 29. There will be other famous drivers making cameo appearances during the summer series.

“It’s really the biggest event to take place at a short track in Connecticut in decades,” said Shawn Courchesne, publisher and editor of RaceDayCt.com. “There’s a long history — especially in NASCAR — of top-level drivers making guest appearances driving in short track events. They used to call it barnstorming tours. Dale Earnhardt Sr. actually raced in 1985 at Stafford Speedway as part of a barnstorming tour. When NASCAR blew up nationally in the late 1990′s a lot of that went away. But there’s never been anything quite like this in racing with so many massive names of the sport putting on a series like this at short tracks like Stafford and the other places SRX Series will compete at.”

The founders of the series decided to have one local driver at each event. Milford’s Coby, 41, let Evernham know he was interested in taking on the challenge in Connecticut.

“You’ve got the 2021 Indy 500 winner coming to Stafford Speedway, so that’s pretty cool,” Coby said. “… Put it this way, I’m third in Modified tour points, I’m four points out of the lead and I’m skipping a race to go to this, sending my team there because I want to keep up in owners points. But for me as a driver, it’s something I never would have thought about turning down because it’s just that big of a deal.”

The races are designed to last about 90 minutes, 100 laps at Stafford and in most other venues. Stafford, a half-mile, paved oval track, converted from horse to auto racing just after World War II, will present a challenge those running the course for the first time.

“They’re in for a world of hell,” Coby said. “It’s not easy. There are a lot of people who can’t figure Stafford out. I’ve been lucky to have great teachers there. They’re going to be a little bit surprised by how the track is going to change over the course of the event, the different things the car is going to want on Lap 1 vs. Lap 100.”

Such nuances could play heavily to the local drivers’ advantage at Stafford, as well as the tracks to follow in Knoxville (Iowa), Eldora (Ohio), Lucas Oil (Indiana), Slinger (Wisconsin) and Nashville Fairgrounds.

“I think that’s a great story, that’s Rocky Balboa,” said CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus, “if that turns out to be the story, and some of the great legends in the history of auto racing are being bested by the local hero, that’s a pretty darn good story. Whether it’s one of the favorites or one of the underdogs, that’s why people are going to tune in. If it’s the local guy, we’ll tell his story just as actively and in an interesting way as we would Tony Stewart or Willie T. Ribbs.”

Stewart, the only driver in history to win championships in both IndyCar and NASCAR, said, “if you think there are six local drivers who are going to kick out butts six straight weeks, you’ve got something coming. I can promise, if you think we’re laying down for these Balboa drivers, that’s the opposite of what you’re going to get.”

The drivers from different eras and disciplines will step into Evernham’s fleet of cars for the first time on Friday, using four practice cars for a run around the track. They will not step into the cars they will be driving in the race until early Saturday, for a two-hour practice run.

“It’s just really important to have somebody from short-track racing included and I’m excited I get to be the first one,” Coby said, “At this stage of the game, I’m really excited to represent the Modified Tour. We always say we’re some of the toughest competitors in the whole country, and what better way to prove it than to go against some of the great names in the sport? ... This is something different, something new, something that’s going to be built up. It’s great for racing when you can bring something exciting, something new to a local facility and get people buzzed about going to Stafford.”

Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com