NASCAR commissioner in hot water after – Sports News
NASCAR’s management is going through one other wave of scrutiny after newly launched textual content messages revealed harsh and personal remarks directed at veteran crew proprietor Richard Childress.
The messages surfaced by way of truth discovery in the continued 23XI Racing, led by Michael Jordan, and Front Row Motorsports antitrust lawsuit in opposition to NASCAR, a case already shaking the foundations of the game’s business model and inner politics.
The texts, exchanged during a 2023 assembly with crew homeowners, show commissioner Steve Phelps, who made an alarming admission earlier than Danny Hamlin fell in the NASCAR title race, receiving stay updates from Chief Media & Revenue Officer Brian Herbst because the industry debated long-term constitution agreements. Those negotiations had been important, aiming to unify groups forward of the following broadcast rights deal.
But behind the scenes, Phelps appeared targeted much less on consensus-building and more on expressing disdain for Childress, a six-time Cup Series championship-winning proprietor whose public feedback had lately irritated NASCAR executives.
In the messages, Phelps repeatedly attacked Childress, writing: “Childress is an idiot. If they don’t like the state of the sport, sell your charter and get out.” Minutes later, he doubled down: “Did I mention Childress was an idiot?”
As Herbst continued relaying dialogue factors from the assembly, Phelps escalated additional: “If he’s that angry (and apparently he is) sign your charter extension and sell. He’s not smart, is a dinosaur, and a malcontent. He’s worth a couple hundred million dollars — every dollar associated with NASCAR in some fashion. Total a–clown.”
Another message delivered maybe probably the most inflammatory line of all: “Childress needs to be taken out back and flogged. He’s a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.”
These revelations comply with earlier leaked remarks from each Phelps and NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell in which they criticized groups, the constitution model, and even the tradition of the game.
One Phelps e-mail complained that an early constitution proposal represented “zero wins for the teams,” later including the settlement “must reflect a middle position or we are dead in the water — they will sign them but we are f—ing moving forward.”
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O’Donnell, in the meantime, was documented saying the deal set NASCAR back a long time, writing: “F– the teams, dictatorship, motorsport, redneck, southern, tiny sport.”
At Phoenix Raceway forward of Championship Weekend, Phelps publicly addressed the fallout, acknowledging the harm: “It’s certainly not something that we were interested in having happen, but it’s happened… Are there some comments that have been made on both sides that are unfortunate? Yeah. Are there things that Steve and I said that we would like to not have made public? Yes.”
Still, Phelps tried to reassure followers, sponsors, and buyers: “But what I do know is this is an amazing sport. We are a very resilient sport. We have asked our employees… to put your head down and grow this sport, and that’s what we’ve done. I don’t think a lawsuit or anything else is going to ultimately pull against the overall success of this sport as we move forward.”
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