Suspended NASCAR star rips into executives after | Sports News

NASCAR has been embroiled in controversy of late with 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’ antitrust lawsuit claiming “monopolistic” behaviour in opposition to the group, nearing its December 1 trial date in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The pre-trial depositions on either side have been eye-opening to say the least, however notably so with regard to these on the prime of the NASCAR pyramid, commissioner Steve Phelps and president Steve O’Donnell, the latter of whom tore into 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin in a single set of messages. 

But whereas these messages might have come out of the blue to these outdoors the NASCAR circle, in keeping with suspended five-time Cup Series race winner Jeremy Mayfield, that is the tip of the iceberg.

In beforehand personal messages from 2023, Phelps brutally tore into Hall of Famer and workforce proprietor Richard Childress while speaking with Chief Media & Revenue Officer Brian Herbst. At the time, Herbst was trying to unify groups as they labored in direction of a new broadcast rights deal – one which ended up being value $7.7 billion by 2031.

During the back and forth with Herbst, Phelps laid into Childress particularly, commenting at one level, “Childress needs to be taken out back and flogged. He’s a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.”

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Phelps even stated at one level, “These guys are short sighted and self serving. Childress is an idiot. If they don’t like the state of the sport, sell your charter and get out.” Childress has since threatened legal motion.

Firing back at these messages, Mayfield, who was suspended in 2009, having examined optimistic for methamphetamines twice, posted on social media, “If it weren’t for “stupid” rednecks these “suits” wouldn’t have a job.”

In a subsequent post he elaborated, writing, “Phelps & Steve O dissing RC isn’t just out of line, it shows exactly how far this sport has drifted from who built it. RC didn’t need NASCAR [to] become who he is, but they d— sure needed him. [You] don’t disrespect a man who’s done more [for] NASCAR accidentally than they’ve done on purpose.”

But Mayfield, who has long caught by his innocence, vehemently believing that his 2009 optimistic outcomes had been as a consequence of a combination of having taken Claritin-D together with Adderall prescribed by his physician, as per Newsweek, had more to say on the continuing matter.

“These leaked messages are just confirming what some of us lived firsthand,” the 56-year-old claimed on Facebook. “*Challenge them and you’re the enemy. *Question them and you get crushed. *Build something without them and you’re a target. *Stop serving their agenda and suddenly you’re just another “stupid redneck.”

“This is who they are and who they’ve always been behind closed doors. People call it shocking. It’s not. And now their own words are doing what they tried to do to everyone else, BURYING them. Suddenly all these “stupid rednecks” can learn simply high quality.”

This isn’t the primary time Mayfield has spoken out in opposition to NASCAR’s management, having stated in 2024 that it did not clear paths of communication between himself and people in charge.

“If we could’ve sat down on Day 1, before they made any announcements, we’d have had it worked out. But they didn’t want to do that,” he claimed. “To this day, I still haven’t sat down with either one of them and talked about it.”