The latest bombshell in a tumultuous NASCAR offseason is the exit of its commissioner.
NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps will step down by the end of this month, the series announced Tuesday. Phelps joined NASCAR in 2005 and had been in leadership since 2018, first as president and then starting last year in the newly-created position of commissioner. (Unlike in other leagues, Phelps as commissioner was not the highest ranking executive in NASCAR, as Jim France continues to serve as chairman and CEO.)
NASCAR will not replace the commissioner position, instead delegating Phelps’ responsibilities to his replacement as president, Steve O’Donnell, and its executive leadership team.
Phelps presided over NASCAR at a crucial time in its history, as the sport negotiated a new media rights deal in 2023 that resulted in new partnerships with Amazon Prime Video — shifting Cup Series races exclusively to streaming for the first time — and TNT Sports. More importantly, NASCAR under his leadership weathered an ugly legal conflict with the 23/XI racing team owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, which along with Front Row Motorsports sued NASCAR on antitrust grounds over its restrictive temporary charter system.
After a brief trial last month, which included the publication of at-times disparaging texts by NASCAR executives, the sides settled and NASCAR agreed to make its charters permanent. Among those texts were several sent by Phelps disparaging team owner Richard Childress, referring to him repeatedly as an “idiot” and a “dinosaur,” “malcontent,” “ass-clown,” and “stupid redneck.” The texts in all probability made it impossible for Phelps to continue in his position.
Phelps’ resignation comes at a time of general agita within NASCAR and among its fanbase. The aforementioned 2023 media rights deal, which went into effect last season, was by any tangible measure a success for the sport — giving NASCAR five media partners and more than $1 billion in annual rights fees. But that came at the expense of broadcast television exposure for the Cup Series, with FOX and NBC down to a combined nine races per season (including the preseason “Clash”). The result in year one of the rights deal was a 14 percent decline in viewership for Cup Series races.
NASCAR had a different strategy for its secondary Xfinity Series (which this season will be renamed the “O’Reilly Auto Parts Series”), which moved exclusively to broadcast television on Nexstar-owned CW. Viewership for those races increased 11%. (IndyCar, which also moved exclusively to broadcast network, increased 27% last season. F1 was also up double-digits, with viewership across ABC and the ESPN cable networks up 20%.)
Beyond the business concerns and the embarrassing disclosures of the antitrust trial, it has simply been a nightmare offseason for NASCAR on a human level — marred by the plane crash that killed former driver Greg Biffle and his family, followed not long after by the house fire that killed Hamlin’s father and injured his mother. Even for a sport that is no stranger to tragedy, the past month or so has among the most difficult periods in its recent history.
