What was supposed to be a routine legal filing ahead of NASCAR’s December 1 antitrust trial has blown up into a full-blown PR wildfire, the kind nobody in Daytona Beach saw coming. Instead of a quiet procedural step, the recent revelation sent shockwaves through the sport, leaving fans shaking their heads and wondering what was going on behind closed doors.

In the span of a few hours, a trove of leaked internal messages hit the public eye, peeling back the curtain on the kind of back-room tension and personal jabs that fans never imagined were happening at NASCAR’s highest levels.

‘How Pathetic’ – NASCAR Nation Explodes As Fiery Leaks Trigger a Fan Meltdown

When the courts unsealed a mountain of internal documents on Friday, the NASCAR world got a front-row seat to conversations it was never meant to hear. The release came as part of the build-up to the 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports vs. NASCAR antitrust trial set for December 1, and what spilled out was nothing short of explosive.

Buried in the files was a blistering exchange between NASCAR commissioner, then president, Steve Phelps, and then-COO Steve O’Donnell. The two were reacting to the news that Denny Hamlin planned to run the SRX season opener, and the tone was anything but restrained.

Phelps fired off, “Oh great, another owner racing in SRX,” prompting O’Donnell to snap back, “This is NASCAR. Pure and simple. Enough. We need legal to take a shot at this,” before Phelps doubled down, “These guys are just plain stupid. Need to put a knife in this trash series.”

Once fans got their hands on the leaked messages, the reaction was instant and brutal. One fan summed up the mood perfectly – “This NASCAR stuff coming out tonight is wild. There’s no way with our leaders speaking like they are, that our sport thrives. F1 is well on its way to take over the throne in North American Motorsports if we continue this way.”

With the F1-NASCAR comparison mentioned, others took things a step further. Mentioning the open-wheel racing series’ increasing popularity in the States, a second fan noted, “Honestly, F1 already took it over, and I’m not sure they’ll give it back anytime soon. The national media attention they get today is at a level nascar hasn’t reached in nearly two decades.”

Meanwhile, others didn’t hold back in tearing into NASCAR’s higher-ups for the tone and intent behind the messages. “Continuing to show they don’t have a f***ng clue about the history of their own product and what made it thrive.”

“At this point I think they did and it’s unfortunate at how pathetic our higher ups are.”

The frustration ran so deep that one fan even went so far as to wish Formula 1 had taken a different route with its new Apple TV deal, just so NASCAR’s downfall would occur sooner. As they put it, “I HATE that F1 took that apple TV deal. The way viewership was trending, F1 was def going to challenge NASCAR at some point. Doubt that happens now.”

If fans thought the fireworks ended there, what came next made everything that had preceded it look tame. The remaining unsealed messages weren’t just messy; they were appalling.

Additional texts, pulled through fact discovery, revealed Phelps firing off repeated shots at none other than Richard Childress, the sport’s Hall of Fame six-time Cup champion owner. During a tense 2023 owners’ meeting, while receiving live play-by-play updates from NASCAR Chief Media & Revenue Officer Brian Herbst, Phelps unloaded on Childress with a string of insults that fans never imagined a NASCAR president would put in writing.

What was supposed to be a straightforward charter-negotiation discussion instantly morphed into something far uglier. And once those private jabs hit the public eye, the reaction was immediate and explosive. For many in the fanbase, it wasn’t just a “bad look,” it felt like the mask had finally slipped.

The kind of rhetoric that was meant to stay buried behind closed doors now sits wide open under the brightest spotlight NASCAR has been in years.