NASCAR’s top brass has been rocked by the public revelation of their text chains from years past, and the messages cast a bad light on the management. The likes of Kenny Wallace and Mark Martin, among a plethora of other important voices in the sport, have shared their thoughts on the matter, particularly regarding the management’s comments about Richard Childress.
Meanwhile, the conversation surrounding the closure of the SRX series has also returned to the forefront, despite the event being inactive for two years. The messages tell a story that claims Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell had a hand in the closure, but Wallace is confident that no one put a knife in it.
Kenny Wallace Turns NASCAR Loyalist With His Most Recent Take On the SRX Series
A week ago, NASCAR found itself embroiled in one of the biggest controversies in the sport’s history when text messages of the top brass became public knowledge. The messages revealed management’s dissatisfaction with Denny Hamlin’s participation in the SRX series and their subsequent discussion of ‘putting a knife’ in the series.
Many felt the conversation effectively proved 23XI and FRM’s claim that the sport was adopting monopolistic practices in the stock car racing market, given that the series was called off in the same timeline.
However, speaking to Chase Holden on his YouTube channel, Wallace raised eyebrows, given that he asserted there was no foul play involved in the cancellation of the SRX series. Per Wallace, the decision stemmed solely from a financial point of view as he tried his best to absolve Phelps and O’Donnell of any allegations.
He said, “That deal did not fail because somebody put a knife in it. SRX did not fail because somebody put a knife in it. From what I know, and I’m pretty privy to it, SRX failed because it just cost too much money and that’s all there is to it.”
In the same podcast, Wallace had previously stated that the operational cost of the series was too high, which is why Ray Evernham, one of the series’ co-founders, decided to part ways. As the former NASCAR driver puts it, Evernham either wanted to do it right, or he didn’t want to do it at all.
Therefore, with the amount of money involved with the TV deal and the operational cost, Wallace says that keeping the series going became a burden for its founders, and that’s all there is to the story.
Notably, early on in the same podcast, Wallace spoke about the text chains between O’Donnell and Phelps, where he tried justifying what the messages read. He revealed that a billion-dollar deal was going on behind the scenes at the time, and the rapid rise in the ratings of the SRX series posed a threat to the deal. As such, Wallace ‘understood’ why the management said what they said.
While the two statements don’t quite add up in many people’s eyes, the official statement remains that the SRX series was discontinued due to a lack of sufficient funds.