In a wide-ranging discussion of issues vital to the sport of stock car racing,\u00a0 NASCAR\u00a0commissioner Steve Phelps and President Steve O\u2019Donnell stressed the momentum the\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0racing currently enjoys in Friday morning\u2019s state-of-the-sport news conference at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Phelps didn\u2019t shy away from delineating the challenges currently facing the sport, specifically the lawsuit filed by two\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0teams \u2014 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports \u2014 and the predicted drop in certain televisions ratings under the broadcast rights deal that took effect in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this sport has a lot of momentum at this particular point in a lot of different areas,\u201d Phelps said. \u201cOne, we just heard the Freeway Insurance announcement (Friday morning) being our fourth Premier Partner.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big shout-out to (CEO) Cesar (Soriano) and his entire team. We\u2019re thrilled he\u2019s back with Daniel (Suarez as a sponsor). We\u2019re thrilled they\u2019re going to expand the relationship to include a race entitlement as well as being our fourth Premier Partner, joining Coke, Busch Light and Xfinity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes way past that. If you think about where sponsorship lives today versus where we were three, four, five years ago, if you ask our race teams, probably the best number of sponsors on cars that they\u2019ve had in probably 15 years as we head into the 2026 season.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Phelps said sponsorship is healthy and showing growth throughout the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe race tracks are doing great from a sponsorship standpoint,\u201d he added. \u201cI think after a couple years of kind of at the league level, the\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0level, I think we\u2019re a little bit behind. We\u2019re closing that gap quickly with a number of new sponsors that have come on board. There are a number that will be making announcements in the near future.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, if you think about the importance of sponsorship to\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0broadly, the revenue is important\u2014don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014but it\u2019s what the sponsors do to showcase our sport to their customer base or their B2B base, bringing them to the racetrack and experiencing this sport. It\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phelps also highlighted the Driver Ambassador Program, which has enhanced the magnitude of star power within the driver ranks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think of the number of appearances that have happened, the sheer number of hours that the drivers have logged promoting this sport \u2014 6,000 hours, up 40% year-over-year. That is huge for us, right? They\u2019re building our brands. They are the face of\u00a0NASCAR.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more opportunities we give to them, the more opportunities they step up and take, the better it is for the growth of this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phelps didn\u2019t take specific questions relating to the lawsuit but instead read a prepared statement expressing\u00a0NASCAR\u2019s view of the court proceedings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn each of the past two years, I\u2019ve sat here and told you the same thing: healthy race teams are critical to our sport,\u201d Phelps said in part. \u201cWe\u2019ve been true to our word. From the outset, we\u2019ve been clear that this is not an anti-trust case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2025 charter agreement is an improvement on the 2016 framework with enhancements that reflect real progress for teams and the sport, including over $3 billion in guaranteed payments to the teams, enterprise value that is roughly $1.5 billion now to the race teams, guaranteed starting positions each week that allow teams to sell sponsorship on the best billboards in sports, the Next Gen car, and charters guaranteed for 14 years until at least 2039, plus an obligation to negotiate in good faith beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phelps further re-emphasized the sanctioning body\u2019s commitment to the charter system.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to be clear: The France family started\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0in 1948 using their own resources, grit and ingenuity,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have taken countless personal and financial risks, investing billions of dollars and untold hours into growing this sport to create opportunity for teams to race in front of fans for nearly eight decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are proud of what we built for fans together with the race teams, especially since the charters were introduced. As you saw in the race team declarations, the charter system is a critical part of the sport, something we created with and for the teams. We\u2019ll continue to defend and preserve it. Make no mistake, the lawsuit puts this at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though there was no specific announcement on Friday, O\u2019Donnell indicated that new possible formats for determining series champions were under strong consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the concerns is future drivers coming up through the system, having multiple wins, and not necessarily winning a championship,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cI think that\u2019s a challenge for a sport where I think the light really goes on is having that driver be deemed a potential superstar\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s something that as you look at the future of the sport, making sure that a driver who has delivered all season long has the ability to be named a champion, and not have something maybe come down to one race. That\u2019s really been the focal point, is we want to reward winning. We\u2019re going to continue to do that. Whatever model we come up with, winning is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starting with 2025,\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0has operated within a Cup Series broadcast deal that includes traditional partners FOX and NBC, as well as streaming services Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports. Ten of the 14 Cup races under the NBC Sports banner were carried on the USA Network.<\/p>\n
In addition, CW picked up the broadcast right for the\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0Xfinity Series. Phelps explained that the drop in television ratings for the Cup Series was closely in line with numbers\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0anticipated for the first season under the new deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the season started, because of the distribution changes to be less broadcast heavy and more cable heavy and streaming, we knew we were going to have a reset,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had projected that reset and told everyone in our industry that reset would be between 14% and 15% in Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also told them we probably have a double-digit increase in Xfinity. Then Trucks would be where Trucks are, because the distribution stayed the same primarily on FS1 and some FOX.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, as we sit, our ratings in Cup are down 14%, exactly what we predicted\u2026 I think that Xfinity exceeded a lot of experts\u2019 opinions about what their audience would be. We surmised that the audience makeup of Amazon would be younger, and it was, by about six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say the cable portion of the NBC package has been a little softer than we had expected. Bounce back on the NBC races, I think we\u2019ll have a decent rating here on Sunday (for the\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0Cup Series Championship Race).<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, the expectation moving forward, now that we have had the reset, is that we are going to grow. We\u2019re going to grow because we have the best racing in the world, our stars are going to be more out there, we\u2019re creating better content, all the things that make fandom.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell acknowledged that\u00a0 NASCAR\u00a0is monitoring the emergence of a small number of power teams into dominant positions in the\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0Cup Series but stressed that changes to the Gen 7 race car must preserve the cost-effectiveness the new car has achieved over the past three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a trend that we need to be very watchful on,\u201d O\u2019Donnell acknowledged when asked about the ascendance of such organizations as Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske. \u201cI think when you look at the car, our team has done a really great job around the car, what you can do. Most of the spend now is going through simulation, engineering, all these things. The bigger teams have more resources. You look at the future with AI, all these things.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus as a competition group really needs to lean into that aspect of it. What do the have-not\u2019s not have, and what can we do and what rules can we put in place as technology becomes more and more of a factor? Can we lessen that?<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably difficult to do. Technology costs a ton of money. But what can we share with some of the smaller teams as we look at future rules to make sure they\u2019re able to go out there and not only compete but compete for wins?\u201d<\/p>\n
In other aspects of the discussion, Phelps cited the enthusiasm new manufacturer Ram is bringing to the\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0CRAFTSMAN Truck Series next year and indicated discussions are ongoing with other potential OEMs.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell confirmed that\u00a0NASCAR\u2019s potential development of hybrid power and potential electrification had slowed somewhat in line with market conditions throughout the automobile industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a wide-ranging discussion of issues vital to the sport of stock car racing,\u00a0 NASCAR\u00a0commissioner Steve Phelps and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,43326,82,123756,10364],"class_list":{"0":"post-269506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-phoenix-raceway","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-steve-o","14":"tag-steve-phelps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}