{"id":300941,"date":"2025-11-23T03:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T03:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/300941\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T03:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T03:41:18","slug":"nascar-commissioner-in-hot-water-after-disrespectful-idiot-remark-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/300941\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR commissioner in hot water after disrespectful ‘idiot’ remark – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR\u2019s leadership is facing another wave of scrutiny after newly released text messages revealed harsh and personal remarks directed at veteran team owner Richard Childress.<\/p>\n

The messages surfaced through fact discovery in the ongoing 23XI Racing, led by Michael Jordan<\/a>, and Front Row Motorsports antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR<\/a>, a case already shaking the foundations of the sport\u2019s business model and internal politics.<\/p>\n

The texts, exchanged during a 2023 meeting with team owners, show commissioner Steve Phelps, who made an alarming admission before Danny Hamlin fell in the NASCAR title race<\/a>, receiving live updates from Chief Media & Revenue Officer Brian Herbst as the industry debated long-term charter agreements. Those negotiations were critical, aiming to unify teams ahead of the next broadcast rights deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But behind the scenes, Phelps appeared focused less on consensus-building and more on expressing disdain for Childress, a six-time Cup Series championship-winning owner whose public comments had recently irritated NASCAR executives.<\/p>\n

In the messages, Phelps repeatedly attacked Childress, writing: \u201cChildress is an idiot. If they don’t like the state of the sport, sell your charter and get out.\u201d Minutes later, he doubled down: \u201cDid I mention Childress was an idiot?\u201d<\/p>\n

As Herbst continued relaying discussion points from the meeting, Phelps escalated further: \u201cIf he\u2019s that angry (and apparently he is) sign your charter extension and sell. He\u2019s not smart, is a dinosaur, and a malcontent. He\u2019s worth a couple hundred million dollars \u2014 every dollar associated with NASCAR in some fashion. Total a–clown.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another message delivered perhaps the most inflammatory line of all: \u201cChildress needs to be taken out back and flogged. He\u2019s a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.\u201d<\/p>\n

These revelations follow earlier leaked remarks from both Phelps and NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell in which they criticized teams, the charter model, and even the culture of the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Phelps email complained that an early charter proposal represented \u201czero wins for the teams,\u201d later adding the agreement \u201cmust reflect a middle position or we are dead in the water \u2014 they will sign them but we are f—ing moving forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell, meanwhile, was documented saying the deal set NASCAR back decades, writing: \u201cF– the teams, dictatorship, motorsport, redneck, southern, tiny sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Phoenix Raceway ahead of Championship Weekend, Phelps publicly addressed the fallout, acknowledging the damage: \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not something that we were interested in having happen, but it\u2019s happened\u2026 Are there some comments that have been made on both sides that are unfortunate? Yeah. Are there things that Steve and I said that we would like to not have made public? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Phelps attempted to reassure fans, sponsors, and investors: \u201cBut what I do know is this is an amazing sport. We are a very resilient sport. We have asked our employees\u2026 to put your head down and grow this sport, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done. I don\u2019t think a lawsuit or anything else is going to ultimately pull against the overall success of this sport as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR\u2019s leadership is facing another wave of scrutiny after newly released text messages revealed harsh and personal remarks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[48728,49,48,2332,634,9535,82,10364],"class_list":{"0":"post-300941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-antitrust-lawsuit","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-motorsport-section","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-richard-childress","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-steve-phelps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300941","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=300941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}