{"id":304403,"date":"2025-11-24T20:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304403\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T20:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:04:12","slug":"childress-considering-legal-action-over-nascar-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304403\/","title":{"rendered":"Childress considering legal action over NASCAR messages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Childress Racing stated Monday that \u201clegal action is being contemplated\u201d after its owner was insulted by NASCAR executives, as revealed by text messages in the antitrust lawsuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The full statement reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cRCR and Richard Childress are deeply disappointed by the insensitive and defamatory statements made about Mr. Childress in recently surfaced text messages between NASCAR executives Steve Phelps and Brian Herbst. These comments reflect the way certain NASCAR executives have historically viewed and treated many team owners like Mr. Childress, who have devoted their lives to strengthening the sport for its fans, its sponsors, and all who compete in it. RCR and Richard Childress are equally disappointed for the NASCAR fans, with whom Mr. Childress closely identifies given his humble and hard-working background.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Childress and the organization will issue no further statements regarding these or other defamatory text messages that have recently surfaced, as legal action is being contemplated and discussed with legal counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the text messages released last week, NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps said Childress \u201cneeds to be taken out back and flogged. He\u2019s a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR\u201d in a 2023 text thread with Brian Herbst. Phelps later said that \u201cChildress is an idiot\u201d and \u201cif they don\u2019t like the sport, sell (your) charter and get out.\u201d He then said a third time, \u201cDid I mention that Childress is an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbst, NASCAR chief media and revenue officer, liked the message and responded, \u201cJust listened to the hit. He is an idiot. So many false claims and\/or disingenuous statements.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two were messaging after Childress appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and made comments about the upcoming media rights deal and Next Gen car. NASCAR\u2019s newest media rights deal, which began this season, is estimated to be worth $7 billion. The Next Gen car, which debuted in 2022, has faced criticism from the garage as not saving teams money.<\/p>\n

The messages came to light last week when a federal court in North Carolina unsealed documents in the ongoing antitrust lawsuit between NASCAR and two of its race teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. At the heart of the lawsuit, in addition to alleging NASCAR is a monopoly, has been the sport\u2019s economic model and charter system.<\/p>\n

NASCAR negotiated with its race teams for over two years on a new charter agreement, and the messages came during the middle of those contentious times. The final deadline passed in September 2024. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports were the only two teams that did not sign the agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Childress Racing stated Monday that \u201clegal action is being contemplated\u201d after its owner was insulted by NASCAR…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-304403","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304403","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=304403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}