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Icon Sportswire\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\nSteve Phelps, whose derogatory remarks about veteran team owner Richard Childress became public during the federal antitrust suit against NASCAR, has decided to relinquish his position as NASCAR Commissioner and step away from the sport, NASCAR announced.<\/p>\n
In a statement released Tuesday morning, NASCAR said Phelps \u201cmade the personal decision to step away from the company and his role as Commissioner.\u201d Phelps, who joined NASCAR in 2005, will \u201ctransition out of the company by the end of the month.\u201d NASCAR said no successor would be named. His duties will be delegated internally through NASCAR President Steve O\u2019Donnell and the executive leadership team. No other leadership changes were announced. <\/p>\n
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During the antitrust suit filed against NASCAR by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, an email Phelps sent during the more than two years of Charter negotiations said, \u201cChildress needs to be taken out back and flogged. He\u2019s a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to nascar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phelps testified for more than four hours on day seven of the antitrust trial that ended in a settlement on the ninth day of the legal proceedings. Phelps wasn\u2019t in attendance the day the settlement was announced.<\/p>\n
Icon Sportswire\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Richard Childress (left) and Steve Phelps at Darlington in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cWords cannot fully convey the deep appreciation I have for this life-changing experience, for the trust of the France family, and for having a place in NASCAR\u2019s amazing history,\u201d Phelps said in a prepared statement. \u201cAs I embark on new pursuits in sports and other industries, I want to thank the many colleagues, friends, and especially the fans that have played such an important and motivational role in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Phelps\u2019 20 years at NASCAR, the sport transformed its annual schedule, reshaped its strategic vision, expanded its international footprint, secured long-term media rights and Charter agreements, and assembled a leadership team focused on building stock car racing\u2019s future with the fan experience at its core.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSteve will forever be remembered as one of NASCAR\u2019s most impactful leaders,\u201d NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France said in a prepared statement. <\/p>\n
NASCAR Executive Vice Chair Lesa France Kennedy said in a prepared statement that in Phelps\u2019 two decades at NASCAR, he had \u201cbalanced strong leadership and a consistent pursuit of excellence with a sincere commitment to our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has helped to bring fans some of the best, most unforgettable moments in our history, and most importantly, he\u2019s laid an incredible foundation for continued growth and success for the entire sport,\u201d Kennedy stated. <\/p>\n
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A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Phelps, whose derogatory remarks about veteran team owner Richard Childress became public during the federal antitrust suit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,166496,784,1642,634,166495,82],"class_list":["post-393289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-31b28f90-5b4e-49c5-b1b9-65f47fced340","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-steve-phelps-leaves-nascar-after-lawsuit-fallout","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393289","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=393289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}