{"id":393582,"date":"2026-01-07T09:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393582\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T09:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:23:11","slug":"nascar-commisioner-steve-phelps-resigns-after-michael-jordan-antitrust-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393582\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Commisioner Steve Phelps Resigns After Michael Jordan Antitrust Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260106_f50fc8e848dd43f5977511372527b0fa\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:9c410fcd-ecb4-4e72-a022-4ea7f440670f\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/f50fc8e848dd43f5977511372527b0fa_md.jpg\" alt=\"Steve-Phelps-getty-1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>NASCAR\u2019s first commissioner Steve Phelps announced his resignation Tuesday after 20 years with the racing series \u2026 and a month after his shocking text messages were revealed in a nasty trial.<\/p>\n<p>A string of texts between NASCAR executives from 2023 were unsealed during testimony of the recent antitrust trial between two teams &#8212; one being 23XI Racing, owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin &#8212; and the association.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260106_d8167c78ccdc4357acb115435ba2bcd9\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:9c410fcd-ecb4-4e72-a022-4ea7f440670f\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/d8167c78ccdc4357acb115435ba2bcd9_md.jpg\" alt=\"Steve-Phelps-sub-getty-1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Phelps in one exchange called Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress &#8220;a stupid redneck&#8221; who &#8220;needs to be taken out back and flogged&#8221; \u2026 he also called Childress an &#8220;idiot&#8221; and an &#8220;ass-clown.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>NASCAR ultimately settled the lawsuit \u2026 one day after Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris wrote a letter demanding Phelps\u2019 removal as commissioner. Phelps will leave the company at the end of the month &#8212; the 2026 season opens Feb. 14 with the Daytona 500.<\/p>\n<p>Phelps said in a news release \u2026 &#8220;As 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. Words cannot fully convey the deep appreciation I have for this life-changing experience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260106_cbbfb06f34b2493eaa7e6ddd795bd2e9\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:9c410fcd-ecb4-4e72-a022-4ea7f440670f\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/cbbfb06f34b2493eaa7e6ddd795bd2e9_md.jpg\" alt=\"Steve-Phelps-sub-getty-2\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>NASCAR has not announced any additional leadership or personnel changes following Phelps\u2019 departure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR\u2019s first commissioner Steve Phelps announced his resignation Tuesday after 20 years with the racing series \u2026 and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,44,82,865,866],"class_list":["post-393582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tmz-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393582","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=393582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}