{"id":397688,"date":"2026-01-09T05:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397688\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T05:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:35:19","slug":"nascar-commissioner-resigns-after-insensitive-texts-revealed-in-trial-against-michael-jordans-racing-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397688\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Commissioner Resigns After \u2018Insensitive\u2019 Texts Revealed in Trial Against Michael Jordan’s Racing Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps announced he is resigning at the end of the month<\/p>\n

Phelps’ announcement comes amid fallout from the release of inflammatory text messages he sent about team owners<\/p>\n

Phelps called it a “personal decision” to step away from the racing organization<\/p>\n

Just weeks after inflammatory text messages sent by NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps were revealed in court documents, the racing executive announced that he is resigning.<\/p>\n

NASCAR announced the news Tuesday, Jan. 6, writing in a press release that Phelps, 63, \u201chas made the personal decision to step away from the company and his role as commissioner\u201d of the organization.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPhelps, who joined NASCAR in 2005, will transition out of the company by the end of the month,\u201d NASCAR announced.<\/p>\n

The news comes less than a month after Phelps found himself in the midst of controversy<\/a> surrounding the release of text messages he had sent about other NASCAR personalities, including former driver and team owner Richard Childress.\u00a0The messages were unsealed as part of the\u00a0lawsuit between Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing<\/a>\u00a0and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, which the sides settled<\/a> in early December.<\/p>\n

In one text, Phelps allegedly wrote to another NASCAR executive that he believed Childress, 80, was a \u201cstupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR\u201d and in another wrote that Childress should be \u201ctaken out back and flogged.”<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Nagle\/Bloomberg\/Getty<\/p>\n

Steve Phelps<\/p>\n

The revelation of the inflammatory messages led to Childress threatening to take legal action against the NASCAR commissioner, calling his words \u201cinsensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

“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,\u201d a statement from Richard Childress Racing said at the time, PEOPLE previously reported.<\/p>\n

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The statement said Childress was \u201cdeeply disappointed by the insensitive and defamatory statements\u201d Phelps made about him.<\/p>\n

The controversy stemmed from an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR filed by Jordan\u2019s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, which argued the racing organization wasn\u2019t properly sharing its revenue with the teams that compete in the sport\u2019s top company.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleged NASCAR and France, 79, used \u201canticompetitive and exclusionary practices\u201d to \u201cenrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.”<\/p>\n

\"\u00a0Chris<\/p>\n

Chris Graythen\/Getty<\/p>\n

Steve Phelps<\/p>\n

Amid a years-long media rights battle, Childress had become one of NASCAR\u2019s most outspoken critics. Phelps\u2019 text messages about Childress were reportedly sent in 2023 after the team owner had appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and spoke out against the company\u2019s media deal, according to The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps announced he is resigning at the end of the month Phelps’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,2073,168045,3004,634,168046,9535,9536,82,10364,38398],"class_list":["post-397688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-front-row-motorsports","tag-inflammatory-messages","tag-michael-jordan","tag-nascar","tag-racing-organization","tag-richard-childress","tag-richard-childress-racing","tag-sports","tag-steve-phelps","tag-text-messages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397688","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=397688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}