{"id":397919,"date":"2026-01-09T08:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397919\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T08:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:09:21","slug":"phelps-exit-highlights-concerns-of-disconnect-between-some-fans-nascar-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397919\/","title":{"rendered":"Phelps exit highlights concerns of disconnect between some fans, NASCAR leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">NASCAR Commissioner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/01\/06\/steve-phelps-leaving-role-with-nascar-ahead-of-2026-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/01\/06\/steve-phelps-leaving-role-with-nascar-ahead-of-2026-season\/\">Steve Phelps resigning<\/a> yesterday and his comments about RCR owner Richard Childress have \u201cserved as further evidence for a contingent of fans and some within the garage\u201d who believe NASCAR\u2019s executive leadership team is \u201cseverely out of touch with the people who love the sport most,\u201d according to Jordan Bianchi of THE ATHLETIC. For this group, Phelps \u201crepresents the first of what should be many of NASCAR\u2019s decision-makers to be shown the door.\u201d If NASCAR is to \u201creassert itself in the sports landscape, those people believe, it needs to return to the formula that once had it rivaling the NFL for television ratings, with the sport led by those who truly embrace it.\u201d But for many others in the NASCAR community, including several team employees, it is \u201ca mistake to think Phelps was out of touch.\u201d They indicated that NASCAR \u201cwas better with Phelps in charge\u201d and the issues surrounding the sport \u201caren\u2019t suddenly going to be rectified because he\u2019s departing.\u201d Bianchi added if NASCAR \u201cpushed him out, it would be hard not to view Phelps\u2019 departure as him taking the fall for the sport\u2019s failures.\u201d Others above him \u201cmade miscalculations in the charter negotiations,\u201d but he is the one leaving, \u201ccreating a feeling that nothing will really be all that different going forward.\u201d According to sources, NASCAR EVP and Chief Venue &amp; Racing Innovations Officer Ben Kennedy told employees that the league \u201cdoesn\u2019t plan to make any other leadership changes\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6946354\/2026\/01\/07\/nascar-steve-phelps-resigns-lawsuit-texts-future\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6946354\/2026\/01\/07\/nascar-steve-phelps-resigns-lawsuit-texts-future\/\">THE ATHLETIC, 1\/7<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">VACANT ROLE: FORBES\u2019 Greg Engle noted NASCAR \u201cwill be looking for its second Commissioner.\u201d However, yesterday\u2019s announcement \u201cgave no indication\u201d there would be anything on that front coming soon: \u201cThere are no immediate plans to replace the Commissioner role or to seek outside leadership as the administration of his responsibilities will be delegated internally through NASCAR\u2019s President and executive leadership team\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/gregengle\/2026\/01\/06\/nascar-moves-forward-without-phelps-as-commissioner-role-goes-dark-for-now\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/gregengle\/2026\/01\/06\/nascar-moves-forward-without-phelps-as-commissioner-role-goes-dark-for-now\/\">FORBES, 1\/6<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps resigning yesterday and his comments about RCR owner Richard Childress have \u201cserved as further&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,139,12716,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-397919","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-leadership","11":"tag-motorsports","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397919","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=397919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}