Steve Phelps, the commissioner of US motor racing’s Nascar series, has resigned from his role after over 20 years at the organization, amid the fallout from a scandal related to the sport’s recent major antitrust trial.
During the trial, which resulted in a settlement between Nascar and its 23XI and Front Row Motorsports teams, malicious texts sent by Phelps were revealed.
In an exchange between himself and Nascar vice president Brian Herbst, Phelps was revealed to have repeatedly disparaged Richard Childress, owner of the RCR organization (which fields two Nascar Cup teams), including claiming that the team owner owed all of his fortune to Nascar, among other more graphic insults.
The revelation drew significant criticism, perhaps most notably from Johnny Morris, the founder of the Bass Pro Shops retail chain - a prominent Nascar sponsor via the Bass Pro Shops Night Race cup series event, and a backer of RCR - who penned a letter in support of Childress calling for Phelps to be removed from his position.
That letter was published just days before the conclusion of the lawsuit, which resulted in the establishment of permanent “evergreen” team charters (the series’ revenue sharing model introduced in 2016).
These messages came back in 2023, when Phelps was president, when RCR was locked in charter negotiations with Nascar, but they now nonetheless seem to have cost Phelps his position.
Nonetheless, the France family, Nascar’s owners, strongly credited Phelps with pushing the series forward during his tenure, wishing him well in a statement, with executive vice president Lisa France Kennedy saying: “Steve leaves Nascar with a transformative legacy of innovation and collaboration with an unrelenting growth mindset.”
Phelps joined Nascar in 2005 as vice president of corporate marketing, becoming chief marketing officer the following year.
This was the beginning of a consistent ascent from Phelps, who was elevated to executive vice president in 2013, before becoming chief operating officer in April 2018, before becoming just the fifth president in Nascar history in September 2018.
Phelps became commissioner in 2025, taking up that newly created role with a wider remit as to the governance of the sport compared to the commissioner position.
Steve O’Donnell, who replaced Phelps as Nascar president, will assume the duties of commissioner in the interim, alongside the sport’s executive leadership team.
Following his exit, Phelps said he will look to follow “new pursuits in sports and other industries.”
Phelps previously served as vice president of corporate marketing at American football’s elite NFL, and as head of global sales at the Wasserman Media Group agency.
