NASCAR President Steve Phelps is being blamed for a lack of communication between the sanctioning body and drivers due to growing driver concerns about safety and The place of the Next Gen car in this safety equation.
Prior to Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America 400 at the Charlotte Roval, Phelps made an appearance on NBC TV’s pre-race show to discuss topics related to the world of NASCAR.
The topic at the top of the list is of course driver safety. With three full-time drivers—Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman and Cody Ware – sidelined Sunday due to crash injuries, Phelps acknowledged these meetings were long overdue and took the responsibility on his shoulders.
“We probably should have had an (all-drivers meeting) a few months ago to try to sort out the safety issues and how the drivers were feeling in the race car, so it’s my fault,” he said. Phelps told NBC.
In order to move forward, during these final four races and also into the next season, Phelps called weekly meetings of all drivers to openly discuss their concerns.
“We’re going to have all-driver meetings the rest of the year (and) we’re going to do them on a weekly basis,” Phelps said.
The first of these meetings took place Saturday morning at Charlotte Motor Speedway before practice. When asked, Phelps described the meeting as “incredibly productive.” He said the pilots had been “frank” during the meeting.
“We want to hear what they have to say, because we care about what they say, and we’re going to continue to iterate on the car to make it safer,” Phelps said.
CLICK HERE to watch the entire Phelps interview on NBC.
Contributing editor
A car lover since birth, in the heart of racing country, Adam Wellbrock enjoys all kinds of motor sports. At age 19, Adam began working at a local racetrack in Southeast Virginia, and after joining Autoweek in 2022, he is finding a way to incorporate both into his daily life. Because if he’s not home working for Autoweek, you can probably find him at a racetrack somewhere in the Southeast.
