NEED TO KNOW
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NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps announced his resignation at the end of the month
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Phelps’ announcement comes amid fallout from the release of inflammatory text messages he sent about team owners.
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Phelps called it a “personal decision” to step away from organizing races.
Just weeks after inflammatory text messages sent by NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps were revealed in court documents, the racing director announced his resignation.
NASCAR announced the news Tuesday, Jan. 6, writing in a press release that Phelps, 63, “has made the personal decision to retire from the company and his role as commissioner” of the organization.
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“Phelps, who joined NASCAR in 2005, will leave the company by the end of the month,” NASCAR announced.
The news comes less than a month after Phelps found himself in the amid controversy surrounding the release of text messages he sent about other NASCAR figures, including former driver and team owner Richard Childress. The messages were unsealed as part of the Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing lawsuit and Front Row Motorsports vs. NASCAR, that the the sides are adjusted early December.
In one text, Phelps allegedly wrote to another NASCAR executive that he thought Childress, 80, was a “stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR” and in another, he wrote that Childress should be “taken out and whipped.”
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Steve Phelps
The revelation of the inflammatory messages led Childress to threaten legal action against the NASCAR commissioner, calling his comments “insensitive.”
“These comments reflect how some NASCAR executives have historically viewed and treated many team owners like Mr. Childress, who have dedicated their lives to strengthening the sport for its fans, sponsors and all who participate,” a statement from Richard Childress Racing said at the time, previously reported by PEOPLE.
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The statement said Childress was “deeply disappointed by the insensitive and defamatory statements” Phelps made about him.
The controversy stems from an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR brought by Jordan-based 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, which claimed the racing organization did not properly share revenue with teams that compete in the sport’s largest business.
The lawsuit alleged that NASCAR and France, 79, engaged in “anti-competitive and exclusionary practices” to “enrich themselves at the expense of major stock car racing teams.”
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Steve Phelps
Amid a years-long battle for media rights, Childress had become one of NASCAR’s most vocal critics. Phelps’ text messages about Childress were allegedly sent in 2023 after the team owner appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and spoke out against the company’s media deal, according to The New York Times.
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Read the original article on People
