Internal texts from NASCAR executives Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell have emerged in new court documents, providing a fairly direct look at how the sport’s best will react in 2023 when Dennis Hamlin decided to register for the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX).
These texts appeared during the third season of SRX, as the series began to really gain traction. They had managed to attract active NASCAR drivers and air in prime time on ESPN.
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The texts were released as part of the ongoing antitrust lawsuit involving 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. Both teams say NASCAR uses its control over the schedule, sponsorship rules and charter system to stifle competition. Not just other NASCAR teams, but also outside series like SRX.
According to the filings, Steve O’Donnell was quite excited about Hamlin’s SRX stunt and responded by saying, “It’s NASCAR. Plain and simple. Enough. We need a legal department to take a chance on it.” Stev ePhelps went even further, texting: “These guys are just stupid. You need to take a knife to this slew of trash.”
These texts were exchanged shortly after Hamlin confirmed he was going to host an SRX event on Thursday evening. All of this just goes to show that NASCAR executives felt like SRX had suddenly become big and was poaching fans, drivers and media attention right from under their noses. They also show their strange reaction to active Cup drivers attempting the SRX, a series they didn’t control.
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The texts were included in the batch of redacted exhibits filed ahead of the November 22 summary judgment hearings. The trial is scheduled for December 1 and these messages have become the center of the conversation. They show that NASCAR didn’t view SRX as a harmless offseason project, but as a competitor they wanted to “take a chance,” according to O’Donnell.
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What the messages mean for NASCAR in the context of the lawsuit
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SRX messages also match other private texts in the filings. leak. Executives privately worried about a PGA/LIV-style split in racing. Their messages showed they wanted to keep the drivers closely tied to NASCAR. At the same time, leaked texts from Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin criticized the charter negotiations and lack of transparency, showing how relations had deteriorated before the lawsuit was filed.
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For the plaintiffs, this is a big problem. If NASCAR was willing to use its legal department to fight an outside series, it strengthens the argument that NASCAR is trying to control every part of the motorsports landscape.
The lawsuit claims that NASCAR uses the charter system, scheduling power and sanctioning authority to control the market. These messages give complainants a concrete example of leadership reacting defensively toward a competitor. This is exactly what they are trying to prove in their case.
The trial will determine whether NASCAR’s behavior crosses the line between governance and monopoly. The SRX messages make this harder for NASCAR to eliminate. They show that when another series gained traction, the response from the top was not indifference, but rather anger and a desire to “give it a shot.” This is exactly what the plaintiffs have been claiming for years.
Publicly, Steve Phelps said that NASCAR was “try hard‘ to settle the matter and move on, but these newly revealed messages contradict that. They show irritation, frustration and a defensive posture towards any competitor. One of the big questions in the trial will be whether the court will see this as an escape or anti-competitive behavior.
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