NASCAR president Steve Phelps sounds off about Next Gen car, safety, financial model
NASCAR president Steve Phelps called driver safety “the single-most important thing for NASCAR” before the Cup race on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and he also addressed the grievances race teams have with the current financial model in the sport.
Here’s what Phelps said when he joined the NBC crew:
Next Gen car safety top of NASCAR’s mind
NASCAR officials and drivers met face-to-face on Saturday morning to discuss the safety issues associated with the Next Gen car.
The talk of the safety of the car began this summer, after playoff driver Kurt Busch wrecked in Pocono and caused a brain injury that he hasn’t yet returned to racing from. Safety issues have grown louder since — with Kevin Harvick’s car catching fire at Daytona, with Denny Hamlin speaking out about soreness after his day-ending wreck at Daytona, with Alex Bowman having to miss the past two races after sustaining concussion-like symptoms after Texas, and more.
“Safety is the single-most important thing for NASCAR,” Phelps said. “The safety of our drivers. And I think we have a two-decade history that has suggested that that’s a true statement. Are there things that we need to do to this race car that make it safer? Yes, particularly in the rear of the car. But there are also things about this car that are safer than the last car.”
He added that Saturday’s meeting with all the Cup drivers was productive.
“As great as the driver advisory council has been (which NASCAR has met with throughout the year), there’s nothing that is as good as having an all-driver meeting,” Phelps said. “And we probably should’ve had one months ago to try to deal with the safety issues that drivers were feeling in the race car, so that’s on me.
“We are going to have all-driver meetings for the rest of the year, and we’re going to do them on a weekly basis. I thought the meeting was incredibly productive. The drivers were candid. We showed them a path forward, for example, on the rear of the car, to try to take out some of the stiffness that exists and a bigger crush panel.
“But overall, listen, we want to hear what they have to say, we care about what they say, and we’re going to continue (improving) the car to make it safer.”
The consensus from drivers on Saturday was that NASCAR understood the issues drivers are concerned and upset about, and NASCAR is working to make it better.
Phelps reiterated that Sunday.
“We showed some data yesterday of the crashes,” Phelps said. “We had a crash test this week that crashed the rear of the car, that created a bigger energy transfer into the back of the car versus an energy transfer into the driver himself, right?”
He added: “They’re taking hits that don’t look bad, but they’re feeling it. We understand that they’re taking bigger hits. So we want to make sure that when we get to the Clash at the Coliseum, that those drivers, when they strap in, know this car is going to be successful and that we have made changes to the vehicle that are going to soften the blows that they’re taking.”
NASCAR addresses financial model
Earlier this week, Cup team executives said they needed additional revenue streams to fix NASCAR’s financial model.
Among the team’s biggest grievances: As it stands right now, 93% of the sport’s value resides with NASCAR and the tracks, with the remaining 7% with the teams — and the teams have a similarly inadequate deal, they say, with its TV revenue-sharing model (about 65% of the TV money goes to the tracks; 25% goes to teams and 10% goes to NASCAR).
A huge hole in NASCAR’s financial model was revealed earlier this year, too, when Kyle Busch, one of the sport’s best drivers, struggled to find a home in 2023 and beyond after his primary sponsor, Mars Inc., announced it would exit NASCAR. (Busch eventually found a home at Richard Childress Racing.)
“We’re very far apart,” Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, said, per reports. He added, “Where we’re currently at is not sustainable.”
NASCAR issued a statement after this news broke on Friday, saying that “a key focus moving forward is an extension to the Charter agreement, one that will further increase revenue and help lower team expenses.”
Phelps said more on all this on Saturday, too.
“Race (fans) probably don’t care about team profitability. I’m telling you, race fans should care about team profitability because it creates better competition on the racetrack,” he said. “That’s what fans care about. They don’t care about, you know, profitability of a race team. But it’s important. Because if teams don’t have the money to be able to compete on the racetrack, then we’re not going to have as good of racing.”
He added: “What we’re doing as the sanctioning body is, moving forward, having discussions with the teams that would suggest that we are going to give teams more money from a revenue perspective. But we also need to work with the race teams on the expense side of things as well, right? And there’s a balance there. Like any good business, you get your revenue in, expenses, and then that look at the profitability at the bottom line is critical. So I’m confident we’re going to do that and get to a good place with our race teams moving forward.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2022 at 4:35 PM.
