Entering NASCAR's season finale and Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway, there is no shortage of storylines to be discussed both on and off the racetrack. Not only have the Championship 4 drivers in each series already been made available to reporters prior to their championship races, but Friday saw NASCAR President Steve Phelps and COO Steve O'Donnell conduct their annual State of the Sport press conference, speaking on behalf of the sanctioning body about topics ranging from on-track matters to challenges it faces in both laying down the law in its own ecosystem and navigating the legal system outside of it.
Here are some notable topics and storylines that were discussed by Phelps, O'Donnell, and drivers in the leadup to Championship Weekend:
NASCAR offers little on antitrust lawsuit
Friday marked the first time that NASCAR's leadership has been made available to the media since a federal antitrust lawsuit was filed against the sanctioning body and CEO Jim France by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, who accused them of anticompetitive practices to enrich themselves at the expense of the race teams after they refused to agree to the terms of the sport's new charter agreement starting in 2025. The case has begun to work its way through the legal system, with a hearing on a preliminary injuction filed by the teams in order to compete under the terms of the new charter agreement held earlier this week in Charlotte, N.C.
During charter negotiations over the past two seasons, NASCAR's operating procedure had been to not discuss charters or negotiate through the media, which Phelps explained Friday was by design. He also stated that NASCAR would not comment or field questions on the charter agreement or lawsuit, citing active litigation, but articulated the sanctioning body's standpoint in a statement offered to reporters.
"We are very happy that 32 of our 36 charters were extended. We are excited about that because those race teams, the deal that was put on the table for them ... that amount of money now puts the race teams, starting in '25, as the single largest beneficiary of our media deal," Phelps said. "And we did that because the race teams were upside down financially. So two ways to get out of that, right? You give them more money or help them earn more money through sponsorship. So we have done the former, we're going to do the latter to help our race teams, and then trying to cut costs.
"And that provides for healthy race teams, and that's our expectation is moving forward the race teams are going to be financially healthy."
Phelps did not offer any comment on exactly what would happen to the Stewart-Haas Racing charters that both 23XI and Front Row had been set to acquire, saying that he would be "speculating" in doing so. He also did not offer any comment when news broke midway through the press conference that a judge had denied the team's request for a preliminary injuction, saying that the plantiffs "have not met their burden as required for a preliminary injunction" and had not definitively shown they would suffer irreparable harm.
O'Donnell did not offer any comment either -- "other than you can't make it up with the timing."
Adding to the intrigue surrounding Championship Weekend is that 23XI Racing has Tyler Reddick in the Championship 4, creating a situation where Phelps and NASCAR leadership would have to hand the Bill France Cup to 23XI co-owners Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan as well as other team brass despite the lawsuit. When asked about the lawsuit and other issues surrounding his team, Reddick had been ambivalent during media sessions on Thursday.
"I think for our group, it's championship weekend," Reddick said. "Everything else is not even in our focus."
Reading the Riot Act on race manipulation
NASCAR has penalized the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 23 teams for manipulation near the end of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville.
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 5, 2024
Have a listen to each team's radio. pic.twitter.com/XbroAIKJVM
The finish to last Sunday's Round of 8 elimination race at Martinsville wound up being marred by malfeasance on the part of certain Chevrolet and Toyota teams, who in separate incidents had their drivers act on team orders in order to ensure that William Byron or Christopher Bell made the Championship 4. The Chevrolet teams of Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon discussed a "deal" over their radios and then ran a blockade behind Byron to keep him from losing positions and points, while Bubba Wallace's Toyota backed dramatically off the pace on the final lap in order to give Bell an opportunity to make the pass he needed to in order to make the final round.
NASCAR suspended nine people in total and handed out a total of $600,000 in fines earlier this week, doing as much as they could within the confines of the rulebook to make it clear that the actions of the OEMs and subsequent team orders were intolerable. O'Donnell made that very clear, and also made it clear that rules would be added for 2025 that would give the sanctioning body the authority to punish Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota in such instances.
"I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but I'll say it anyway ... Bill France used to say 'being pissed off is not a plan.' What I saw in Martinsville pissed me off, and it pissed everyone off at NASCAR because we all know better and we know what happened," O'Donnell said. "So we do have rules in the rulebook where we can address it, and we did. We had a call with our OEMs where we were very clear in what our intentions are going forward. ... They're aware of that, and they're aware if anything happens this week -- which it won't -- that we will react."
O'Donnell also shared that NASCAR officials will meet with its drivers on Saturday to make their stance clear as well, explaining that while they opted against suspending drivers in this particular case, they were open to doing so in the future.
"We made the decision that the drivers are holding the wheel, but the drivers were told, essentially, what to do. We gave them the benefit of the doubt. Saturday's message from (NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer) and (NASCAR senior vice president and chief racing development officer John Probst) to the drivers will be that 'that's your warning.' We know what happened, and going forward we'll have to penalize you as well ... We're not going to let people -- drivers, teams, OEMs, anyone -- challenge the integrity of the sport."
The penalties handed out after Martinsville were a topic of discussion among the Championship 4 drivers, with the general sentiment being that NASCAR had to make a call given the situation.
"I'm happy they decided to do something because I feel like when you get to those situations like we had at Martinsville, that takes a lot away from the racing aspect of it, of like the fast cars are going forward, the slower cars are dropping," Ryan Blaney said. "When you do things like that, it does take a little bit away from the competitive side of it. ... (If it's) enough or not enough, I don't really know. That's not my call. Hopefully you don't see any of that funny business this weekend."
"I know that NASCAR had to do something just because if you let that go, it will just keep becoming more extreme every time," Joey Logano said. "They put their foot down. Is it enough? Well, we'll see this week. If they do it again, then you know the penalty wasn't big enough."
No overt officiating concerns
NASCAR's Elton Sawyer addressed some of the issues/confusion that ensued with the DVP after the big wreck. Basically did a mea culpa that they made the wrong call on Josh Berry last week so they erred on the side of the competitors this time as they evaluate the DCP for 2025 pic.twitter.com/AHQRhaJA4h
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) October 7, 2024
During the course of this year's playoffs, the exact way in which NASCAR officiates its races has been a concern, namely as it has pertained to the sport's damaged vehicle policy and incidents at Kansas and Talladega that called the system and how it is enforced into question. While all sports have their officiating issues, enough blips in NASCAR's officiating have emerged to become a pattern, causing O'Donnell to have to defend the work of competition officials.
Athough O'Donnell defended NASCAR's officiating, he did make note that the sanctioning body had not been perfect and that adjustments would be made for 2025, namely as it pertains to the damaged vehicle policy and how NASCAR determines a car involved in a crash can or cannot continue.
"I think one of the biggest things you want to do is how do we continue to use technology in realtime to notice what may or may not be occurring on the track, address that as soon as possible. But I don't believe we have an officiating issue at all," O'Donnell said. "I think we have the best and the brightest in the business. Yes, we make mistakes. They're humans. Hopefully we'll never get to just AI making calls, but we will make adjustments.
"I think if me or John or Elton or Steve are not up talking before the Daytona 500 about adjustments we've made, then we haven't done our job because that's what we always do in the offseason."
Odds and Ends
Ty Majeski missed the Champ 4 production day Tuesday that is designed to produce content for championship weekend by NASCAR and broadcast partners. He wanted to vote in-person in Wisconsin on Tuesday. NASCAR fined him $12.5K (it is required for finalists). He will appeal. pic.twitter.com/8goEppLejO
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) November 7, 2024
- Speaking about NASCAR's international expansion and the Cup Series' first-ever race in Mexico City next season, Phelps said that he anticipated further expansion and also shared that the sport had been both discussing and had a strong interest in racing in Canada. While a very select few Cup races were run in Canada prior to the sport's modern era, more recent history has seen the Xfinity Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal and the Craftsman Truck Series compete at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park north of Ontario.
- When asked about where things stood in terms of NASCAR introducing a new OEM to compete with Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota, Phelps shared that the sanctioning body is "close" to adding a new OEM and has been in discussions with several others. Phelps said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the prospect of adding a new OEM, and also said that NASCAR would ideally like five OEMs competing in its national touring series.
- While the season finale is set to return to Phoenix Raceway in 2025, Phelps responded to support for championship weekend to return to its longtime home of Homestead-Miami Speedway by saying that the sanctioning body has "looked at" the prospect of having the finale in Homestead in 2026, intimating that the track's 2025 attendance would be a major determining factor. Phelps also referenced Darlington, Charlotte and Las Vegas as potential sites for a championship race.
- In the Craftsman Truck Series, Championship 4 driver Ty Majeski addressed a $12,500 fine he had received from NASCAR for failing to show up to media obligations that had taken place on Tuesday. Majeski explained that he had been at home in Wisconsin voting in the U.S. Presidential Election, and that he had been operating under the assumption that it would not be an issue for either him or his ThorSport Racing team.
Majeski shared that he planned to appeal the fine, saying that he did not have much prior communication with NASCAR and had let ThorSport handle those conversations prior to Election Day.
"It's unfortunate circumstances for everybody. I don't think anybody wants to be put in that position, but we have to have a free country to race in and that's just part of being a U.S. citizen, so I wanted to exercise that right," Majeski said. "I didn't know I was gonna be in the Championship 4 until a few days prior. I've always in my whole life been an election day vote guy. I've never done an absentee ballot. I wanted to make sure my vote was counted."