NASCAR’s senior leadership was ‘pissed off’ over the race manipulation shenanigans that took place last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway but also feels very strongly that the playoff format remains in the best interest for the discipline amidst a season that had no shortage of storylines.
That is a broad summary of the annual state of the sport press conference held every year before championship weekend by league president Steve Phelps and chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell.
Obviously, the figurative big elephant in the room was the lawsuit from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports but Phelps would not take questions on that subject since it is a subject of ‘active litigation.’
However, ironically, the news that the federal judge overseeing that case denied the preliminary injunction request made by the teams to remain chartered next season came during the press conference but Phelps had no comment upon learning of that development as well.
However, Phelps did offer a general statement about the topic before taking questions, while also explaining that the Sanctioning Body does not negotiate though the media.
“We are very happy that 32 of our 36 charters were extended,” Phelps said. “We are excited about the deal that was put on the table for them, which primarily the big win for race teams was money. I won’t go in what that money split looks like. But what I will say is that amount of money puts the race teams starting in ’25 as the single largest beneficiary of our media deal. We did that because our race teams are upside down financially.
“So, two ways to get out of that. You give them more money, right, or help them earn more money through sponsorship. We have done the former. We’re going to do the latter to help our race teams and then (we’re going) try to cut costs. That provides for healthy race teams. And that’s our expectation moving forward that our race teams are going to be financially healthy.
“Why should fans care about that? Fans should care about that because healthy race teams provide better racing, full stop. So, we’re excited about what that looks like.”
Race manipulation fallout
Regarding the race manipulation penalties issued to Richard Childress Racing, Trackhouse Racing and 23XI Racing, an effort to unnaturally produce a set of results that would get affiliated drivers into the final four, O’Donnell did not mince words in his disappointment towards those involved.
“To what just happened at Martinsville, I would argue before what we saw, one of the best races again that I’ve seen in the playoffs,” O’Donnell said. “And it’s unbelievable again that we’re sitting here talking about this topic. I’ll probably get in the trouble for saying this, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ve been around a long time, and Bill France used to say being pissed off was not a plan. What I saw at Martinsville pissed me off. And it pissed everyone off at NASCAR because we all know better, and we know what happened.
“So, we do have rules in the rule book 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. Do we have a rule right now where we can do something? We don’t. Will we have a rule next season? 1,000 percent and they’re aware of that and they’re aware of if anything happens this weekend, which it won’t, but we will react.”
In other words, to curb this in the future, changes will be coming to the rule book that will enact specific penalties against the manufacturers for any instances of race manipulation. O’Donnell also said they chose not to suspend drivers this time because it was determined they were just taking orders from the manufacturers, crew chiefs and spotters but drivers will be told this weekend that they will suffer consequences in the future as well.
This time, the involved crew chiefs, spotters and competition directors were suspended for the season finale this weekend, with each team receiving $200,000 fines and the loss of 50 driver and owner points respectively.
O’Donnell on competition
Steve O’Donnell said, lightheartedly, that it’s probably time to move away from the NextGen branding after the third-year of the seventh-generation racing platform.
He also said broadly speaking that this car has delivered, even while acknowledging the struggles on short tracks, and officiating moments, while offering that NASCAR has been transparent when it comes to race control.
Playoff format pushback
Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell believe in their 11th year championship format, even in a year where the final four of Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, William Byron and Ryan Blaney respectively do not lead in any statistical category such as wins, top-5s, top-10s or average finish.
Kyle Larson also led the division with six wins and is not amongst the finalists.
Phelps: “The format is the format, right? We are always looking if there are opportunities for us to tweak something, so be it. We are not the only sport where the best statistical team does not get to the final four or the Super Bowl or the World Series There was a huge emphasis put ten years ago when the format was put into place about winning, right? Three of the four on Sunday, they won to get through. I go back to the format itself I think creates incredible racing. So if we are all going to be honest and say, Hey, how has the racing been during the playoffs in these nine weeks, I don’t think it’s been ever better. I think part of that is due to the system itself. They race their guts out. They did. Tyler Reddick two weeks ago, Ryan Blaney last week, chase Elliott trying to get in, Larson trying to get in. Racing their guts out. I think it provides great, great racing for our race fans.”
O’Donnell: “It’s fair to say weave talked about this too. The format is one thing, but playoffs. We’re not going to go away from playoffs. We read fans and everything. We will, as we always do, right, and Steve has led us to this, we’ll absolutely look at what form the playoffs take in the offseason. You always learn, like I said before, but playoffs in and of itself, as Steve said, you cannot argue with the quality of racing that the playoffs have delivered. You can talk about the format if we do some different things, but absolutely we’re going to stick with it.”
Officiating
The media has spent a lot of time with senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer this season over a number of ‘stick and ball’ type calls or race deciding decisions made or not made by race control.
A lot of that is NASCAR’s transparency but O’Donnell says a lot of this is just sports, too.
O’Donnell: “Can you name one sport that doesn’t have officiating questions throughout the year, right? So absolutely. Every year we address those, and I think a lot of it is around technology, right, and a lot of it is around format that is you look at and different things that come into play now. So one of the biggest ones that we saw consistently was the damaged vehicle policy. Through really no fault of trying to, in essence, save the industry money we created a challenge in terms of how we officiate. That’s something we want to continue to investigate, and 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. 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 off-season.”
International expansion
The Cup Series will make its points paying return to international territory next season by racing at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.
Phelps anticipates racing ‘there past next year,’ but for how long and where else could NASCAR go?
“We kind of typically look at a three-year deal and see how that works, and if it’s continuing to work, we go to year four or five or six or whatever that might be,” Phelps said. “Have we had discussions with folks in Canada? We have. Would I like to see us go to Canada? I would.
“I think schedule variation works, and it’s proven that it works. It works from an attendance standpoint. It works from a ratings standpoint. Not insignificantly it works from kind of a brand standpoint, what it means to be bold and innovative and do things differently and change things up. That drives success.
“I think that’s what we’ve tried to do as a sport is do those things. And not just schedule innovation, but other things as well. So I anticipate further expansion.”
EV and alternative fuels
NASCAR’s electric vehicle racing prototype has made appearances in both Los Angeles and Chicago all the while the league has expressed hesitation of giving it any sort of definitive future.
A lot of that is because the automotive industry may pivot from electric to alternative fuels like hydrogen. As a result, the NASCAR team overseeing this car, ed by Brandon Thomas, has built a malleable platform that could incorporate whatever technology Detroit deems relevant over the next decade.
So O’Donnel said ‘that is a challenge for us too’ in the uncertainties.
“You see it in the automotive industry right now navigating hybrid, electric, hydrogen, V8s,” O’Donnell said. “What is it going to be? A lot of folks have the luxury of playing in all of those spaces. For us we’ve sometimes got to pick and choose.
“But I think what I’m most proud of and we’re all proud of with our R&D group is they’ve been able to showcase new technologies. Maybe not necessarily race it in a series but showcase what we can do and if we ultimately went out and created a series, we’re more than capable of doing that.
What you saw with the electric car, I believe it’s here this weekend, same thing. Showcasing it to fans that we have the ability to do this. Then when you pivot to a hybrid, which could potentially be in play or even hydrogen — a group of us went over to Japan last year, looked at a hydrogen race car. There’s a lot that goes into that. But the good news is there’s a lot of talented engineers at the R&D Center that can work with the industry to start developing that concept if need be.”
O’Donnell said NASCAR will continue to monitor the landscape and respond accordingly in the future when it comes time to make a series around these technologies or incorporate them into an existing division.
New manufacturers?
The above uncertainty in the automotive industry is also what makes it difficult for an OEM to want to join NASCAR right now because no one knows what the next-generation engine platform looks like or how long the current platform will stick around.
Phelps: “Yeah, we’ve had a number of discussions. I would say is that we’re in different phases depending on the OEs. Right now we’re in discussion with several OEs about coming in. I won’t get into exactly where those are and who they are, but we have an OE that is close. That OE has buy-out from those that are in the racing portion of that. So it really just comes down to the business portion and can we strike a deal that is advantageous for them and for us? Are we the right fit for their brand? Are we not?
“But I’m cautiously optimistic, and then we need to being accelerate the other discussions we’ve had because I think in our opinion five is probably the right number of OEs. Obviously we’re at three right now. Would the frontrunner, if you will — we are a couple of years away. It takes a while obviously to get up and running, but we’re excited about it because we would like to have another OE or two. So do our existing three OEs. They want to have additional competition from additional OEs for a number of reasons.”
Short track woes
O’Donnell: “Yeah, what we saw at Martinsville was a result of a ton of hard work from Goodyear. Like NASCAR, right with aero packages, we don’t always get it right, but it’s not without studying and putting a ton of effort into it. Goodyear’s efforts throughout this year, be it a rain tire, softer compound, I think Martinsville nailed it.
“So, yes, we’ll build upon that for future. As we look at kind of the road course and how that played out with short tracks and lean pretty heavily on Goodyear in the future, but they’ve proven to us that they can deliver. I think the challenge is potentially always going softer.
“We always hear from the industry that softer, softer, softer, but yet, if there’s a tire problem, they’re the first to get blamed. That’s unfair because they’re trying to put out a great product on the street, and an even better product in terms of racing. So they both go hand-in-hand.
“Our job is to push them. They continue to deliver, but I think that’s what you’ll see is more from Goodyear.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.