During examination in the antitrust trial between 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports and NASCAR, NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps addressed a controversial text message he sent in February 2023, saying that NASCAR needed to “put a knife” in the SRX Series.
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Phelps took the stand Tuesday morning as the ninth witness to testify in the antitrust trial.
During the examination from 23XI Racing counsel Jeffery Kessler, these texts, sent in 2023 and released to the public in late November, came up in discussion.
In these texts, Phelps, the then President of NASCAR, and current President, and then COO, Steve O’Donnell, discussed Denny Hamlin announcing plans to race in the SRX race at Stafford in July 2023.
O’Donnell texted Phelps, saying, “This is NASCAR. Pure and simple. Enough. We need legal to take a shot at this.” He addressed this message last week, saying he was concerned, asserting that SRX looked more and more like NSCAR, with drivers, legend, sponsors, and even numbers from the sport.
In response to O’Donnell’s text, Phelps said they “Need to put a knife in this trash series.”
Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal reports that when asked about this message on Tuesday, Phelps said he was frustrated that owners, like Hamlin, were racing in the series “using sponsors, colors and livery that looked an awful lot like NASCAR.”
This echoes the sentiment of O’Donnell, though it is worth noting that all paint schemes, or liveries, used in SRX followed the same format using a large X on the side with gray accents, a main body color, and the number on the rear wing, as seen below.
Phelps further brought up a conversation with NBC Sports Executive Producer & President of Production, Sam Flood, who complained about Chase Elliott racing the stylized No. 9 with NAPA sponsorship in a 2021 SRX race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, a complaint also mentioned by O’Donnell last week.
Also worth noting is the fact that Elliott did not run the No. 9 and sponsor NAPA as a combo in his two career SRX starts.
He instead raced the No. 94 (which looked somewhat similar to the No. 94 he used at Hendrick Motorsports in the Truck Series in 2013) with NAPA Sponsorship at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in 2021, and the No. 9, which was not identical to his HMS No. 9, with sponsorship from ASHOC Energy at Sharon Speedway in 2022.
Though the series shut down after 2023, SRX has been a hot topic of conversation in this trial, as many wonder if NASCAR’s fears may have led to anticompetitive action against the series.
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