Dale Earnhardt Jr. has come out in support of departing NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps, after he announced this month that he is stepping down from his role.

While Earnhardt did criticize text messages Phelps sent about Richard Childress, widely believed to be the catalyst behind his departure, he called the outgoing commissioner a 'great dude' and backed him to rebound professionally.

The 63-year-old executive worked at NASCAR for over 20 years, joining as Vice President of Corporate Marketing in 2005 before working his way up the ladder to be named president of the sport in 2018.

He then moved into a more developed commissioner role early last year – a position that NASCAR is not looking to replace directly, after it was created for Phelps specifically.

Dale Jr.: Phelps knows Childress texts were dumb

Speaking on his Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt said: “I talked to Phelps about that. He told me he hopes this is a way for the sport to move forward if that’s what needs to happen."

He added: “I don’t mind telling you that I think Phelps is a great dude. I know what he said about Richard Childress is not cool, I didn’t like it, I don’t think that was a good thing to say about Richard. No matter what you think about Richard Childress, Richard is near family to me. I grew up in his shop, my dad drove his racecars, and we’ve got a connection and a bond unique to a lot of other people in the industry.

“I didn’t appreciate what Phelps said about him, and I would tell that to Phelps and Phelps would agree it was a dumb thing to say.

"We’ve all said things in messages that we would prefer people not to see but if you’re a guy in Phelps’ position, you can’t f***ing say that s**t in a text message. That was a mistake on his own part. He’s owned it from what I can tell, and Steve Phelps will land on his feet."

He concluded: “He’s a good dude, and he’s done some great things in our sport. He’s shepherded our sport through some tough times, and I’ll know I’ll catch some sh*t for that, but I don’t give a sh*t, this is what I believe. …

"If y’all were paying attention during the trial, we all learned that both Phelps and O’Donnell were actually trying to get the teams what they freaking wanted. Aside from what Phelps said about Richard, Phelps and O’Donnell were kind of working to get everything right. I mean, f**k.”

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