Denny Hamlin drops verdict on NASCAR Commissioner's shock exit

The NASCAR world heads into the 2026 season with a new structure at the very top after the shock departure of Commissioner Steve Phelps.

It was January 6 when the bombshell news came out of Charlotte that the 63-year-old Phelps was stepping away from his role after 21 years in the sport.

The news came just 26 days after NASCAR had settled that acrimonious court battle with Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing team and Front Row Motorsports.

The France family decided not to usher in a replacement for Phelps, with President Steve O’Donnell instead now effectively running the show.

As the sport gets used to not having Phelps around, star driver Denny Hamlin has given his verdict on the new structure. The Joe Gibbs Racing superstar believes there is a ‘reset’ vibe within the sport right now.

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Hamlin a believer in NASCAR direction

He explained: “I don’t know too much of the ins and outs of it as far as how does the role change for O’Donnell as opposed to what it was before. We’ve only had one team owners’ council meeting.

“I overall, left there feeling the direction and vision they got for this upcoming season is good. I’m certainly a believer in the direction they are going. Ultimately, the results will be shown by our TV numbers and our people in the stands, if it resonates with them or not.

“Overall, I feel as though the sport got a good reset point at the end of last year and now we are going into this year the team owners are in a better position for the long term than where they’ve ever been before.

“So now it’s just a matter of can we get this sport back into prominent relevance in the sports market, and I think that’s their focus as well.”

Denny on 'reset' goal for the sport

The end of that year-long legal battle between NASCAR, Jordan, Hamlin and co appeared to provide the perfect watershed moment, one which could finally start to rebuild the fractured relationship between NASCAR and some of its teams.

Hamlin reasoned: “That’s the goal. We all use it as a reset, we need to think more holistically and trying to make it better as opposed to maybe criticizing this and that. Holistically, are we heading in the right direction?

“One moment might not be exactly how we want it, but is it generally heading the right way. I think that’s the way we need to look at it. Like I said, I’ve looked at the inner strategy of NASCAR of what they put out to us to get back to where we were, and I think it’s the right strategy.

“This is not going to be something that we’re going to see right away, it’s something that could take time within the garage. The proof will be in the pudding that the sport and the teams have said they wanted to do for the last decade.”

NASCAR still has work to do on collaboration

While the vibes are that there is some bridge building going on in North Carolina, Hamlin says NASCAR still has a good way to go before it matches the collaboration in other sports.

“While it is more collaborative or was more collaborative than it was in the 1990’s, it’s still nowhere nearly as collaborative as other sports are.

“When I talk to Curtis Polk and many others that have been in other sports and even other owners who have had interest in other sports, their ownership meetings are totally different. They are all figuring out, how are we going to create more revenue? Here’s what we are thinking about doing.

“Where us, we’re just so cutthroat on what’s best for our team and this team doesn’t like this splitter and this team doesn’t like this transaxle. It’s all dumb stuff that gets talked about that doesn’t push the sport forward.

“We have to talk about things that are going to grow the sport collectively and everyone has to get on that same page."