NASCAR Commissioner makes prestigious list despite lawsuit backlash

Wow, we did not see this coming - finally some good news for NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps.

The stock car racing big shot has been squarely in the headlines in recent weeks and months - often for not the greatest of reasons.

Perhaps the most high-profile Phelps story came just ahead of that acrominous court trial down in Charlotte which pitted Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin against the France dynasty.

It was revealed that Phelps had expressed some very strong opinions over text messages about legend of the sport Richard Childress. Ones which left Childress considering legal action and NASCAR legend Mark Martin describing Phelps as a "clown".

Then, during the big antitrust trial, it was revealed the 62-year-old Phelps earns a base salary of $2.5million in his role as NASCAR Commissioner, with the potential for that to double to $5million with hefty bonus incentives.

Now, as the dust settles on the settlement of that case, Steve has finally had a little good news - he made the prestigious Influence 125 list compiled by Sports Business Journal.

The list is a who’s who of what the esteemed publication describes as the most influential sports business ‘trailblazers’ - 125 of them in total across the last quarter of a century.

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Phelps makes SBJ 'trailblazers' list

SBJ gave Phelps a really positive spin in its profile of him as part of the list reveal, with top insider Adam Stern writing: “After 14 years at the NFL and time at Wasserman, Steve Phelps joined NASCAR in 2006 and has elevated the racing body’s business in nearly every sector.

“He was a major driver of NASCAR’s sponsorship and marketing efforts and rose through the ranks to become NASCAR president in 2018. Phelps stabilized the sport following the resignation of Brian France.

“He was the driving force behind NASCAR becoming one of the first sports back to action after the pandemic in 2020, a year that the organization also banned the Confederate flag that had long been a divisive issue for the sport.

“He also led media rights negotiations that netted NASCAR a 40% increase in revenue.”

So there you have it, while some of the NASCAR fanbase (and some of the team owners) might be down on Phelps right now, not everybody is.

If he could only announce that eagerly-awaited change to the much-hated Cup Series playoff format some time soon, his popularity rating may inch just a little bit further north.