AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR President Steve Phelps touted the game’s progress in his state of the game Friday at Phoenix Raceway earlier than addressing questions in regards to the racing at quick tracks and street programs, officiating, staff possession mannequin, the 2024 schedule and extra.
Phelps famous the record-tying 19 totally different winners, together with the primary three playoff races gained by non-playoff drivers, the reaction to Ross Chastain’s video game move at Martinsville, how Sunday’s Cup race at Phoenix would be the season’s ninth sellout, up from 5 final yr, and that ticket gross sales had been up this yr from final yr by greater than 20%.
MORE: Full transcript of state of the sport session
Here’s what Phelps and Steve O’Donnell, chief working officer, needed to say on quite a lot of topics:
On the 2024 schedule:
Phelps: Can we consider there’s curiosity north and south of the border particularly? Yeah, there’s curiosity. You speak about the Chicago street course. Ben Kennedy and Steve O’Donnell, their telephones are ringing from cities throughout the nation which might be like, We might like to host a NASCAR race at our metropolis. We do have calls coming, as I mentioned, north and south of the border.
Whether or not that occurs in 2024 or not, I don’t know. What I do know is we’re going to have continued schedule variation in 2024.
On bettering the racing at quick tracks and street programs
O’Donnell: For certain taking a look at some aero adjustments for each quick tracks and street programs. We’ve got quite a lot of dialogue occurring with the drivers by way of doubtlessly taking a look at some energy issues. I believe that’s a little bit extra sophisticated. There are some issues we’ve checked out even by way of Storage 56 (the modified Cup automobile NASCAR will run at subsequent yr’s 24 Hours of Le Mans) that we discovered from an aero standpoint that could possibly be put in place as early as subsequent yr for each quick tracks and street programs.
The excellent news is continuous to dial in on the intermediates which we consider we’re in a extremely great spot, however then actually deal with the quick tracks and street programs.
On how groups will be extra financially viable
Phelps: We absolutely consider that having worthwhile groups does result in extra aggressive racing. For those who have a look at it, there are two areas to do it: rising income, which we’ve each intention of doing with our race groups, and controlling bills, proper?
The groups have requested us to manage bills. The place these come from, I don’t know. That might be as much as the race groups to find out one of the best ways to determine how they’d management these bills.
I’m not suggesting that we’ve a particular dialogue round what that might be or the mechanisms that we put in place. The groups, the thought of getting caps, flooring, ceilings, luxurious taxes.
We’ll proceed to have dialogue with our race groups. The charters undergo the top of 2024. We will have meaningful dialogue with our teams next year, I’m sure. We’ll determine what will be a good alternative for all stakeholders. Transferring ahead in 2025, what that appears like, I don’t know. It should completely need to be round each income will increase in addition to some kind of expense restriction ultimately.
On if NASCAR desires the constitution system to proceed after 2024 when present association expires:
Phelps: I believe the constitution system has been superb for NASCAR. I believe in the event you have a look at it, there are numerous optimistic issues.
What do you get once you purchase a constitution? You get three issues. You get assured entry into the race, which helps the groups from a sponsorship standpoint. You get two items of income: fastened income after which income you compete for on the racetrack. The third piece is governance.
Steve (O’Donnell) and the highest competitors guys, they’ve obtained conferences on a regular basis with the race groups to maneuver the game ahead from a aggressive standpoint.
So I’d say the constitution system, though not good, has labored rather well. You have a look at the enterprise worth, which I’m not going to get into what charters are going for, what they had been at, however the quantity proper now could be a big a number of of what it was three years in the past.
We’ve got individuals on the market that need to get charters who’re each within the sport and are outdoors of the game that may’t get them proper now as a result of the groups are holding them. That’s their proper. Whether or not we would like that to occur or not, there’s nothing we are able to do about that.
To reply your query absolutely, do I believe we’ll lengthen the charters? I do. Do I believe it’s a very good factor for the game? I do.
On media rights deal, which expires after 2024 season
Phelps: With respect to the place we go from a tv standpoint, our relationship with FOX and NBC has by no means been higher, ever. It’s at a stage that we haven’t seen from a tv perspective because the early 2000s when form of this entire new mannequin got here to be. That’s achieved by way of quite a lot of onerous work. It’s achieved as a result of the game, its scores have stabilized and grown.
You have a look at our share over the past simply two years, share this yr for NASCAR Cup races, plus 11%, share final yr for NASCAR Cup races, plus 14. Our share has elevated in two years by 25%, whereas our buddies at FOX and NBC have bought out their stock.
The game is having a second on tv, nevertheless it’s additionally having a second on our personal digital and social channels, our personal channels. On NASCAR digital, we haven’t seen numbers this excessive since 2005. There’s one thing that’s coming right here.
I’m undecided the place the long run’s going to be with respect to our media companions. I do know that it’ll undergo NBC and FOX. Whether or not there are extra of us that need to come bid and we get to that exact level, I don’t know.
I do know there’s a vital quantity of curiosity in NASCAR from these that aren’t our incumbents. That’s a very good factor for our business, proper? Frankly, our media deal, it feeds quite a lot of mouths on this business. It’s essential to do this. It’s the way forward for what more healthy groups appear to be. It’s the way forward for continued funding in capital at our racetracks, continued funding in bills round creating higher fan experiences that we talked about earlier than.
On NASCAR’s officiating this season
O’DONNELL: All in all I’d say for the quantity of races that we’ve, the variety of calls we’ve to make or not make, fairly good success report.
Having mentioned that, you may all the time do higher. One of many largest challenges in our sport is there’s no timeouts, we don’t ship it again to New York or some place else. We’ve got to make an immediate name and we’ve obtained to dwell with that.
That’s actually reliant for us on the expertise in race management, we depend on our tv companions who do a terrific job, nevertheless it’s not their job to officiate the race. If we’re lacking a digicam angle, that’s on us to repair and ensure we’re these issues in place.
For those who take Texas, as an illustration, one of the angles we should have had in race control, we didn’t. Subsequent week we did. We’ve got each single in-car the place we had been in a position to see it.
We’ll return and ensure the place can we make errors, what expertise do we have to actually make these choices in a extra well timed trend as a result of we need to make these on the racetrack versus throughout the week.
The second half was round our drivers. We’ve been very vocal on we don’t need to see anybody utilizing the automobile as a weapon on the observe, proper? That’s primary. The drivers have been vocal in saying, Allow us to deal with our enterprise ourselves.
With that comes a steadiness, although. I believe you noticed that steadiness final week. I’d say that’s proper on the line, if not crossing the road, by way of the Xfinity Collection.
For those who have a look at how we’ve officiated these calls this yr, we’ve not issued any penalties. So our job within the low season might be to speak to the drivers, get their suggestions on the place ought to that line be. Nonetheless as much as us to make the choice. However I believe you’ll see some extra consistency by way of what we could do and react to what occurred final week with a penalty of some sort for 2023.
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