NASCAR has been riding a roller-coaster the last few years. New TV deals, charter fights, teams threatening lawsuits, and everyone trying to figure out how to keep fans coming back while costs keep climbing. Behind the public smiles and handshakes, the pressure has been real, and the people at the very top have been grinding through some tough days.

When you’re in charge of a billion-dollar sport that’s also a family business for half the garage, things get personal fast. Negotiations drag on, money talks get messy, and sometimes the private chats get a lot more raw than anyone ever expects to see. That’s exactly what just happened.

A batch of internal messages from 2023 slipped out, and one line in particular has the whole community buzzing. The messages come from a group thread between NASCAR President Steve Phelps, Steve O’Donnell, and Brian Herbst on August 30, 2023. They’re talking media deals, dollar figures that keep moving, and how uncertain the next broadcast cycle looks.

The tone is short, frustrated, the kind of quick back-and-forth you fire off when you’re slammed and stressed. Most of it is normal high-level stress talk until Phelps goes off about Richard Childress. He reportedly called the longtime owner a “stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR” and even said Childress “needs to be taken out back and flogged.”

The thread itself shows Phelps calling someone an “idiot” and griping about teams chasing speed the wrong way. It’s clear the room was heated, and Childress became the target. Richard Childress isn’t just any owner.

He’s the guy who put Dale Earnhardt in the car that made NASCAR huge, won six championships with him, and has kept RCR running for over fifty years. He’s poured his own money in when times were lean, built businesses outside racing, and stuck around because he loves it.

To hear the president of NASCAR talk about him like that in writing feels like a gut punch to a lot of people who grew up on those black No. 3 Goodwrench Chevys. The leak couldn’t come at a worse time.

Teams are already mad about charters and revenue splits, and trust between the sanctioning body and the owners is paper-thin. When the guy running the whole show trashes one of the sport’s true builders in private, it makes every owner wonder what’s being said about them when the door is closed. Fans on Reddit are anguished at this news.

Fans cannot see a legend being insulted

“Phelps can’t possibly walk away from all this with a job still, right?” Calling Richard Childress a stupid redneck is the kind of thing that gets people fired in most companies, especially when Childress helped make NASCAR what it is today.

He gave Dale Earnhardt the ride that turned the sport into a national phenomenon. A lot of fans think someone that high up can’t just insult a legend like that and keep acting like everything’s fine.

“For how ‘smart’ these guys think they are boy, did they leave lots of breadcrumbs.” These texts only came out because of the charter lawsuits. Every time teams and NASCAR go to court, more old emails and messages pop up.

The executives probably never thought anyone outside the room would read them, but now every frustrated word is public. It’s another reminder that nothing stays private when lawyers get involved.

“‘They ain’t gon kill my paw paw’ — Austin Dillon.” Austin Dillon grew up calling Richard Childress “Paw Paw” on TV and everywhere else. The whole RCR family is super tight, and Austin has always had his grandfather’s back. Fans know if anyone’s ready to defend Childress no matter what, it’s the guy driving the No. 3.

“Really don’t love Pop Pop, but I can tell you he’s definitely not doing this sport for the money at this point… ‘he owes us his career’ is such a crock of shit. This sport would not exist without the team owners.” Childress could have walked away rich years ago.

He’s got land, wineries, and plenty of outside racing. He keeps RCR going because he loves it. And saying he owes everything to NASCAR flips the truth: owners like him took the big risks and spent the money that built the sport before the giant TV deals ever showed up.

“All I’m gonna say is NASCAR sure calls this ‘stupid redneck’ and begs me to renew my tickets every year lol.” NASCAR leans hard on its good-old-boy roots to sell tickets and keep the grandstands full.

Childress and everything he stands for is a huge part of that image. So when the president trashes the exact heritage the sport markets every weekend, it feels two-faced to a lot of longtime fans.