2023 is the year NASCAR pushed its envelopes, making major strides toward its ambitious global expansion plans by featuring its first-ever street race in Downtown Chicago, with international drivers in the fray. The organization did not stop there, in hopes of grabbing the attention, and showcasing its unique genre of “aggressive racing,” NASCAR rolled out a Cup Series car to take on the granddaddy of endurance races, the 24 hours of Le Mans.

To be fair, the sanctioning body did more than what it set out to as the gathered crowd at the track watched the Blue HMS-powered Chevy race down the French straights without taking their eyes off of it. However, as we reach the end of 2023, there’s been a new development that is causing distress in the community.

Despite the widespread fan speculations and expectations to see their favorite promotion on foreign soil, NASCAR’s President Steve Phelps relayed a sour news to the community, enraging fans.

Steve Phelps lays down the last straw, breaking the community’s expectations

Some might translate stock car racing as just drivers racing cars mindlessly, going round and round in circles, but beyond that, the sport is as technical as its international competitors with its own distinctions. But what makes NASCAR stand out is its peculiar style of racing and its ardent fanbase.

For quite some time, fans have had high hopes of watching a NASCAR event in international venues like the organization’s President promised them. Unfortunately, things haven’t been going that way ever since news broke out about NASCAR’s failure to deliver the Montreal hype.

Speaking to Sirius XM NASCAR’s Dave Moody, Phelps laid down the facts, admitting the shortcomings. He said, “I think certainly as we’re thinking about short term, we will be talking about K&N in Mexico. Could we do some things like overseas in addition to the other kind of grassroots racing series we have in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Europe? The answer is, yeah we would explore that. But we would have to work with our race teams to figure out what that looks like. We’ve got to figure out what the opportunity is.”

The President then got straight to the point, saying, “Honestly, with a 38-week schedule, it’s tough, right? So what I do know is we’re not going to 38 countries to race. So, could we explore what some of those things could look like in the future? You do an exhibition race somewhere? All those things are on the table. We just dont know, but what I will say Dave(Moody) is that we are going to continue to be bold and push the envelope there, because we have a promise to our race fans that we are going to give them the best racing on the planet. I think we do that today, but we’ve to keep challenging ourselves.”

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Phelps’ comments wreak havoc in NASCAR nation as fans bash the official unapologetically

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Over the years, there’s been quite a few criticisms NASCAR has been receiving. One of them was the organization’s current stance. Instead of holding on to traditional values that made the sport what it is today, preserving the core fundamentals, the organization has been straying away from them in the hope of attracting new viewers.

While the organization has achieved success to some extent on that front, it is now at a crossroads with hardcore following slowly stepping away from the sport and young fans gradually taking a liking to the sport. This has caused a lot of chaos in NASCAR nation, with the fanbase essentially splitting into two with older fans bashing the sanctioning body for killing its short-track racing package.

Phelps’ recent admission added fuel to the fire as fans slammed him on ‘X’.

One fan said, “This guys knows nothing about NASCAR and it’s fans.” Another fan also resonated the same opinion, but instead of outright bashing, they took the more diplomatic approach, writing, “NASCAR can continue to explore, but they need to keep the product at HOME optimal. IMHO its lacking as 2023 left a lot to be desired.”

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Whereas another user criticised the organization with a touch of sarcasm, writing, “NASCAR is like a patient being told by the doctor to just stop smoking and a lot of your problems will fix themselves yet, they continue to light up.”;”It’s absolutely incredible that they keep going away from what will help NASCAR and instead go toward what hurts it more n more,” was what another tweet read.

On the other hand, another user stepped up the rant, taking aim at the Next-Gen platform. He wrote, “Best racing on the planet”….yet has completely ruined short track racing, road course racing is blah now, and even super speedway racing has taken a step back from what it was. The best racing was the previous car.”

What do you think about the whole debacle? Do you agree with these fan reactions? Tell us your thoughts through the comments below.