Polarizing Decision Marred With Criticism Lead to NASCAR Boss Having “Sleepless Nights” Amid Next-Gen Controversy

NASCAR is a few weeks into the off-season. This is a crucial time for everyone, from teams to drivers to those in the organization. Crucial because it’s supposed to help refresh and rework strategies so that the next season can be better.

Teams and drivers embark on practicing and preparing for the new season. They start tinkering with the cars and the engines. They devise new strategies that can help bring that marginal gain over the next best team or driver. For NASCAR, they have to start thinking about the race calendar, the logistics, and the gazillion other things that NASCAR oversees as part of its responsibility as the regulator of elite stock car racing.

Approaching closer to the Clash at the Coliseum, a historic and prestigious event, Steve Phelps, NASCAR President, sat down with The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi and answered some interesting questions.

Referring to 2022’s Clash which was a big shake-up with the new car, the new track, and the new format, Bianchi asked “How nervous were you going into the Coliseum, not just because of the new car and the challenges associated with that, but also because you were competing on a makeshift track that was untested?”

Phelps admitted, “If you think back a year from today, there were some sleepless nights.” He further explained “With no safety net, because we didn’t have one, it was either this car or not race. And I think heading into the Coliseum, yeah, I was nervous but in a really good way, just an excitement level like butterflies, which I don’t typically have.”

“But it was so new and so different. There were just so many unknowns going into the Coliseum, but it delivered. The racing itself there was fantastic,” added Phelps.

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For many fans, the change was a “bit too much”. The 2023 Clash will be the proper litmus test to make that decision.

The decision by NASCAR did not impress Dale Earnhardt Jr

On one end stands the NASCAR President, who believes the new car and the reconfigured race at the LA Memorial Coliseum have been excellent decisions. But on the opposite end stand legends like Dale Jr. and Mark Martin, and thousands of fans who don’t agree with that sentiment.

But apart from that change, NASCAR made a possibly bigger altercation to the race. They opened it up to all teams and drivers for the first time in its history. This was entirely different from the previous format that only allowed last season’s pole winners to compete.

On this, Dale Jr. said, “I sorely miss the connection between the pole awards and clash eligibility. It made winning a pole for any driver mean more. It made getting into the clash an exclusive accomplishment. The origin and identity of the clash itself was pole award winners.”

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Seems like a valid enough point to make. Do you agree?