NASCAR is no stranger to dreaming big overseas. In 2025, it finally ran its first points-paying Cup race outside the U.S. in Mexico City, and it has been dipping its toes in Canada, Europe, and Brazil for years. There were even exhibition trips to Japan back in the late ’90s. But a random lawsuit filing just spilled the beans on something way wilder: the teams have been seriously cooking up a full-blown NASCAR-style spectacle in the Sultanate of Oman.

The overseas blueprint nobody expected

Deep inside the charter-lawsuit paperwork, the Race Team Alliance left a whole presentation about a possible exhibition race in Oman, and it’s not just a napkin sketch. Bob Pockrass pulled it out and shared the highlights, and once you read it, you realize teams have been thinking hard about taking NASCAR to corners of the world most fans have never pictured.

The plan calls for 15 cars split into three teams, each run by a famous American crew chief, retired driver, or celebrity. Every team would have three regular Cup guys, one Omani driver, and one wild-card guest, maybe a star from another series.

The race itself would be four separate rounds, each 50 laps or 20 minutes, with fresh grids every time: normal qualifying for the first, full reverse for the second, and a team-points order for the third. The top five qualifiers could even choose to start dead last for bonus points. It’s built for chaos and comebacks.

Points would come from finishing spots and passes, crowning winners in every round, plus an overall driver champ and team champ. There would be natural TV breaks for interviews and recaps, plus a packed week of fan meet-and-greets, ride-alongs, and fancy dinners.

Two track options were mapped out: a temporary oval inside Sultan Qaboos Stadium, like the LA Coliseum Clash, or a gorgeous waterfront street course in Muscat that the packet compared straight to Monaco.

They even debated cars. Justin Marks suggested bringing TA2 machines, racing them, then leaving them behind to kick-start local racing. Others looked at building a custom one-off prototype instead, something consistent, easier to ship, and that NASCAR could control long-term if the event grew into a series. Cost breakdowns, logistics, everything was in there. This wasn’t a “wouldn’t it be cool” idea; it was a real proposal ready to shop around.

Seeing all this come out in a lawsuit file makes one thing crystal clear: teams and NASCAR have way bigger global plans than they’ve let on. And while that Oman race is still just a dream on paper, the same legal mess just showed how protective NASCAR gets when anything threatens the empire at home.

NASCAR brass wanted a “knife” in SRX

The charter lawsuit keeps giving. Friday’s document dump included some brutal texts from 2022 between top NASCAR execs Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell about the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX).

When they found out Denny Hamlin was running an SRX race, Phelps texted that they needed to “put a knife in this trash series.” O’Donnell agreed it was time for legal to take a swing. They were mad that active Cup owners and drivers were jumping into a rival stock-car show on national TV, especially when SRX was pulling better ratings than Xfinity and Trucks some weeks.

A few months earlier, Justin Marks had raced in SRX too, and the same group vented about drivers and owners not caring where their big breaks came from. They worried SRX could turn into the LIV Golf of stock cars if they didn’t shut it down fast. Texts even floated bringing North Wilkesboro and Bowman Gray back under NASCAR control first so nobody else could claim those historic tracks.

In the end, SRX never made it to a fourth season. The assets got sold off in 2025. Whether NASCAR’s pressure played a direct role or not, the texts show how seriously the top brass guarded the sandbox, even while quietly planning to take the sport halfway around the world.