NASCAR isn’t the only auto racing series in the United States. On one hand, you’ve got Roger Penske’s IndyCar series, and then you’ve got Liberty Media’s Formula 1. At present, F1 has three major events in the US: Miami, Las Vegas and Texas, which is the most number of races held by a single country. Clearly, there is a three-horse race, with each series competing for the same dollar and the fan attention from the US market.

Last year, we saw how Roger Penske fended off both F1 and NASCAR after he took over the ownership of the Long Beach Grand Prix. That’s not it, the industry veteran has brought about systemic changes within the IndyCar series with the FOX TV deal, the charter system, and plans for a new car. All this progress to reach out to as many fans as they can, the same is the case with F1. So, where does NASCAR stand on this competitive scenario? Well, going by NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps, he doesn’t see F1 and IndyCar as direct rivals; rather, he touched upon the broader perspective that is shaping the industry landscape.

“Yeah, for us, Brian, I actually don’t view them as competitors. Our competitors, I view as more holistically. And I think it’s really not just motorsports, actually not even just sports, it’s entertainment. And we are competing for that dollar. We are competing for your time and other people’s time because if they’re if they’re not watching NASCAR, are they watching Netflix? Are they watching movies? Are they watching, you know, CNBC? What are they doing when they’re not doing that? So it’s super competitive,” Phelps said this an interview with CNBC.

Entertainment is what the sports category has gradually shifted towards. Apart from the racing action alone on the weekends, how is NASCAR engaging with its audience? Do they have enough content on social media platforms or streaming services? And clearly, NASCAR has identified the gaps in this segment, which is why we’ve seen their collaboration with Netflix with the Full Speed docuseries. Whereas, Amazon Prime Video has also chimed in with the Earnhardt docuseries, followed by American Thunder: NASCAR to LeMans. However, the leadership group isn’t just focused on their product domestically; they are eyeing an international expansion.

“I believe that global expansion for us is important. Like most people don’t know is we have four racing series around the globe. We have a series in Canada. We have a series of Mexico. We have a series in Brazil and we have a series in Europe. All meant to do three things. Driver development. So getting drivers from other countries to come to our national series, like Daniel Suarez, who graduated from our Mexico series and then went up and raced in our national series and has won races in our national series. He was our Xfinity Series champion,” Phelps added.

The international race in Mexico City was seen as a success by the leadership group at NASCAR. And they’ve stated that they are going to continue with their expansion project. Reports suggest that they might be racing in Canada or even Brazil for their next overseas trip. Now this is more on par with how F1 as they have a global footprint, and it seems like NASCAR is looking to follow in their blueprint.

Steve Phelps speaks out on the legal fumble with 23XI, FRM

Amidst the talks of expansion, the newly appointed commissioner of NASCAR speaks out on the legal battle between the organization and 23XI and FRM. NASCAR has managed to revoke the preliminary injunction the teams had enjoyed so far this season, but as far as the antitrust lawsuit goes, that battle is still raging. The two teams argue that NASCAR is monopolistic in nature and has crippled the teams financially. Not even the $7.7 billion new media rights deal helped the two parties to see eye to eye on revenue splits, leading to the ongoing legal tussle.

For the most part, NASCAR’s attorney Chris Yates had been doing all the talking, but this time around Steve Phelps spoke out against the monopoly accusations. “There was a significant increase in revenue that the teams got–so over the period of time, I think that the increase we offered the team contract to contract was 73%. That’s a significant increase. In my opinion, if you’re a monopolist, and you have that monopolist behavior, you’re not going to increase by 73%, you’re actually going to go backwards, because you have that ability to do it. For us, that’s not what we wanted to do, because we need healthy race teams. Healthy race teams put on better racing. I hear from fans, ‘I don’t really care about all this’, but you should care. You should care that your race teams are healthy, because if they’re healthy, it’s just a better experience for a race fan.”

With the date set for Dec 1 for the first hearing, both NASCAR and the two teams are going all out on the discovery process. But in a surprising turn of events, NASCAR has now summoned the rest of the teams who signed the new charter deal and asked them to reveal their financial data. This legal battle has sent shockwaves through the racing community, and as things stand, neither NASCAR nor 23XI Racing are willing to back down.