Ever since NASCAR president Steve Phelps’ leaked messages have gone viral, NASCAR has been in a mess. But this mess isn’t the first. Back in the late 60s, the sport did face a similar controversy, but it doesn’t compare to the level of chaos we’re witnessing today.

With the situation becoming more and more publicized owing to the antitrust lawsuit NASCAR is battling, the disdain among the veterans is settling. Kenny Wallace, one of them, has been attached to the sport for over four decades now, says this is the biggest mess he’s seen in NASCAR’s history.

Kenny Wallace compares NASCAR’s text scandal to Richard Petty’s 1969 race boycott

Steve Phelps’ texts were publicized owing to the antitrust lawsuit NASCAR is facing. The texts have revealed a major unseen side of the NASCAR President, as he called Childress a “stupid redneck” who needs to be “taken out back and flogged”. Veteran driver Kenny Wallace, reacting to this, explained the exact meaning of it while speaking with Chase Holden.

“Flogg means tortured, whipped. That’s what it means,” Wallace said. “It doesn’t mean let me beat his a**. It’s like, ‘Let’s torture him. Let’s whip him.’ But it’s a weird word to use because at that time he was the president.”

Wallace then drew a comparison with Richard Petty’s attempted race boycott back in 1969. Bill France Sr. was the leading authority in NASCAR at the time, and the plan had failed for the drivers despite their cooperation.

“But boy, it is by far the biggest mess I’ve ever seen NASCAR get in in its history,” Wallace said, discussing the leaked texts. “I mean, you go way back to when Big Bill was running it and Richard Petty and all them were going to boycott and NASCAR went and got all the Busch Grand National cars and they ran and it never worked.”

Safety has been a large aspect of NASCAR ever since the series was founded in 1948. Over the years, there have been issues regarding driver safety in certain events. Petty’s attempted boycott was for similar reasons.

Why did Richard Petty attempt to boycott a NASCAR race in 1969?

The Talladega Superspeedway was opened for racing in 1969. The track was directly in competition with the Daytona International Circuit in terms of overall nature and pace. However, a major safety hazard was associated with it.

After running a few practice sessions, drivers realized that the tires were unable to handle the pressure from the cars at high speeds. This was seemingly a major concern as a tire failure at over 200 MPH could have been fatal.

Richard Petty joined hands with over 30 drivers from the field to boycott the race. He had reportedly confronted Bill France Sr. 

“We stick our necks out every time we race. We aren’t foolish enough to play Russian roulette. The track is rough and dangerous. We will not race on the track as it is now,” he had said.

However, Bill France Sr. was determined. Despite the strong opposition from drivers, the race was not canceled. Instead, NASCAR authorities decided to have drivers from lower racing series participate and continued with the event.

One of the speculated reasons for this boycott was the lack of media coverage. Kenny Wallace explained this in his conversation.

“Back then, I mean, you know, you hardly had you had media, but it traveled as slow as molasses,” he said.

However, with the media evolving faster than ever before, NASCAR is held responsible for all the track and off-track activities that go on. With this, the leaked text scandal has put the authorities in a difficult position. Can they recover their positive image from this in the future?