NASCAR has everything a killer TV drama needs: family feuds that last generations, rivalries that feel like blood feuds, and enough money and glory on the line to make anyone snap. Hollywood has peeked at it before, think Days of Thunder or Cars, but nothing’s ever stuck like a full-blown series.

Until now. AMC, the $1.13 billion-worth folks who gave us Breaking Bad and Marco Polo, just gave the green light to a new scripted NASCAR show that’s got the potential to be the sport’s big break on the small screen.

AMC bets big on ‘Thunder Road’

The series is titled ‘Thunder Road’. And it isn’t some low-budget racing flick. Thunder Road is getting the full AMC treatment, with NASCAR’s own blessing.

The title nods to the 1958 movie about moonshine runners, those outlaws who basically invented NASCAR. So this show isn’t just about modern wrecks and wins, it’s digging into the roots, the grit that started it all.

The story follows the Whitlock family, a deep-rooted racing dynasty from the South, where every turn on the track comes with a side of secrets, betrayals, and old grudges. It’s all about legacy, the kind that gets passed down like a family recipe, but with way more horsepower and heartbreak.

Veteran screenwriter John Fusco is the guy behind it all. You know him from Young Guns or Netflix’s Marco Polo, and he’s calling this “Succession with stock cars.” That means power plays, brother-against-brother drama, and a business where your last name can make or break you.

Fusco is teaming up with Cliff Roberts from Untamed, Mark L. Smith from The Revenant and Twisters, and NASCAR insiders like Tim Clark and John Dahl. On AMC’s end, Dan McDermott and Ben Haigh are pushing it hard as part of their Americana push.

With AMC’s track record for messy, addictive stories, Thunder Road could pull in racing nuts and drama junkies alike. There is no release date informed yet, but if they nail the roar of the engines and the sting of family fights, it might just change how the world sees stock cars.

While Thunder Road hypes up Hollywood dreams, NASCAR’s real-life soap opera just got uglier. The charter lawsuit keeps coughing up texts that make the garage look like a high school locker room on steroids. The latest batch has former commissioner Steve Phelps unloading on Richard Childress, one of the sport’s true old guards.

NASCAR commissioner in hot water again

It all blew up from a 2023 team owners meeting, where charter talks were white hot. Richard Childress went on SiriusXM and poked the bear, saying he could build fourteen old Cup cars for what seven Next Gen ones cost. When asked if a new media deal was good news, he hit back with “For who?” A simple question, but a massive fallout.

Phelps got live updates from Brian Herbst, NASCAR’s media cash guy, and the texts turned vicious quickly. “Childress is an idiot. If they don’t like the state of the sport, sell your charter and get out,” Phelps fired off. Then he piled on: “Did I mention Childress was an idiot?”

Herbst kept feeding him notes, and Phelps kept swinging: “If he’s that angry, sign your charter extension and sell. He’s not smart, is a dinosaur, and a malcontent. He’s worth a couple of hundred million dollars, every dollar associated with NASCAR in some fashion. Total a–clown.”

The worst came next: “Childress needs to be taken out back and flogged. He’s a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.”

These dropped right before the December 1 trial, where 23XI and Front Row are calling NASCAR a monopoly on tracks and TV money.

Phelps reportedly called Childress later to say he didn’t mean it, but the words are out there now, public as a victory lane kiss. Thunder Road might glamorize the family drama, but this real-life version is messy, ugly, and way too close to home. As the trial heats up, NASCAR’s got a lot more than scripts to worry about.