Steve Phelps’ shocking announcement Tuesday that he is leaving as NASCAR commissioner and completely departing the sanctioning body by month’s end caught the sport by surprise.

It’s the latest shocker in a monthlong saga that has been filled with arguably the largest amount of shocks to the sport’s system in its history.

On December 11, there was the unexpected mea culpa by NASCAR to settle the contentious anti-trust lawsuit with Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. Many perceived the “mutual agreement” as NASCAR losing, essentially folding its cards so as not to lose any more money in a suit that was likely unwinnable.

Then, one week later came the horrible tragedy of seven people dying in a plane crash, including NASCAR legend Greg Biffle and his family, followed 10 days later by the horrific death of Denny Hamlin’s father and the critical injury of his mother in a house fire.

Now we have the latest shock to NASCAR’s system: Steve Phelps’ resignation. While some critics believe Phelps’ departure was inevitable after NASCAR eventually capitulated in the Jordan/23XI/FRM lawsuit, the fact of the matter is NASCAR and Phelps are still parting ways, regardless of what was the ultimate reason to do so.

Phelps’ role as NASCAR’s first commissioner lasted just 10 months

But there’s more: After 10 months as NASCAR’s trumpeted first-ever Commissioner, that position is now being completely eliminated.

In other words, Phelps, who has been with NASCAR since 2005, is not being replaced, and his duties will be split among other top executives of the sanctioning body.

“There are no immediate plans to replace the Commissioner role or to seek outside leadership as the administration of his responsibilities will be delegated internally through NASCAR’s President and executive leadership team,” a NASCAR press release announcing Phelps’ departure said.

Not only is it unfortunate that Phelps is leaving, but the remaining NASCAR braintrust has also decided not to fill his role. In so doing, the sanctioning body is missing an extremely rare chance to make a number of changes – and not just replacing Phelps as commissioner – to put the sanctioning body back on track with current fans, its teams and personnel, the media, and to potentially bring back fans who’ve left the sport.

It’s clear that fans want change – and not just a new points system, which has been teased for months and yet still hasn’t been announced.

Fans also want more transparency with the sport’s leaders. The release during the 23XI/FRM lawsuit of damning and critical texts and emails between Phelps and other leaders in the sport put NASCAR in a position where many fans and observers lost faith and trust in the sanctioning body’s leadership, it’s priorities and the insulting manner in which many of those leaders felt about some of the sport’s biggest names, including Phelps’ degrading comments about veteran team owner Richard Childress, who is still mulling a lawsuit of his own for defamation.

Who knows, maybe Childress’s lawsuit threat was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak: either Phelps goes or NASCAR stands to lose another major lawsuit – as well as run the risk of having even more damning inside information come to light.

If NASCAR’s leadership can’t be trusted or has such animosity against the backbone of the sport – namely its team owners, drivers, and team personnel – NASCAR’s future will continue to swirl around and go down further like the flushing of a toilet.

Phelps’ ascension less than a year ago from NASCAR president to its first-ever commissioner’s role seemed unnecessary to many. He essentially was going to continue doing what he had already been doing as the sport’s top leader. When his job title was changed, some critics felt that it was a mistake on NASCAR’s part to make such a move, mainly because for the first 77 years of its existence, the sport never had a commissioner nor had a need for one.

Other critics believed that it was nothing more than a matter of semantics, power and ego, essentially bringing NASCAR in line with other major professional sports that have their own commissioners, like the NFL’s Roger Goodell.

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No other major racing series has a commissioner

Yet other racing series do not have a commissioner role – not IndyCar, Formula One, NHRA, and pretty much every other form of racing – nor do they need a commish. So why did NASCAR feel it needed a commissioner?

Where does NASCAR go from here? That is the biggest question resulting from Phelps’ pending resignation, which, by the way, takes effect just over two weeks before the highly anticipated start of the 2026 season – arguably the worst time for a sport’s leader to step aside.

If Phelps had pondered leaving NASCAR, why didn’t he do it after the 2025 season? The absolute last thing NASCAR needs is to have a ship without a leadership rudder going into the new season.

However, it’s not like Phelps is irreplaceable. There are a number of well-qualified candidates to fill his shoes and give NASCAR a new breath of air and direction.

There’s NASCAR vice president Ben Kennedy, grandson of Bill France Jr. and great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. In his relatively short tenure as one of the sport’s principals, Kennedy has impressed with several of his decisions, including the sport’s first-ever street race in Chicago, and the upcoming race next summer on the San Diego naval base that will honor and celebrate America, patriotism and the country’s 250 birthday.

But some observers may feel Kennedy’s youth – he’s only 34 years old – is too young, even though young and fresh ideas are what the sport needs, particularly to attract new and young fans to follow the sport.

Should NASCAR break free of its 78-year connection with the France family?

At the same time, perhaps now is the time for NASCAR to finally break free of its lifelong legacy and leadership by members of the France family. There is no other major professional sport in the world that has a family-first leadership pecking order.

Even though Phelps is not a bloodline member of the France family, there’s no question that the family’s influence and history still reign supreme, particularly with 81-year-old NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France, younger brother of Bill France Jr. and son of Bill France Sr.

No offense toward Jim France, but NASCAR needs some fresh and younger blood if it truly wants to attract new fans, not an individual who is an octogenarian.

Jim France has done a good job since he replaced nephew Brian France as the sport’s leader, but there is no way the elder France can relate to today’s younger crowd of sports fans or to attract potential new, young fans who otherwise are more enamored by social media and things like drift racing instead.

Other individuals who could have been good successors to Phelps include NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, and even Dale Earnhardt Jr.

If NASCAR really is serious about going in a different direction to attract new fans – and more importantly, to keep its current fanbase – it needs someone who has a true history in racing as a racer and not as a businessman.

Would Jeff Gordon be a potential replacement?

There’s one guy who immediately came to mind when I heard of Phelps’ resignation: Jeff Gordon. After a Hall of Fame career, the former driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and four-time Cup champion is now the No. 2 man at HMS and team owner Rick Hendrick’s hand-picked eventual successor.

Gordon has more than 30 years of experience in the sport as both a driver and team leader. An even-keel personality, he is extremely intelligent and measured in his approach to things, is very cognizant of what troubles the sport these days, and has an innate ability to bring a fractured and disparate sport back together.

But it’s doubtful Gordon would be interested in Phelps’ job – unless NASCAR gave him carte blanche and complete control to run things his way.

Phelps wasn’t everyone’s cup (no pun intended) of tea. He made a number of mistakes and tactical errors during his leadership tenure, among them trying to take one of the most conservative sports around and turn it woke and a vehicle for social justice (causing great ire among fans), not to mention the whole Bubba Wallace noose debacle at Talladega a few years back, with Phelps insisting that some nefarious person threatened Wallace and other minorities when a noose was found on the garage door of Wallace’s stall at ‘Dega.

It was only after an exhaustive investigation that included the FBI that it was discovered – and then quickly swept under the proverbial rug – that the noose was simply just that, a way to pull the garage door down. There was no racism, no threat to Wallace or the sport. It was just the way someone firmly tied a knot, plain and simple.

One thing is certain: NASCAR needs a major facelift, and after 20 years of Phelps’ involvement in the sport, to bring in someone who can rebuild its brand, its trustworthiness, and put a series that has gone off its rails and put it back on track for both now and the future.

Sure, Phelps was not perfect. But not replacing him with a true leader has the potential to be yet another mistake by NASCAR that it and its fans don’t need.