Senior NASCAR official cites cost cap among range of solutions to increase Cup Series teams’ profitability

NASCAR president Steve Phelps has dwelled into the details of possible solutions that could enhance the financial well-being of Cup Series team owners.

As the Cup Series enters its final year of contract with broadcasters FOX and NBC, teams have been vocal about their demand for a structure of revenue distribution that helps them generate more money through NASCAR's new TV deal.

In a bid to figure out a scheme to bolster the team owners' profitability, Phelps attended a Zoom meeting during Race Industry Week, where he said:

"Our race teams by and large are losing money at the Cup level and that is something we need to solve for them. We can solve that with two key pillars.

"One is to make sure that they are getting additional revenue. They are interested in getting more money from the sanctioning body and the tracks through the purse, and that is something we need to do."

The first pillar, according to the NASCAR president, is ensuring that teams receive additional revenue, primarily through enhanced payouts.

"The only way we can do that is to have increases in your media rights, which is what we are doing today," said Phelps.

According to Steve Phelps, the second key pillar involves introducing a cost cap:

"Secondly, and not small, honestly, is some type of cost containment, whether that is in the form of a cap or whether that is in the form of the parts and pieces that make up the NextGen car, trying to limit those pieces."

Phelps reiterated the need to figure out a balance these two measures if more profitability is to be achieved for the Cup Series teams.

"There needs to be a mixture of those two things, but both are important if profitability or breaking even is important to our race teams, then you have to do both," he said. "That’s something we need to focus on."

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More horsepower is not the answer, says NASCAR president

According to Phelps, investing more in horsepower cannot resolve the issue of finding more financial profitability:

"I don’t think the answer is more horsepower because more horsepower is expensive. If you ask a driver what’s going to solve it, they’re always going to say, ‘Give me more horsepower.'

"The question is is that really what it is? I don’t know. I think there’s some gearing things that we’re looking at as well. Some shifting things."

While more horsepower is not a consideration for Phelps, the NASCAR president is affirmative of regular variation in the current race schedule:

"I think the one thing I will say is that schedule variation is going to continue. We have to make sure (that) we’re going to places that have demand."