Some explosive behind-the-scenes messages surfaced late last night in the ongoing NASCAR legal battle, messages the jury won’t see because they were deemed too inflammatory for trial.

But that doesn’t make them any less eye-opening for the general public.

An exhibit shows a series of instant messages between NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps and NASCAR senior VP Brian Herbst, sent during and after a meeting with several teams in August 2023.

The tone makes it clear just how tense the relationship between NASCAR leadership and some team owners had become at the time—especially Richard Childress—who had been one of the more vocal figures in the charter and revenue discussions.

Early in the thread, Phelps doesn’t hold back. During the meeting, he sent Herbst:

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

Herbst responded that he had kept the meeting “high level” for the time being, still working through conversations and trying to figure out where all the pieces were going to fall.

Phelps followed up by asking, “10-4. How’s it going thus far?”

The temperature of the conversation didn’t cool down from there.

Herbst messaged that things in the room were “getting a little testy,” with teams repeating lines like “we’ll discuss internally” and wanting more closed-door sessions.

Phelps replied:

“These guys are short sighted and self serving. Childress is an idiot. If they don’t like the state of the sport, sell your charter and get out.”

Herbst later updated that some team executives thought NASCAR’s long-term TV level-set discussion “into the future” was a good idea, which Phelps said could be added to the next tactical steps.

Phelps also referenced his own meetings with other industry figures and tried to reassure that even with a difficult media market, NASCAR would still “end up in a good place.”

But his patience with Childress clearly hadn’t improved.

A short time later, Phelps sent:

“Did I mention that Childress is an idiot?”

Herbst admitted he laughed at the message, then added:

“Just listened to the hit. He is an idiot. So many false claims and/or disingenuous statements.”

That opened the door for Phelps to vent one more time, summing up his frustration in a way that definitely explains why these texts aren’t going in front of a jury:

“If he’s that angry (and apparently he is) sign your charter extension and sell. He’s not smart — is a dinosaur — and a malcontent. He’s worth a couple hundred million dollars — every dollar associated with NASCAR in some fashion. Total ass-clown.”

These messages won’t influence the courtroom, but they offer an unusually raw glimpse into what was happening behind the scenes during the most strained period of the NASCAR–team negotiations.

Publicly, NASCAR leadership has been careful with its language and has projected unity and optimism.

Privately? These texts tell the other side of the story and it’s clear emotions were running very hot.