NASCAR President Steve Phelps has accepted the blame from many drivers regarding the lack of communication between them and the organization.
There has been a lot of discontentment among drivers regarding the safety issues of the Next Gen car. And many of them have been vocal about these issues and have used social media to post their frustrations.
Speaking on the NBC pre-race show at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Phelps shouldered the blame for these communication issues and promised improvements in this aspect.
“As great as the Driver Advisory Council has been, nothing is as good as having an all-driver meeting,” Phelps told Snider, Burton, and Earnhardt. “We probably should have had one months ago to try to deal with the safety issues and what the drivers were feeling in the race car, so that’s on me. With that said, we’re going to have all-driver meetings for the rest of the year, so we’re going to do them on a weekly basis.”
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Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin are the two outspoken figures on safety issues. The latter even went on to blame the “bad leadership” in NASCAR but however corrected himself that he was not directing his comment on Phelps.
Phelps also replied to the drivers’ criticism of the safety issues and pointed out one particular area that needs improvement.
“Safety is the single most important thing for NASCAR,” Phelps said. “I think we have a two-decade history that would suggest that is a true statement. So are there things we need to do to this race car to make it safer? Yes, particularly in the rear of the car. But there also are things with this car that are safer than the last car. So we are going to continue to iterate on the car working with our drivers.”
A weekly meeting between drivers and NASCAR has been promised. This would certainly address the one issue that drivers have been pointing out for a while. And in keeping the communication lines open this frequently, it would also be easier for NASCAR to implement the input from the drivers.
I see the new car as junk and with all of the filers. “Like the steering ” this year I see the car choosing the winner of the championship and not the driver and now it is too late to change that, what a horrible situation.