Series president Steve Phelps calls for weekly all-driver meetings.
Sean GardnerGetty ImagesNASCAR president Steve Phelps is taking blame for lack of communication between the sanctioning body and drivers over drivers’ growing concerns about safety and the Next Gen car’s place in that safety equation.
Prior to Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America 400 at the Charlotte Roval, Phelps made an appearance on NBC TV’s prerace show to discuss topics within the world of NASCAR.
The topic at the top of the list, of course, being driver safety. With three full-time drivers—Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman and Cody Ware— sidelined Sunday due to injuries caused from crashes, Phelps agreed these meetings were long overdue and took the blame on his shoulders.
“We probably should have had one (an all-driver meeting) 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,” Phelps told NBC.
In order to move forward, in these final four races and also into next season, Phelps has called for weekly all-driver meetings to openly discuss driver concerns.
“We’re going to have all-driver meetings the rest of the year (and) we’re going to do them on a weekly basis,” Phelps said.
The first of these meetings took place Saturday morning at Charlotte Motor Speedway before practice. When asked, Phelps described the meeting as “incredibly productive.” He said the drivers were “candid” in the meeting.
“We want to hear what they have to say, because we care about what they say, and we’re going to continue to iterate on the car to make it safer,” Phelps said.
Keyword: NASCAR Boss: 'It's on Me' for Lack of Communication with Drivers over Safety Concerns