Steve Phelps (born December 23, 1962) is an American motorsports executive. He currently serves as the Commissioner of

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Early life

Phelps was born in Burlington, Vermont. As a young man, he attended stock car races at Catamount Stadium. He attended

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

and was a member of the track team. After graduating from UVM, Phelps obtained an MBA from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

Career

After graduating college, Phelps worked in New York City for American Home Products as a brand manager for

Chef Boyardee Chef Boyardee is an American brand of canned pasta products owned by Hometown Food Company. The company was founded by Italian immigrant Ettore Boiardi in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1928. History After leaving his position as head chef at the Plaza ...

and later at

Guinness Guinness () is a stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at Guinness Brewery, St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in the 18th century. It is now owned by the British-based Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic bever ...

. In 1990, Phelps began working for the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

, first as a marketing manager and eventually as a vice president of Corporate Marketing. He remained with the company until 2004. After leaving the NFL, Phelps was recruited by

Casey Wasserman Casey Wasserman (né Myers; June 28, 1974) is an entertainment executive and sports agent. He is the founder and CEO of Wasserman, a sports marketing and talent agency, the chairman of LA28, the 2028 LA Olympics organizing committee, and a l ...

to work at the

Wasserman Media Group Wasserman Group is a sports marketing and talent management company based in Los Angeles. Casey Wasserman, grandson of media mogul Lew Wasserman, founded the company in 1998 and acts as its chief executive. History In 2002, Wasserman acquired ...

as head of global sales. After one year at WMG, Phelps left to work at NASCAR. In July 2005, Phelps joined NASCAR, first as Vice President of Corporate Marketing. In January 2006, Phelps was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer. In January 2010, he was named Senior Vice President. In December 2013, he was named Executive Vice President. Phelps was named Chief Operating Officer in April 2018. At NASCAR, Phelps won Adweek's Sports Marketing Executive of the Year. He also won Adweek's Brand Genius Award winner in the “sports” category. In September 2018, it was announced that Phelps would be named the fifth President in NASCAR's history, succeeding Brent Dewar. As President of NASCAR, Phelps oversaw the merger between NASCAR and the track-owning organization, International Speedway Corporation. He also led the introduction of NASCAR's NextGen race car in 2022. Phelps negotiated NASCAR's 2023 media rights deal, a seven-year, $7.7 billion in value. Phelps has also overseen significant innovation of NASCAR's schedule, including the new exhibition event the Busch Light Clash at the LA Coliseum that debuted in 2022, the NASCAR Chicago Street Race that debuted in 2023 and was named "Sports Event of The Year" at Sports Business Journal's 2024 Sports Business Awards, NASCAR's first Cup Series points race in Mexico in 2025, and the introduction of a new in-season tournament format debuting in the summer of 2025. Under Phelps’ leadership, NASCAR launched NASCAR IMPACT in 2023, the sport's social responsibility and sustainability platform, which included committing to a number of important sustainability benchmarks, including the goal of net-zero operating carbon emissions by 2035. In March 2025, Phelps was promoted to the position of NASCAR Commissioner. The position would allow him to take a bigger picture role of the sport, as well as overseeing international expansion, NASCAR's ownership of

IMSA The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida, under the jurisdiction of the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States, ACCUS arm of the Féd ...

, and the 15 tracks NASCAR owns. Phelps was twice named to Sports Business Journal's list of "40 Under 40" list of influential sports businesspeople. In 2010, Phelps was featured on an episode of the television program,

Undercover Boss ''Undercover Boss'' is a reality television series franchise created by Stephen Lambert and produced in many countries. It originated in 2009 on the British Channel 4. The show’s format features the experiences of senior executives working u ...

Personal life

Phelps has four children, Katherine, Maddie, Jack, and Ryan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phelps, Steve 1962 births American motorsport people Auto racing executives American businesspeople University of Vermont alumni NASCAR people Businesspeople from Vermont People from Burlington, Vermont Living people