As the governing body continues to look toward international expansion, NASCAR President Steve Phelps has disclosed that the France family may be able to sell shares in the privately held sports series for the first time. Although the France family has controlled NASCAR since 1948, the market is being inundated with private sector and sports finance, which is seen as a chance to further their global aspirations. This season, which begins this week at the Daytona 500, will see the NASCAR Cup Series travel to Mexico. The sport’s top division may also travel to Canada, Brazil, Europe, and perhaps the Middle East. In recent years, the Middle East in particular has made significant investments in a variety of sports, most notably boxing and soccer. “We’re in the right now what I would call the exploration phase, so we’re trying to build out our plans for ’26 and beyond, but it’s kind of like the NBA,” Phelps said to sports business journal.”
Their global presence appeared significantly different twenty years ago than it does now. I anticipate that ours will keep expanding. We have a lot of opportunities. However, NASCAR would want to subvert Formula 1’s dominance in order to achieve its global expansion ambition. With races held all over the world, including three in the United States in Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas, Formula One is already a globally recognized brand. Phelps stated, “We are absolutely looking at that, and I think it’s smart for us to do that,” in reference to private equity work. We need to be clever about how we’re going to grow worldwide, and at the moment, we’re doing it sort of one place at a time. I’m not sure if anything will happen there time and doing it through grassroots racing and bringing a race to Mexico.
We’re headed in the right direction, but I think we should speed it up, so we’re giving it careful thought.” Although Phelps has not promised to hold Cup Series races outside of the United States each season, NASCAR will not overlook this fact. EuroNASCAR is already active in several motorsport-loving European nations. “We’ve got racing series in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Europe; what does the rest of the world look like in our racing specically?” Phelps stated. Will we look to hold an exhibition race someplace in the world, or will we keep growing country by country? For us, all of those things present opportunities.
Due to disagreements over its charter agreement with two of its Cup Series clubs, NASCAR is now looking to expand internationally. Front Row Motorsports and 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, have joined forces to file an antitrust case against the regulatory body. The case raised questions about 23XI and FRM’s eligibility to compete in 2025 as charter teams. Both will keep their charter status for the next season after a legal victory, and their acquisitions of a second charter from the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing have been completed.
