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Tommy Joe Martins reacts to controversial text messages from NASCAR lawsuit

JHby: Jonathan Howard5 hours agoJondean25
Tommy Joe Martins Alon Day
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

As a team owner in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Tommy Joe Martins doesn’t like these NASCAR lawsuit text messages. Martins, owner of Alpha Prime Racing, operates a team on a budget. They aren’t a big-name, big-sponsor organization. They make do with what they can get by with.

There were likely a couple of messages that upset Tommy Joe Martins. The NASCAR lawsuit has brought to light private messages between series executives. It hasn’t exactly been the best look for the sport’s leadership, either.

This morning, Martins took to social media to vent his frustrations. He isn’t a Cup Series owner, but a lot of it applies to the NOAPS.

“Every text from everyone involved just confirms everything I’ve felt for 10+ years,” Martins posted on social media. “It’s not a disappointment to see it all, it’s a relief. I wasn’t just dreaming it up. It was actually happening.”

That’s a rather simple yet poignant message. As a team owner of a smaller organization, Martins knows the struggles that it takes to make the NASCAR dream work. There are no billionaire owners or investors at Alpha Prime. No manufacturer is clamoring to give them mountains of data.

Martins did not mention which messages from the NASCAR lawsuit upset him. But he basically said, “everyone involved,” which to me means all, if not most, of those messages were upsetting.

So, I can imagine that the Richard Childress “stupid redneck” comments were not well received. Many NASCAR fans don’t feel like it’s an issue to insult a team owner. But if you can call Childress a stupid redneck, then what does Commissioner Steve Phelps think about the team owners who aren’t worth hundreds of millions of dollars? The fans? The crew members?

Then there are the messages between Steve Miller and John Probst. Miller is the Competition Strategist at NASCAR. Probst is the Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer.

In text messages shared between the two, they compared small teams to people on the “government teet.” It was a direct insult to teams like Alpha Prime Racing and so many others in the sport.

“But there is no help for the ones that don’t want it,” Probst wrote. “… Like govt [sic] welfare. … You can help the ones that want help. The rest just suck up your resources.”

Then Scott Miller replied, “Spire and Front Row may be ‘helpable’ but Ware and [McLeod] are already on the Gov tee, they’ll just make more babies.” So, another insight into how NASCAR executives think and feel.

The NASCAR lawsuit has brought out a lot of ugliness. There is likely more to be revealed in the future. When it goes to trial, there will be a flood of evidence and statements that come out. So, we’re going to get more, don’t worry about that.

As for teams like Alpha Prime Racing, what do they do? While they work to help make the NASCAR circus happen each week, they are being looked down on by the very people who should ostensibly want to help. However, there appears to be a major disconnect between team owners and the leadership of the sport.

Next up is the trial on December 1. When that is over, we could end up with a completely different sport and completely different leadership, too.