Phelps named 'ADWEEK' executive of the year

NASCAR chief marketing officer Steve Phelps has been selected as ADWEEK Sports Marketing executive of the year. This was voted on by ADWEEK editors and subscribers. Phelps finished ahead of executives from the NFL, NHL, The Olympics and Nike, among others, in the publication's annual Sports Media and Marketing MVPs poll of readers' favorite sports media and marketing figures, campaigns and brands. Results were published Monday.

Phelps is part of a senior leadership team at NASCAR that helped develop, and is now implementing, a comprehensive five-year Industry Action Plan designed to engage and excite existing fans and to expand the sport's fan base. Under Phelps, Sprint signed an extension to remain the sport's premier series entitlement sponsor through 2016 and re-aligned the sanctioning body's sales function under his purview, installing a chief sales officer with oversight of all of the sanctioning body's intellectual property.

He also commissioned a complete overhaul of the sanctioning body's PR function, which has since transformed into to an Integrated Marketing Communications department designed to better position communications leadership for greater influence across the industry.

Additionally, he led a restructuring of NASCAR's relationship with Turner to regain control of its digital rights.