CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 A bitterly contentious federal court hearing between NASCAR and two race teams \u2014 Michael Jordan\u2019s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports \u2014 exploded Thursday, with U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell warning that NASCAR could change forever if the sides do not settle before a Dec. 1 trial date.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is going to get hurt if this thing goes a certain way,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIf either party feels certain they\u2019re going to win, they\u2019re wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The preliminary injunction motion brought by the race teams aims to prevent NASCAR from selling the teams\u2019 former charters before the case is resolved, and the judge said he would issue a ruling next week.<\/p>\n
But the more notable development was the vitriolic rhetoric in both arguments and exhibits, which laid bare the gaping divide between the parties and showed how bitter the case has already become.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s hearing was the latest as part of a joint federal antitrust lawsuit filed last October by 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR and its CEO and chairman, Jim France, alleging monopolistic practices. The lawsuit followed 23XI and Front Row electing not to sign an extension to the charter agreement that guarantees teams certain revenues and a starting spot in all 36 Cup points races. A charter is effectively equivalent to a franchise in most other team sports, with the highest charter recently sold for $40 million.<\/p>\n
The teams presented evidence of text messages showing then-NASCAR chief operating officer Steve O\u2019Donnell being concerned the France family was forcing through a deal that would represent a \u201c1996 f\u2014 the teams, redneck, Southern, tiny sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Prime, NASCAR executive vice president and chief strategy officer, wrote to other executives that \u201cwe have all the leverage and the teams will almost have to sign whatever terms we put in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Phelps, then NASCAR president and now NASCAR commissioner, said one proposed deal represented \u201czero wins\u201d for the teams and told executives to \u201cpick a date and (teams) can either sign or lose their charters. It is that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, NASCAR presented exhibits of the teams\u2019 anger toward the France family. 23XI co-owner and current driver Denny Hamlin was quoted in a text message saying, \u201cmy despise for the France family runs deep\u201d and 23XI president Steve Lauletta said \u201cJim (France) dying is probably the answer\u201d to getting better terms.<\/p>\n
Jordan was also quoted in a text message saying NASCAR team ownership was a hobby for him because \u201conly can play so much golf!\u201d and called Joe Gibbs and other team owners who refused to hold out on the charter deal \u201cf\u2014ers\u201d and \u201cp\u2014\u2013s.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTeams are going to regret not supporting us,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk \u2014 Jordan\u2019s longtime business manager \u2014 was quoted in text messages as saying NASCAR was \u201cboring as s\u2014\u201d and called a 2020 Richmond race \u201chard to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Polk also wrote in his notes that it was a \u201cmyth\u201d that the \u201cteams have no leverage\u201d and said they would be stronger than NASCAR if they banded together.<\/p>\n
Hamlin, Polk and Front Row owner Bob Jenkins were also cited as having used the word \u201cboycott\u201d in advance of a \u201cmajor event.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, NASCAR said, it came up with \u201cgold codes,\u201d which would involve using Xfinity Series and Truck Series teams to fill the field for a possible void. But the teams said the \u201cgold codes\u201d also included NASCAR eliminating the teams altogether and fielding its own cars.<\/p>\n
NASCAR also presented evidence Jordan was far from suffering financially in NASCAR, with both he and Polk agreeing 23XI made a \u201creasonable profit.\u201d When the two were discussing one possible financial shortfall, Jordan wrote they should just do it because \u201cI have lost that much in a casino.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Kessler said, according to other teams\u2019 financial filings, 75 percent of them made no profits last year.<\/p>\n
NASCAR attorney Chris Yates said the teams\u2019 argument came down to being upset over a failed contract negotiation, not an antitrust case, and they would be welcome to create a new racing series, but the judge interrupted and said he\u2019d read the teams\u2019 arguments that \u201cyour clients have made that impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime sent a message to O\u2019Donnell in March 2022 expressing his worry about the \u201cnew golf model\u201d after LIV Golf started up and said it was easy to see how our teams could come up with something similar.<\/p>\n
To counteract that, the teams claim, NASCAR took steps to seal off pathways of creating an opposing series. That included entering an agreement with track owner Speedway Motorsports that said those racetracks could not host competing events.<\/p>\n
It also made sure NASCAR teams could not race their Next Gen cars in another series, with $20 million in inventory for each team being able to only run in NASCAR Cup Series events.<\/p>\n
But NASCAR argued it is under no obligation to let others race at its tracks and said the Next Gen protections were due to NASCAR investing tens of millions in its development.<\/p>\n
NASCAR said it generously gave the teams a 62 percent increase in media rights revenues, but Kessler said that fell far short of what it took to operate a team.<\/p>\n
Kessler said the teams asked for $720 million \u2014 $20 million per chartered car, because that\u2019s what they agreed it cost to operate a race team before including driver salary \u2014 but NASCAR ended up giving teams $430 million.<\/p>\n
When pushed on why the teams would want to keep investing in NASCAR and racing in such a bad deal, Kessler compared it to loving apple pie and still eating it if someone cornered the market on pies and raised prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d pay more because you love it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to make it better for everyone to afford the pie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not all teams agreed the deal was a bad one. Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson was quoted in a text to Prime saying the charter offer was \u201cseriously fair, all kidding aside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell said if the teams prevail at trial, \u201cNASCAR is going to look very different,\u201d and said \u201cnobody knows what 2026 would look like.\u201d He said some of the options available to the court would be forcing NASCAR to sell some of its racetracks and change the charter system altogether.<\/p>\n
Kessler said the teams are \u201crisking their business\u201d to seek \u201cfundamental structural changes\u201d to NASCAR, not just getting more money. Bell agreed, saying the teams would be out of business if they lose the trial unless they were \u201cwelcomed back into the loving arms of NASCAR like a couple of friends after a drunken bar fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Yates said if the teams win, it could result in another split like the infamous Indy Racing League\/CART fracture of the 1990s that crippled American open-wheel racing and has seen lasting ramifications to this day.<\/p>\n
As far as the preliminary injunction itself, Bell seemed torn on whether to grant the teams their motion to deny NASCAR\u2019s transfer of one charter to an unnamed interested party.<\/p>\n
Bell agreed with NASCAR that the teams no longer have the charters because they did not sign the deal, but questioned why NASCAR couldn\u2019t just transfer one of the four charters it has held back for expansion purposes.<\/p>\n
Bell again urged the sides to consider the implications if they did not settle. He also said there has been \u201cway too much sealed\u201d in the case and warned both sides that everything would be unredacted at trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be an open and public trial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After the hearing, Jordan stood on the courthouse steps and told reporters he was fighting for all of NASCAR\u2019s race teams \u2014 not just his own.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we first started this whole process, I\u2019ve always said that I want to fight for the betterment of the sport,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cEven though they try to point out that we made some money, we had a successful business, that\u2019s not the point. The point is that the sport itself needs to continually change for the better, for the fans, as well as for the teams \u2014 as well as NASCAR, too, if they understand that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to going down firing. If I have to fight this to the end for the betterment of the sport, I will do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: James Gilbert \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 A bitterly contentious federal court hearing between NASCAR and two race teams \u2014 Michael Jordan\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":183472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1406,62,222,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-183471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-sports-business","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}