Jordan,<\/strong> to Buterman, who normally wears sneakers with his suit: “You’re not wearing your Jordans today.”
Buterman:<\/strong> “I’m not.”<\/p>\n
Heather Gibbs
\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/heather.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
While Jordan was the headline witness, Heather Gibbs was arguably the most impactful of the day. \u00a0The daughter-in-law of team founder Coach Joe Gibbs preceded \u2018Air Jordan\u2019 the hour prior.<\/p>\n
While on the stand, she spoke to her history in the sport, one in which she met the son of Joe \u2026 Coy \u2026 \u00a0and fell in love with him and their favorite sport. This was also the first time she had spoken publicly about the November 2022 death of Coy, in which \u2018my husband didn\u2019t wake up,\u2019 the morning after their son Ty won the Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n
Since then, Heather has been more involved with the day-to-day operations of Joe Gibbs Racing and in the charter negotiations. In this time, she said she fully understand now that the financial realities of the Cup Series are \u201cvery challenging for the teams,\u201d especially for a family that has no other business to subsidize their losses.<\/p>\n
Heather wrote a fiery letter to NASCAR leadership in response to league commissioner Steve Phelps\u2019 assertion that team spending was reckless. She said the comment bothered her, and while she ultimately believed NASCAR needed a different economic model, heaped praise and respect for the France family.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon being given the deadline to sign the charters, one that several high-level team people continue to call a \u2018gun to the head\u2019 proposition because that\u2019s what NASCAR leadership seemed to agree that it was in their own discovered words, Joe Gibbs told France \u2018don\u2019t do this to us.\u2019<\/p>\n
Heather said the final draft came in at 5 p.m. on September 6 and they were given until 6 p.m. to sign it, but independent of matters that they disagreed over, the document was also riddled with grammatical and syntax issues. NASCAR said they would fix these issues with side letters. Heather said the agreement didn’t guarantee any broadcast revenue in the seven-year extension period beyond the first seven years.<\/p>\n
When Heather called France, she said his response to their concerns was ‘I’m done with the conversation’ and ‘If I wake up and I have 20 charters, I have 20 charters.’<\/p>\n
So why did she ultimately sign it?<\/p>\n
Heather said that in real time, she only could think of Coy and JD’s legacy, and that JGR not signing the charters and the risk of losing any kind of agreement was too much to bear.<\/p>\n
In cross examination, Heather was asked about this continued issue of charter permanency, making the charters permanent rather than something that has to be negotiated every year, closer to a stick-and-ball league franchise.<\/p>\n
She said she used ‘auto-renewal with terms’ to NASCAR as opposed to ‘evergreen’ or ‘permanent’ because there was something about the word ‘permanent’ that bothered Jim.<\/p>\n
NASCAR team types each say, despite pushback from NASCAR, that permanent charters doesn\u2019t mean permanent terms. The teams just wanted the asset to be permanent because that would increase it respective enterprise values. \u00a0<\/p>\n
O’Donnell wraps up
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All told, between the past two days, NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell spent just short of five hours on the stand between examination, cross examination and re-examination, including the first two hours of Friday morning.<\/p>\n
After a Thursday that was spent on NASCAR\u2019s reaction to SRX, and the possibility that it or the teams could launch a competitor to the Sanctioning Body, O\u2019Donnell and his team\u2019s lead lawyer (Chris Yates) spent considerable time addressing that topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell said there are over 1,000 tracks in the United States that a potential competitor could utilize. He says he has visited at least 125 of them. Of all the tracks in the country, only 30 have NASCAR sanctioned exclusivity clauses attached to them.<\/p>\n
Examples provided included Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina, South Boston Speedway in Virginia, Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, Road American in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Pikes Peak International in Colorado and Kern County Raceway in Bakersfield California.<\/p>\n
O’Donnell said such a series could partner with IndyCar and run on a street course.<\/p>\n
Read Also:<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell said his concerns about SRX\u2019s emergence was a priority because he says he received a phone call from NBC Sports executive Sam Flood that basically questioned the viability of their rights agreement when CBS and then ESPN was getting a NASCAR variant.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell said seeing Chase Elliott driving a NAPA sponsored car in a SRX race was alarming.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell also claimed, falsely, that SRX is \u2018coming back,\u2019 thus NASCAR didn\u2019t ultimately damage it. Instead, GMS Race Cars bought the physical assets from co-founder Ray Evernham for track day purposes but not the series\u2019 intellectual property.<\/p>\n
Motorsport confirmed with multiple individuals associated with SRX that there is indeed no comeback in the works.<\/p>\n
While the 23XI and Front Row side have spent the week painting the non-compete clauses as anticompetitive, NASCAR and O\u2019Donnell have used their time to say it was just the byproduct of negotiations.<\/p>\n
NASCAR got \u2018good faith\u2019 commitments from the teams, who in turn received guaranteed revenue and guarantee starting spots.<\/p>\n
“It was about being all in together, working towards the best broadcast deal,” O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n
Read Also:<\/p>\n
A key tenet of NASCAR\u2019s defense is that the Sanctioning Body cannot reasonably be acting anticompetitively because charter payouts have increased from one term to the next, and enterprise value for a charter on the open market has increased from $1 million in 2016 to $45 million this past season.<\/p>\n
“It shows that people believe in the sport,” O\u2019Donnell said. “It\u2019s been a challenge with the litigation but despite that, charter value has increased and private equity has increased the value of charters.”<\/p>\n
That\u2019s private equity partnership opportunities that were not permitted under the previous agreement but now permitted.<\/p>\n
23XI and Front Row say their charters would be worth multiple times more, over $100,000 on the open market, if they were permanent, however.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell said \u2018in our minds, the charters were not originally put together to be permanent,\u2019 citing schedule and car evolutions.<\/p>\n
There was also a lot of talk with O\u2019Donnell about a cost cap and cost floor, which was proposed as part of the 2025 charter negotiations but never came to fruition. NASCAR generally wants a cost cap to reel in the \u2018reckless spending\u2019 that is a well-documented part of its bargaining position with the race teams.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell said it\u2019s a 50\/50 issue when talking to teams about a cost cap. He says that some teams that ‘are dominating’ may ‘not be enthusiastic’ citing Penske, Gibbs and Hendrick but middle teams are ‘more receptive’ to the idea.<\/p>\n
He said that Formula 1 team enterprise value increased higher due to a cost cap system.<\/p>\n
A cost floor was also proposed, but O\u2019Donnell said a handful of teams reported to him that they are already below the proposed number and it would be a challenge for them to spend more and be efficient.<\/p>\n
So much talk this week has focused on what the teams called its ‘four pillars’ proposal, and that can be seen below.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fourpillars1.jpg\")
\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fourpillars2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
O’Donnell said that asking for $720 million, which is again the $20 million per chartered entry data point, \u2018shocked me\u2019 because the previous rights agreement was only $800 million per year. He said giving that amount to the teams would leave nothing for the tracks and inhibit overall industry growth.<\/p>\n
He said IndyCar teams get 25 percent of revenue and that\u2019s $2-2.5 million per car.<\/p>\n
In re-examination, Kessler says IndyCar’s TV deal is $8 million per entry, which is $20 million or more to teams.<\/p>\n
Kessler: “I think that\u2019s 700 percent of 8.”
O\u2019Donnell: “Okay.”<\/p>\n
Read Also:<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell also addressed Polk, the aforementioned business partner of Jordan, and said meeting with the 23XI Racing executive were \u2018the most difficult meeting I\u2019ve had with an individual in my 30 years in NASCAR.<\/p>\n
Again, NASCAR has painted Polk as someone who intended from the start to intentionally disrupt the status quo with the goal of eventually bringing this lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Polk stuck to his messages,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cHe did not have an appreciation for the sport. He was a businessman who said he could leave anytime. He threatened to kick me out of my own meeting \u2026 He wasn\u2019t coming from a place of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kessler seized on the \u2018respect\u2019 line in asking O\u2019Donnell if NASCAR executives like Phelps have always been respectful of team owners, like Richard Childress.<\/p>\n
This was, of course, a reference to discovered text messages between Phelps and Scott Prime where the former expressed repeated frustration with the owner of the legendary No. 3 car by calling him \u2018a stupid redneck\u2019 who \u2018needs to be taken out back and flogged.\u2019<\/p>\n
That particular piece of evidence is barred from being used as an exhibit and NASCAR\u2019s attorney\u2019s, specifically Yates, objected to the question because the jury isn\u2019t supposed to know about it an inflammatory reasons.<\/p>\n
That is how O\u2019Donnell\u2019s lengthy time on the stand came to a close.<\/p>\n
Off schedule
\n ![\"Charles](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/charles-r-jonas.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Charles R. Jonas<\/p>\n
Kenneth D. Bell, the district court judge overseeing this case since last November has finally told the jury about the likelihood that this trial is seemingly going to go beyond its scheduled 10-days over two-weeks timeline.<\/p>\n
After dismissing the jury on Thursday, Judge Bell told those in the room that both councils needed to speed things along because the jury was told two weeks and that it\u2019s a burden on them.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know that we’re going to finish next Friday,” Judge Bell told the jury. “That remains our goal. I am working to keep things moving.<\/p>\n
“Everyone in this court room is paid to be here, some more than others, and while I recognize you all get a stipend, I acknowledge the burden this trial places on you and the court thanks your service.”<\/p>\n
Bell thanked the jury for their attentiveness, and that he noticed that everyone locked in, and it was appreciated.<\/p>\n
It seems more likely that the trial will end by December 15 or 16 as opposed to December 12.<\/p>\n
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