Another chapter unfolded in NASCAR vs. 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports on Aug. 28, and boy, did things get ugly.
While Thursday’s trial was about the two teams trying to get their charters back for the rest of the season — something that will be decided next week — and had little bearing on the trial in December, it was the documents that had been un-redacted that stole the show.
Judge Kenneth Bell of the Western District of North Carolina finally revealed publicly some of the text messages, emails and other content from both sides that had gone on during charter negotiations.
Some of the folks within 23XI had some things come to light that didn’t sound that good, but you can completely understand where they’re coming from on them. Co-owner Michael Jordan said Joe Gibbs Racing was “fucked” for signing the charter agreement and called the other owners “pussies” for not fighting it further. There have been talks that other teams weren’t happy with the deal either but either felt pressured to sign or were tired of fighting, so while it is a bit harsh, is Jordan really wrong?
Co-owner Denny Hamlin said his “despise of the France family runs deep.” And 23XI President Steve Lauletta said NASCAR CEO and Chairman Jim France dying was “probably the answer.”
Neither of those quotes sound great at all, but what did you expect for them to say? They love France, he’s their best friend? Being in court against someone is a pretty surefire way to say you don’t like them or their style of leadership.
So all in all, 23XI didn’t come out of Thursday’s hearing looking that bad.
The conversations that were released from folks within NASCAR, though? Yikes.
First off, there was the text from NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell saying, “fuck the teams,” and that the charter agreement they were looking at would drag the sport back to being the tiny Southeastern sport that it was in 1996.
Now, before anyone gets mad at O’Donnell, he was pointing out that that’s what the deal drafted up would do, and he was pushing back against that. Still, that’s not a great look for NASCAR that the France family and executives spent time even drawing up something that the president of the organization itself thought was so one-sided, even if that’s not what ended up being the deal.
Also, it’s pretty funny to read something like that when NASCAR was arguably bigger in 1996 than it is now, based on attendance, ratings and its relevance in pop culture.
While O’Donnell gets credit for pushing back to make the deal more fair (and I’d bet his bosses are mad at him for that message existing), NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps was not doing the same when he said “zero wins for the teams.” I thought the point of a negotiation was for both sides to come out with some wins and some losses. If NASCAR’s mentality the whole time was to not budge at all, that is not good for its public image or the image in the eyes of the jury come December.
Things get worse from here. One document revealed that NASCAR had entertained the idea of trying to buy Speedway Motorsports. It came at a time when the sanctioning body feared the race teams could form a rival series and it was trying to lock them out from being able to use any tracks it currently uses.
One thing 23XI’s and FRM’s attorney Jeffrey Kessler keeps arguing is that NASCAR is a monopoly and violates antitrust laws. Floating the idea of buying the other major owner of tracks in this country, even if it didn’t get far, and trying to give a rival series no venues to race at does nothing but make Kessler’s argument stronger. Which, hey, as NASCAR’s attorney Christopher Yates said, the American open wheel split of the 1990s showed that there are no winners in such a scenario. But to go to those extremes rather than work with the teams to make a deal shows the absolute power that the Frances and the higher-ups in NASCAR seem to be craving.
Motorsport‘s Matt Weaver reported, “At one point, Yates said the teams were welcome to create their own series, and Judge Bell interrupted to say, ‘Your clients have made that impossible.'”
That’s crazy when even the judge is pointing out the lengths to which NASCAR has gone to achieve absolute power. It’s something that’s always been around, since Bill France used the meeting at the Streamline Hotel to seize absolute power of stock car racing, to preventing NASCAR legends Lee Petty and Curtis Turner from winning the 1950 championship for racing in other leagues, to banning Turner “for life” in his effort to create a Driver’s Union in 1961. It’s clear the France family isn’t operating like it’s 1996; it’s operating like it’s their 1960s heyday of power.
The last thing revealed that was damaging to NASCAR’s reputation was the gold code. I haven’t seen the gold code, but apparently it was a doomsday scenario for use if none of the chartered teams signed the new deal. This is where it gets a little he-said-she-said, because NASCAR says the idea was to promote NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series teams to Cup while Kessler says it would make Cup like the late Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) or IROC where the series provides all the cars. I’m more inclined to believe NASCAR on this one, because fielding 36 Cup cars would be a hell of an undertaking for the sanctioning body.
Still, Kessler swore that, “Gold code would have gotten rid of all the [current Cup] teams. They’d rather do that than create a fair agreement with all the teams.”
I do not know if that is true of the gold code. But if it is true, that is awful, because it would mean that those at the top of NASCAR would rather blow the whole thing up than not get their way.
There is no way of knowing who will win this court case come December, but in the court of public opinion, 23XI and FRM made huge waves with what came out on Thursday. One side came out looking like people who love racing and just want to make the business part of it more worthwhile. The other side came out looking like bullies who either bulldoze or stomp their feet and throw a hissy fit when they don’t get their way.
These tactics may have worked for the first 70-plus years of NASCAR, but they won’t continue working in the year 2025.
Win or lose this case, some folks at NASCAR still need to exit their Daytona bubble, touch some grass and take a look in the mirror at how they run things.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.