Dec. 5 is supposed to be the halfway point of the trial that may determine the future of NASCAR, 23XI Racing and/or Front Row Motorsports (though Judge Kenneth Bell said that the original 10-day timeline could be extended based on this week’s testimony).
In some ways, it seems like the court proceedings have just begun.
In others, it seems like it has been going on forever already.
The teams are accusing NASCAR of using its position as the only game in town at the top level of stock-car racing to bully and coerce them into signing an agreement that puts teams in a financial bind while essentially taking sponsorship dollars out of their pockets. They say the sanctioning body that controls the sport actively worked to keep teams from participating in other racing series if it considered them competitors.
NASCAR, in turn, alleges the teams are spending frivolously and were simply asking for too much. Charters guarantee the 36 teams that hold them a starting spot in every race and a much bigger cut of the purse and year-end point fund than non-chartered teams.
Read all of Frontstretch’s content covering the NASCAR vs. 23XI/FRM antitrust lawsuit here
The teams testified that after months of ongoing negotiations on a new charter deal, NASCAR, frustrated with what the owners were asking for, gave them the final version to sign with only hours to vet them and didn’t give the teams long-term stability by making them permanent. If they didn’t sign, they said, NASCAR would revoke their charters and disperse them to other teams, effectively shutting them out of prize money even if they did show up and gamble on qualifying. And if they weren’t guaranteed a spot in the race, they lost their value to potential sponsors.
To some, the teams were the heroes of the situation, the little guys taking on the giant, maybe even taking it down.
But now, as the trial grinds on, it’s becoming increasingly clear that no matter which side leaves the courtroom victorious, the real loser is going to be race fans.
If NASCAR wins, it’s status quo in exactly the ways many don’t want it to be: a semi-dictatorship with its own best interests at heart, one some already feel has alienated and ignored them.
If 23XI and FRM lose their charters, their value to sponsors drops dramatically. If they decide to race as open teams on a dribble of purse money, they will likely lose their drivers and personnel to other teams. People will lose their livelihoods.
If the team owners win, the future of the sport they have known and loved passionately will change irrevocably. What that looks like is anyone’s guess. At the very least, NASCAR may have to sell off racetracks and other assets. If they’re sold to developers like Auto Club Speedway was, they could vanish from the racing landscape forever. That list includes tracks like Martinsville Speedway, Daytona International Speedway, Darlington Raceway — the very places where fans have come for generations in hopes of seeing something special unfold in front of them.
Heather Gibbs, who co-owns Joe Gibbs Racing with her father-in-law, took the stand on Friday, and her testimony stripped away the last shred of innocence that fans might have managed to cling to.
Gibbs became the team co-owner when her husband Coy, the son of Joe Gibbs, died suddenly in 2022 the night their son Ty won the NASCAR Xfinity Series title.
JGR isn’t a relative upstart like 23XI or a small team trying to make it like FRM. A mainstay in the NASCAR Cup Series since 1992, the team has 227 wins and five titles, falling just a couple of laps short of another in 2025 with 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin, who has driven for Gibbs his entire career.
And yet, the sport’s most powerful team felt backed into a corner. Heather Gibbs testified that NASCAR’s final offer felt like “you have a gun to your head. If you don’t sign it … everything is gone.”
Teams were told if they didn’t sign by the deadline, just hours away, they would lose their charters and, essentially, most of their value. “We said we have to sign this,” Gibbs said. “We can’t lose this. We have too many employees. … I did not think it’s a fair deal for the teams.” She added that Joe Gibbs pleaded with the sanctioning body not to force the new deal on them.
The teams have also accused NASCAR of poaching sponsors interested in entering the sport away from deals with race teams. 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan said that teams feel they have to fight NASCAR for every deal.
Daily court updates have been sometimes damning for NASCAR, occasionally making the team owners look like they have made some unfortunate decisions. And none of it can be put back in the bag.
In documents revealed before the trial began, NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps referred to longtime owner Richard Childress in an internal email chain as ” a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.”
Later in the same email thread, Phelps wrote: “If he’s that angry (and apparently he is) sign your charter extension and sell. He’s not smart – is a dinosaur – and a malcontent. … Total ass-clown.”
The revelation of how NASCAR views its competitors is, at best, hurtful and disappointing. Because the truth is, it needs those teams. Fans who love the sport fell in love with fast cars.
But it wasn’t just the cars. It was the drivers. Fans want to see their favorites on track and root for them to win. They come to the tracks to cheer them on. They feel like an extended family, part of a community.
And if NASCAR cars so little for its competitors, how must it feel about the fans? If fans didn’t feel alienated before all of this, a lot of them are feeling that way now.
And yes, fans complain. But the longtime fans, the ones who have stayed true through all the changes, seeing cars and drivers come and go, complain because they love the sport. They want it to improve because they want it to thrive for their children and their children’s children. They want the sport they love to succeed, and they understand that taking care of the fans is a part of keeping it healthy.
As a columnist, I have been critical of NASCAR. But I promise I have never written a word of criticism out of anything but wanting the fans to love the sport and in doing so to keep it thriving for years to come.
After a week of testimony, there’s a pervading sadness, the feeling that nothing will be the same, and that might not be a good thing.
Hall of Fame driver Mark Martin echoed the sentiment that so many in the sport, from fans to team members, are feeling.
It’s not about winning and losing. This is not a race. There’s a lot more at stake now than on any given Sunday.
If NASCAR wins, fans lose. Not only could the two teams involved disappear or at least fade away slowly, but as costs rise (teams testified that the Next Gen car, advertised as a cost-cutting measure, actually costs them more), others could follow suit.
And while others may buy in, it takes a wealth of experience to be successful, and success does not come overnight. Even with charters, an influx of smaller, inexperienced teams would take a long time to become competitive, and that in turn affects the racing the fans see.
If the teams win, fans lose. If tracks are sold, some will be gone forever. That means fewer opportunities for fans to get to the track. It means the sport’s history will slip further into the depths of the past when right now, it’s all around us.
It’s easy for fans, feeling disenfranchised by the ways the sport has changed over the last couple of decades, to root for the teams to take them down. But in reality, if they take NASCAR down, they may take down the sport as we know it, too.
NASCAR fans are a sentimental lot, many still hanging on for dear life to the last vestiges of what the sport once was, not too terribly long ago. With everything they have seen so far in this trial, it’s all fast slipping through their fingers.
And NASCAR, and the teams, the tracks and the fans might never get it back. And then they — we — lose.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
One of the things I previously missed about this case was the crass and assinine comments Steve Phelps made about Richard Childress. I have lost any respect I might have for the man after reading this. Richard Childress may have made his fortune in NASCAR, but NASCAR wouldn’t be what it is without people like Richard Childress. No matter how this trial ends, I won’t be happy until Phelps resigns. And I won’t be upset if, next time Childress runs across Phelps, he has someone hold his ring for a minute.
I am far from a Nascar/France fan. But I think everyone needs a dose of reality and get off their high horses. If anyone of us were in the France family position and had there money we would do just like they did. We would buy up the competition and strength our bottom line. How many people commenting on this board own businesses? So all of you would do anything you could to help your competition and maybe on day put yourself out of business. And if Nascar would have done something illegal why didn’t the government go after them. Nascar is big enough that the SEC and FTC would look at them because they have money to be fined.
There’s a whole different set of rules you have to play by if you’re a monopoly. You cannot stack the deck against competitors to freeze them out of the market. Looks to me like the plaintiffs have a solid case, but I’m not a lawyer, so what do I know? We’ll see.
Who did Nascar freeze out? Anyone can build a track if they have enough money and the connections to get local zoning to OK the construction. And yes Nascar is the pinnacle of stock car racing but it isn’t the only stock car series or racing series. 23XI could run the CARS series or Indy car. Heck run the Lucas Oil Dirt Series. But they don’t want to because they know the ROI for sponsors would be bad and they would lose them.
If Nascar was so bad why did Jordan start his team in the middle of the charter agreement. Why not wait to see what the new agreement would say then start a team, but 3 years before the new agreement. And the sport is so awful they spent 35 million on a shop and 28 million for another charter. On a sport they say is run unfairly. Also can anyone show me how the running of the business side of Nascar has changed in the last 20 years compared to the last 3 years? And Jordan still invested? And one would have to think Denny and Jordan got to look at all JGR’S books and they still started a team. Basic common sense should be used. And again I am not a France fan
“Also can anyone show me how the running of the business side of Nascar has changed in the last 20 years compared to the last 3 years?”
Court proceedings have noted NASCAR removed a “three strikes” provision with the new charter, which previously allowed teams a few vetoes of non-safety changes. This is how the Mexico City race came to be. It was a money loser for teams, and they almost certainly would have voted it down. Except now they can’t.
Court proceedings have also noted NASCAR would not allow SRX races at tracks they don’t even own. If the tracks wanted NASCAR, they could not have other series.
Both of these are recent occurrences. They aren’t the only things NASCAR has done which are monopolistic, but you get the idea.
As far as pure dollars, 20 years ago sponsors were lined up out the door to give teams huge funding. This has now dwindled, yet rather than NASCAR sharing some of their profit, to keep the very teams and individuals solvent, they’ve continued as though teams are flush with cash.
Honestly, the more information which comes to light, the more I’m surprised this law suit didn’t happen earlier.
Good article Amy. It’s sad that a sport I really enjoyed watching was destroyed. First by the village idiot Brian France and his desire to make it all about entertainment rather than competition.
it was already entertaining. Look at the growth of the sport under France Sr and Jr and compare it to the disaster NASCAR became under BZF. Then NASCAR made it its mission to silence everyone who disagreed with BZF vision. That included owners, drivers and fans Most of the media was participant in it. Certainly the various radio shows were dismissive and insulting to the fans who called in with any opinion that wasn’t the company line
that played a big part in the fans turning away. No one would listen and the disrespect was overwhelming so ppl voted with their wallet and stopped going and paying $$ for a product the no longer enjoyed. When I stopped watching races even on tv or watched just the last 10 laps I knew I was truly a casual fan. Quite simply no mattter who wins the lawsuit I’m not interested in what NASCAR is selling
Thanks for a well written article, which largely echoes what I’m feeling, and existing fans I know seem to be feeling as well.
I’ve noted elsewhere I’m unlikely to tune in this year, barring major changes to race structures, as well as the championship structure. I won’t bore anyone by detailing it again. This isn’t directly related to this suit, but I’m still holding out hope these proceedings result in general changes, including the structure of competition.
I don’t view either side of this situation as “the good guys”. This is about money, and while I find the arguments of FRM and 23XI persuasive, I don’t see anything altruistic in their position. These are businesses, and they are fighting for dollars, not for the fans, the tracks, or anything else. I do believe NASCAR is a monopoly, and has not acted in good faith to anyone other than themselves.
I’m guessing this suit results in accelerating contraction of the sport, no matter who “wins”. Long term, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Reboot, and build it back up again. My concern is no matter who is calling the shots, nearly every decision over the past decade plus has been to inject “entertainment”, at the expense of validity of results. Barring changes here, I cannot see the sport being anything other than a niche product, and yes, possibly eventually folding altogether.
Side note, I really tire of hearing people from Gibbs adding their two cents. They had the option to take the path of 23XI and FRM, and refuse to sign the charter. I suspect if they had, one of NASCAR’s pillar teams, NASCAR would have already negotiated better terms and we wouldn’t be here. But now, Gibbs wants to pile on, and keeps playing the sympathy card. Last I checked, the Gibbs family isn’t living paycheck to paycheck like the average American, and should JGR have to fold, they have plenty of money to pay employees until they find other employment, though this is unlikely.
There will be “winners”, Amy. Otherwise NASCAR may very well be defunct; and by its own hand.
Never been an “I told you so” person but will share this.
Attended my first short track stock car dirt race in 1963, at Stafford Springs Motor Speedway in CT. It was the fairgrounds at the time. A horse track prior to stock car racing.
From 1963 until 1982 I rarely missed a race.
From 1971 – 1982, I missed 3 races total.
In the 1970’s we were totally spoiled fans as we called the Best-of-the-Best in modifieds our “local” drivers. Like myself, many of the top 20 drivers made it to Stafford every week. Most were from the northeastern states (Bugsy Stevens, Fred DeSarro, Brian Ross, Denis Giroux [Canada], Ed Flemke, Don McTavish, Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Geoff Bodine, etc) . We were blessed with the best talents from all over the USA & Canada. Occasionally we would see great personalities and excellent drivers like Ray Hendricks, Max Berrier, Paul Radford, Pete Hamilton, Jan Opperman, and too many to list. Even a few Grand National / Winston Cup drivers were inspired to defeat the 1/2 mile track… and its quality competition (Bobby Allison, Neil Bonnet, Glen Wood and more).
It was indeed a Golden Era for Modifieds and Grand National / Winston Cup. A time when “backyard engineering” was very competitive and rewarding. I witnessed and I lived NASCAR’s Modified evolution first-hand. Then everything changed seemingly overnight. The first modern bodies appeared in the form of Pinto’s and Vega’s. Then the big money began to rule with Bodine and Maynard Troyer using their own chassis (Chassis Dynamics was the first). They soon began supplying those chassis. Jack Tant’s engines were what most people wanted. Regardless of the big money tech and new parts on-hand for most teams… there was one holdout in the legendary Len Boehler (#3 coupe, then Vega). Boehler remained the one-man show with an occasional extra hand or two. But by 1980, Boehler calling it quits. and the “Little Guy” was no longer in the house. The money also caused lesser talent to take to the track.
In these decades I had become a familiar face at tracks all over the eastern half of the USA. I was an unofficial photographer at any track I could access… which turned out to be all of them. Purely through familiarity. The result being thousands of photographs and slide and some 8mm films. Point being, I pretty much knew or met weekly most everyone in NASCAR.
Bill France, Sr bought me a hot dog the first time we met (at Langhorne Speedway in PA). We met at the hot dog stand again 2 weeks later — and he said, “Ya know, I bought the last round…”. He wanted me to pay for his dog & Dr. Pepper, which I did. I took that lesson as a way of saying ‘Don’t expect people to pay your way just because they can’. Mr. France indirectly made me realize several Life Lessons through the years. Today’s world needs more like him.
In the late 70’s, it was clear to me money was very much developng the talent — not the experience of learning from scratch and racing because you loved it. I felt like Big Money could one day cause a NASCAR business ‘crash’. That idea has only increased in the past few decades.
What I hadn’t considered (or didn’t want to consider) was the loss of Bill France, Sr; then France, Jr. I was never convinced the remaining family had what it took to run Bill, Sr & Jr’s business models. I knew for a fact (as did many inside the garage areas) that Brian France was a disaster waiting to happen. Yet it turned out worse than imagined. The family and current lineup at the Top are finally being revealed for the capitalists-at-all-costs people they are with this lawsuit. I sincerely doubt Bill, Sr and Jr ever meant for NASCAR to be a ‘Mafia’ of sorts. Unfortunately they have done just that. I am happy to see this court case going sour for NASCAR. It needs to die a little in order to save itself — then have someone or some entity reinvent and ressurect NASCAR.
Sad to be where we are today. Hope this court case(s) turns out in a positive manner — this scenario can only go one of two ways. Not to get more political than it already is, but I see NASCAR and The White House as two organizations full of people afraid and unwilling to rock the boat. There eventually comes a time when overbearing, insensitive Kingpins need to experience the rocking of the boat… preferably before it is too late.
Time for the Grassroots elements to rise and rule!
Michael Jordan surprisingly (to me) may very well make the difference.
“What I hadn’t considered (or didn’t want to consider) was the loss of Bill France, Sr; then France, Jr.”
That’s usually what happens in any generational business. The startup puts blood, sweat, and tears into it to get it going. The son sees that and is able to grow and build the business. The grandson grew up rich and privileged and doesn’t know what hard work is, so he squanders everything.
Yepl There are rare exceptions. Oddly I work for one. Company over 100 years old, and some of the best workers are family members.
Kinda cool seeing them go against the trend. 90% of the time, it plays out as you have noted.
I think overly pessimistic. There are ways for this to turn out well for everyone, with the exception possibly of the France family. I think the best outcome would see the sport migrate to a franchise or permanent charter system with the sport led by a commissioner and executive that works on behalf of the teams – similar to all other major sports. The France family should retain ISC and be granted long term contracts to host NASCAR events with limited exclusivity provisions, both as a backstop against them selling off the tracks to developers but also to secure the viability of the tracks. This would open up the tracks to other forms of motorsports, with the hope that a better overall racing scene beyond stick cars would benefit everyone and bring new eyeballs to the sport.
typo…..*…beyond STOCK cars…*
No way it ends like that
I admire your optimism and dreams.
But this does not end well for Jim France nor, respectfully, for his lackeys.
I felt this would be the case even before these recent facts and revelations surfaced re: the NASCAR executives. Many of us knew of bad actors and bad business tactics — even illicit practices. However this is getting far more scary (and depressing) than I could have imagined.