NASCAR was not considered an illegal monopolyand Cup Series teams got the permanent charters they sought.
So Thursday’s settlement was a win-win, right?
From 100 feet high, that’s true.
But take a look at the details — at all the financial disclosures that shed light on how NASCAR operates, at all the text messages that reveal the fears of NASCAR executives and more — and you’ll see that this legal battle will last a long time.
Here are six key revelations that will last long after Thursday’s united triumph between NASCAR and its two premier series teams – as well as a problem that still needs to be resolved.
The Unsolved Problem of Richard Childress
At the end of Thursday’s proceedings — in other words, at the end of the trial — the plaintiff’s attorney, Danielle Williams, still had unfinished business with District Judge Kenneth Bell.
She was expected to ask about the issue involving Richard Childress and understand how NASCAR found documents revealing some of his non-NASCAR finances — finances that he said were protected by a nondisclosure agreement.
Tuesday, Childress was asked a series of questions that blindsided him and left him visibly angry.. Lawyers questioned Childress about his approaches to an investment firm to buy part of his 60 percent stake in Richard Childress Racing, the company he founded in 1969. He believed such discussions with a group including former NASCAR driver Bobby Hillin Jr. – as well as documents Hillin sent to potential investors – were confidential.
“I don’t want to answer that,” Childress said at one point during the questioning, before Judge Bell reminded him that he was under oath and obligated to answer to the best of his ability.
Childress eventually admitted that he sent Hillin a termination letter — “They don’t have the money,” he said — and that both parties signed NDAs. After the jury left Tuesday, plaintiffs’ attorneys asked Judge Bell that the defense turn over documents it has regarding Childress’s finances and reveal the source who provided those documents to NASCAR.
Bell told his attorneys Wednesday that if the issue was not resolved by Thursday morning, he would issue orders — something he said he did not want to do. It appears the issue has not yet been resolved as of Thursday evening.
Six other key insights
Here are six other key revelations that were tangent to the case but revealing nonetheless. These are listed in no particular order.
— Salaries. The salaries of several top players in the world of NASCAR were revealed during the trial. Among them were personalities from the NASCAR side: CEO Jim France ($3.5 million), Commissioner Steve Phelps ($2.5 million with an additional $2.5 million in bonuses), president Steve O’Donnell ($1.2 million) and chief strategy officer Scott Prime ($400,000). Denny Hamlin’s Salary as Cup Series Driver Also Revealed; he earns around $14 million per year from Joe Gibbs Racing.
— Participation of the France family in NASCAR. It was revealed Tuesday that NASCAR, a private company, is owned by two family trusts. The first is the Jim France Family Trust, which owns 54.7%. The second is the Lesa France Kennedy Family Trust, which owns 45.3%. Both Lesa and Jim serve on the NASCAR board of directors.
— NASCAR revenues and profits. NASCAR had overall revenue of $1.7 billion in 2024. Its net income in 2024 was approximately $103 million; NASCAR made $537 million in 2023; the bulk of which was gained after a large land sale in California, and this money was used to pay off much of the debts incurred during a previous land purchase. International Speedway Society (ISC).
— Income and profits of Cup teams. 23XI Racing was one of the few teams to turn a profit in 2024. That year, the team raked in about $40 million in sponsorships, Hamlin said. Bob Jenkins, conversely, told the jury that his racing team Front Row Motorsports had never made an operating profit in 22 years as a NASCAR owner. In 2021, the team lost -$2,824,668.69; in 2022, -$7,977,187.20; in 2023, the team lost -$5,685,938.48. The way Jenkins stayed in the sport was through his fast food empire – and by selling charters, which he wrote off as capital gains that had no impact on his operating profit year over year.
– How much NASCAR spent on the Next Gen car. NASCAR has confirmed that it has not made money from the sale of Next Gen auto parts that teams are required to purchase from a NASCAR-approved supplier. John Probst, the company’s director of racing development, revealed that the series spent $14 million developing the car, and in which the car is continually invested.
— Internal messages that leaders would like to receive in return. This trial was filled with embarrassing, unflattering and inappropriate messages, all of which were discovered during the discovery process and revealed to the jury at trial. You’ve seen 23XI Racing executives say co-owner Denny Hamlin spends recklessly. You’ve seen NASCAR executives express their frustrations with the board..
And while it didn’t go to trial, you saw Phelps, the NASCAR commissioner, write in an impassioned diatribe to his confidants that he didn’t appreciate Childress’s outspokenness during the negotiation of NASCAR’s television deal. Phelps called Childress a “stupid redneck.” among other things, which “must be taken out and whipped.” Phelps later said he regretted those messages and had since spoken and apologized to Childress.
Overall, it is this acrimony that has made this trial so tense. It’s also what made Thursday’s settlement so surprising – and necessary for the sport to evolve.
“In all honesty, sometimes when you get to the finish line you have to think not only about yourself but the sport as a whole,” said Michael Jordan, owner of the plaintiff team 23XI Racing. “I think both sides got to this point, we realized we had an opportunity to fix this, we dove in and we did it.”
Jim France added: “We can focus again on what we really love, which is racing. We’ve spent a lot of time not really focused on that. Not as much as we should be. I feel like we’ve made a really good decision here, together, and we have a great opportunity to continue to grow this sport.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2025 at 5:30 a.m.
