CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress could be called to the witness stand as soon as Monday in the federal antitrust lawsuit filed against the top motorsports series in the United States. Childress’ testimony is expected to further highlight the animosity between the teams and series executives during the two contentious years of negotiations over a new revenue-sharing deal.
Childress was the subject of derogatory text messages in which NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps called the six-time championship-winning owner a redneck who “needs to be taken out and whipped.”
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The texts were released during the discovery phase of this messy saga in which Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan refused to accept NASCAR’s final offer for a new lease deal and decided to sue the Florida-based French family, which founded NASCAR in 1948 and privately owns the stock car racing series.
It took Jordan’s testimony Friday to bring national attention to NASCAR, but not for its racing product or competition. Instead, Jordan wants to prove that NASCAR is run by a family of dictators get rich at the expense of the teams and drivers. Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denis Hamlinalong with Front Row Racing, were the only two teams out of 15 to refuse the new charter agreements proposed in September 2024 with a six-hour deadline to sign the 112-page document.
A charter is similar to the franchise model in other sports, but in NASCAR it guarantees 36 teams in a 40-car field, as well as specific revenue.
NASCAR publicly admitted it wanted to settle the matter in comments made by Phelps before the November season finale, but the first week of testimony in the Western District of North Carolina revealed that Jordan and the Front Row owner Bob Jenkins want a total of $340 million in damages.
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The case had a painfully slow first week in which U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell asked both sides to pick up the pace, but as the plaintiffs move closer to Childress’ appeal at the start of the second week, it appears certain that the trial will continue into a third week as NASCAR remains days away from starting its defense.
Every twist and turn in the yearlong legal battle has been a setback for NASCAR, which maintains it has given teams an improved revenue model over the original 2016 charter agreement and that everything it has done is in the best interest of growing the sport.
However, Jenkins claimed he never made a profit in more than two decades of racing and reported losses of between $70 million and $100 million. Jordan and Hamlin admitted that 23XI Racing had been profitable in its five years of existence, but largely due to Jordan’s ability to attract expensive sponsors.
Jordan, who said he was a lifelong NASCAR fan, felt like he was one of the new owners of a sport in which the best teams have existed for decades, that he was the only one who could truly challenge the French in the way they do business.
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“Someone had to step forward and challenge the entity,” Jordan testified. “I was in these meetings with longtime owners who had been intimidated for so many years trying to make changes. I was a new person, I wasn’t afraid. I felt like I could challenge NASCAR as a whole. I felt like when it came to the sport, you had to look at it from a different perspective.”
Childress is the next key witness expected to be called as early as Monday afternoon. Despite signing the lease agreement, the longtime owner of the late Dale Earnhardt’s car wanted the charters to become permanent and headed to court in contempt following the revelation of Phelps’ remarks. Although Phelps is believed to have apologized to Childress before the text messages were published, Childress threatened legal action.
Among the witnesses NASCAR is expected to call are Hall of Fame team owners Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske, two of the most influential figures in motorsports. Penske attempted to set his court appearance schedule by telling NASCAR he was not available to testify until Monday, but the plaintiffs objected to Penske being called in the middle of their presentation.
Bell sided with 23XI Racing and Front Row and asked NASCAR to work out a solution with Penske, who, as the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar, which recently adopted its charter system, can attest to racing sanctioning agreements, revenue models and the financial health of racing teams.
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Hendrick, a close friend of the France family for decades, is a car salesman and Charlotte resident who can use his communications skills to support the theory that everyone in racing understands finances and willingly enters NASCAR and the French business model.
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AP Auto Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racingv
