By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—When court adjourned a half-hour later than usual on Tuesday—the seventh day of the “23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports v. NASCAR” antitrust trial—plaintiffs’ lead attorney Jeff Kessler had just finished his questioning of NASCAR chairman and CEO Jim France.
After establishing that NASCAR is owned by the France family through trusts, with Jim France holding the majority stake, Kessler spent the bulk of his direct examination on team owners’ requests for permanent charters in the 2025 agreement and on the NASCAR board’s ultimate decision not to include an “evergreen” provision in the new agreement. ‘Permanency’ is a term the has been mentioned regularly in various testimonies and is a term that neither sides could agree upon.
Kessler pointed to testimony from Joe Gibbs Racing team owner Heather Gibbs, who testified last week about her 2024 letter to NASCAR requesting team charters. Earlier on Tuesday, the plaintiffs had called Richard Childress Racing team owner Richard Childress as a witness in a similar vein.
Letters from team owners Jack Roush (Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing), Rick Hendrick (Hendrick Motorsports) and Roger Penske (Team Penske) further emphasized the owners’ desire for NASCAR to make the charters a permanent asset, one of the so-called “four pillars” teams had requested on an ongoing basis during the two-and-a-half years of negotiations.
“We did not agree to evergreen or permanent charters, no,” France testified.
Whether the failure to grant permanent charters represented anti-competitive behavior, which the plaintiffs must prove with a preponderance of the evidence, or is simply construed as a negotiating issue is a matter for the jury, which needs to come to a unanimous decision.
NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps, who preceded Childress on the stand, testified that NASCAR had attempted to address the length-of-charter issue by guaranteeing an additional seven-year charter period beyond the current broadcast rights deal, which expires after the 2031 season.
“I know it’s something the race teams desired,” Phelps said. “What we tried to find was a compromise.”
During the second seven-year term of the 2025 charter agreement, NASCAR has guaranteed that teams will receive at least the same amount of revenue that they get during the first seven years.
“They (the teams) wanted a floor,” Phelps said. “We gave them a floor.”
Phelps also dispelled the notion that NASCAR could dilute the market by adding to the total of 36 charters.
On re-direct, Phelps testified that NASCAR could issue only two new charters to new entities “if and only if a new OEM (car maker) comes in, and if and only if the other chartered teams decided not to bid for those charters.”
The four pillars have been a recurring theme in the plaintiffs’ case. From the outset, team owners—represented by a Team Negotiating Council of Jeff Gordon (Hendrick Motorsports), Dave Alpern (Joe Gibbs Racing), Steve Newmark (former president of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing) and Curtis Polk (23XI)—consistently asked for 1) more money, 2) voting rights for owners over cost increases, 3) permanent charters and 4) one-third of all new business opportunities.
Teams did get a substantial increase in revenue–$98 million above 2024 levels for an average total money per charter of $12.5 million. To address governance, NASCAR created an Owners Advisory Council, which Phelps said gives teams a seat at the table without voting or veto rights.
The new charter agreement also provides for the creation of a New Business Committee to evaluate new opportunities on a case-by-case basis.
Thirteen of 15 teams signed the 2025 charter agreement. Only 23XI and Front Row did not, choosing to file suit alleging anti-competitive practices on the part of NASCAR and claiming damages under the 2016 charter agreement.
France’s testimony will conclude Wednesday with cross-examination by NASCAR outside counsel Chris Yates and perhaps re-direct by the plaintiffs, who are expected to rest their case after France leaves the stand.
Presiding Judge Kenneth D. Bell said he hoped NASCAR can conclude its case by Friday afternoon, perhaps by paring its witness list. That would leave only closing arguments from both sides before the case goes to the jury.
