CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The attorney for the two teams suing NASCAR portrayed series chairman Jim France as "a brick wall" in negotiations over the new revenue-sharing model that has triggered the Michael Jordan-backed federal antitrust case against the top form of motorsports in the United States.

23XI Racing, owned by Basketball Hall of Famer Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by fast food franchiser Bob Jenkins, were the only two organizations out of 15 that refused to sign extensions on new charter agreements in September of 2024.

A charter is the equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports and in NASCAR guarantees every chartered car a spot in all 38 races, plus a defined payout from NASCAR.

NASCAR spent more than two years locked in bitter negotiations with the teams over the extensions because the teams made specific requests in an attempt to improve their financial position. The deal ultimately given to the teams on the eve of the start of the 2024 playoffs lacked most of those requests and gave teams a six-hour deadline to sign the 112-page document.

Jeffrey Kessler, attorney for 23XI and Front Row, spent much of Thursday trying to portray France as the holdout in acquiescing to the teams. NASCAR was founded 76 years ago by the late Bill France Sr. and to this day is privately owned by the Florida-based family. Jim France is his youngest son.

Kessler questioned NASCAR President Steve O'Donnell for more than three hours in a contentious session in which the attorney at times was shouting at the executive. He used internal communications among NASCAR executives to demonstrate frustration among non-France family members over the slow pace of negotiations and Jim France's refusal to grant the teams permanent charters. The charter system was established in 2016 as a means to create stability for the teams, and the charters are renewable.

One particularly tense exchange involved an impassioned letter sent by Heather Gibbs, daughter-in-law of team owner Joe Gibbs, in which she implored France to grant permanent charters to help secure the family business.

O'Donnell in a text message told Ben Kennedy, nephew of Jim France, “Jim is now reading Heather's letter out loud and swearing every other sentence.”

Pressed by Kessler as to what France was saying as he read the letter, O'Donnell said the chairman never swore. Kessler tried to force O'Donnell to reconcile what he wrote to Kennedy, but O'Donnell maintained that his boss was not cursing.

“That's what I wrote, but he was not doing that,” O'Donnell testified. “We were all taken aback by the letter. I think Jim was frustrated, as we all were.”

Kessler then demanded what sort of gestures or actions France made that led to O'Donnell to tell Kennedy he was swearing. A judge-ordered break in the session prevented O'Donnell from ever clarifying why he characterized France's reaction that way.

Heather Gibbs and Jordan were both expected to testify Friday.

The internal communications among executives showed the mounting frustration over the prolonged negotiations. As O'Donnell, Commissioner Steve Phelps and others tried to find concessions for the teams, they all indicated they were met by resistance time and again by France and his niece, vice chair Lesa France Kennedy.

“Mr. France was the brick wall in the negotiations,” Kessler said to O'Donnell.

“Those are your words, not mine,” the executive replied.

Teams told NASCAR they were fighting for financial survival

Earlier Thursday, O'Donnell testified that teams approached the sanctioning body in early 2022 asking for an improved revenue model, arguing the system was unsustainable.

O'Donnell was at the meeting with representatives from four teams, who asked that the negotiating window on a new charter agreement open early because they were fighting for their financial survival. The negotiating window was not supposed to open until July 2023.

O'Donnell testified that in that first meeting, four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, now vice chair of Hendrick Motorsports, asked specifically if the France family was “open to a new model.”

Kennedy, great-grandson of NASCAR's founder, told Gordon yes.

But O'Donnell testified that chairman France was opposed to a new revenue model.

O'Donnell, who was called as an adverse witness for the plaintiffs, acknowledged NASCAR was aware the teams were financially struggling. Communications showed NASCAR was worried teams would create a breakaway series similar to the LIV Golf league, and NASCAR was agitated by the short-lived summer short track series, SRX, that was founded by Hall of Fame driver Tony Stewart.

NASCAR found SRX to be a threat because it was on both national television and some of its current drivers and team owners participated in races.

To prevent a mutiny by the teams, Kessler tried to show NASCAR locked down exclusivity deals with race tracks that made it impossible for teams to take stock car racing to any venues currently on the Cup Series schedule.

Both sides speak of financial difficulties

The extensions that began this year upped the guaranteed money for every chartered car to $12.5 million in annual revenue, from $9 million. Hamlin and Jenkins have both testified it costs $20 million to bring a single car to the track for all 38 races. That figure does not include any overhead, operating costs or a driver's salary.

NASCAR has argued it has made huge improvements for the teams as it works to grow the sport. O'Donnell testified that NASCAR lost $55 million in the three years it held a race on the downtown streets of Chicago, and $6 million when it raced in June in Mexico City. But he said those events were critical in widening viewership and signing Amazon as a media partner.

“It was a strategic investment because if not for that, Amazon would not have become a broadcast partner,” he testified.

Front Row owner details his frustrations with NASCAR

Jenkins opened the fourth day of the trial with continued testimony and said he "held his nose" when he signed the 2016 charter agreements because he didn't think the deal was very good for the teams but a step in the right direction.

When the extensions came in 2024, Jenkins said the agreement went “virtually backward in so many ways.” Jenkins said no owners he has spoken to are happy about the new charter agreement because it falls short of so many of their requests. He refused to sign because “I'd reached my tipping point.”

Jenkins also said teams are upset about the current Next Gen car, which was introduced in 2022 as a cost-saving measure. The car was supposed to cost $205,000 but parts must be purchased from specified NASCAR vendors and teams cannot make any repairs themselves, so the actual cost is now closer to double the price.

“To add $150,000 to $200,000 to the cost of the car — I don't think any of the teams anticipated that,” Jenkins testified. “What's anti-competitive is I don't own that car. I can't use that car anywhere else.”

Trial moves slowly

Judge Kenneth Bell admonished both sides over the slow pace of the trial, which was initially expected to take two weeks. Kessler said he didn't anticipate wrapping up the teams' side until the middle of next week.

NASCAR had planned to call Roger Penske as a witness and Penske, who is reluctant to testify, has said he's only available next Monday. Christopher Yates, lead attorney for NASCAR, asked that Penske be allowed to testify that day but Kessler objected because it would disrupt the flow of his presentation.

Bell sided with Kessler and told NASCAR to figure it out with Penske because “federal trials are an inconvenience.”

The judge also said stretching the trial to three weeks is not acceptable, and while he's hesitant to step in to push the pace along, he urged both sides to counsel their witnesses to stop being “reluctant to answer even the most harmless questions.”

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This story has been corrected. A previous version misidentified Front Row Motorsports.

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