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NASCAR President Jim France Michael Jordan testified Tuesday in a federal antitrust lawsuit against his family that he still has not changed his mind on granting permanent charters to teams, and evidence revealed he has entered into negotiations over a new revenue-sharing agreement set to thwart teams’ efforts for a larger share of the stock car series’ revenues.
France was the final witness called by lawyers for Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports on the seventh day of the trial. Those race teams have accused NASCAR of being a monopolistic bully that engages in anti-competitive business practices.
it was also called tuesday Hall of Fame Team owner Richard Childress, who testified that he only signed the 2025 revenue-sharing agreement because refusing to do so would have put Richard Childress Racing out of business.
NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps testified to more than two years of frustrating negotiations between the top motorsports series. United States of America and its race teams. The plaintiffs produced several documents detailing communications between NASCAR executives, which revealed that France was strongly opposed to granting permanent charters to the teams throughout the process.
The charter system is equivalent to the franchise model used in other sports. In NASCAR, a charter guarantees cars a spot in the 40-car field each week, as well as specified financial terms.
Asked by plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler if he had changed his stance on making the charter permanent, France said, “No, I have not.”
Kessler later presented a summary of the notes from the first meeting of NASCAR executives on how they would negotiate with teams on new agreements. Steve O’Donnell, now NASCAR president, wrote in those notes, “Jim’s sweeping comments – we’re in a competition. We’re going to win.”
France’s position never changed, even though – as evidence showed – he received pleas from Hall of Fame team owners Joe Gibbs, Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush and Roger Penske. The four are close personal friends, France said on the stand Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Childress spoke about the pressure he felt to sign the charter agreement.
The six-time championship-winning owner testified, “If I had been financially able to do what I do I wouldn’t have signed those charters.” “We’re a blue-collar operation.”
Childress has competed in NASCAR for 60 years. NASCAR was founded in 1948 by the Florida-based France family and Childress has a long-standing personal connection to it. francis,
Childress testified that he requested Jim France to make the charter permanent rather than renewable, and France refused.
Childress testified that he supports the charter system that was implemented in 2016 when race teams were priced at “a maximum of 10 cents on the dollar. We had nothing.”
He acknowledged that the charter added value to his team, but said that if the charter were permanent the equity would fall short of its financial potential.
In announcing his dissatisfaction with the system, Childress insisted on having NASCAR attorney Christopher Yates read him the sentences in which he explained that the charter needed to be made permanent. He said he added those sentences to a manifesto he was given to sign.
Childress was sometimes contentious with Yates, partly because he was determined to show his displeasure at not receiving a permanent charter.
He said he only accepted the offer in 2024 when Hendrick Motorsports said it was signing and “all I know is that financially we would be out of business” if they did not follow through.
Phelps details talks with Jordan’s team
Earlier on Tuesday, NASCAR’s commissioner said Jordan’s financial advisors would not compromise on key issues.
Phelps, who was NASCAR president during the negotiations, said that Jordan’s right-hand man Curtis Polk was the teams’ principal representative and that he insisted on demands for increased revenues, a permanent charter, a voice in governance and a third of any new revenue streams.
The deal ultimately presented to the teams in September 2024 did not include a permanent charter or a voice in governance, but NASCAR gave teams a certain deadline to accept its final offer or forfeit their charter. 23XI Racing, owned by Jordan, Polk and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by Bob Jenkins, were the only two teams out of 15 organizations that declined to sign. Instead he filed a lawsuit.
Phelps, who was promoted to become NASCAR’s first commissioner earlier this year, testified that he worked hard to get teams the best possible deal. But he said the teams’ initial request for guaranteed revenues of $720 million per year would have put NASCAR out of business, and communications between NASCAR executives showed that the France family would not compromise on a permanent charter.
Also, Polk would not back down.
“This was one of the most challenging and longest negotiations I have ever been a part of,” Phelps said. He admitted that he did not particularly enjoy negotiating with Polk, who was then the representative of the “Team Negotiating Council”.
Phelps said, “TNC never gave up its four pillars. It was exactly the same thing, the same thing and it was very disappointing.”
Phelps testified at one point that NASCAR believed it had reached a new charter agreement that satisfied the teams but that it was dependent on NASCAR finalizing its new media rights deal.
“I thought we’d just add up the numbers,” said Phelps, who testified that NASCAR was hoping to secure a $1.2 billion media deal. When it became clear that the media rights deal would not yield that much money, Phelps said the teams asked to set a floor in negotiations.
NASCAR ultimately got a $1.05 billion media deal – still a $33 million per year increase from the previous deal – and Phelps said “every dollar” went to the race teams starting this year.
However, final revenue payments to teams are $431 million annually, charters are not permanent and teams receive no voice in rules and regulations.
Nevertheless, Phelps testified that he believed the charter agreement was “a fair deal”.
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AP Auto Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing