CHARLOTTE, N.C. — “Everybody’s going to get hurt.” »
Kenneth D. Bell, the federal judge presiding over the legal showdown between NASCAR and the two racing teams suing it alleging illegal monopolistic practices over a dispute over the sport’s charter system, issued that warning this summer. Several times, in public hearings and behind closed doors, Bell warned there would be no winners in this case. His message has always been that the only way this matter will end on good terms is if 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports find common ground with the league and settle down.
Genuine attempts at settlement were made, but no agreement was ever reached. The trial therefore began as planned on Monday.
And in the early days, Bell’s warning is already coming true, as early testimony has revealed a sport filled with bitter infighting and financial struggles.
Since Monday, we have seen Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI, who is also one of the best drivers in NASCAR and almost won the 2025 championship, tearing apart the management structure of NASCAR in his testimony. His contempt for NASCAR CEO and Chairman Jim France was on full display during four hours of testimony, during which he repeatedly said that NASCAR was an illegal monopoly that had treated teams unfairly and offered them a below-market value charter deal in September 2024 with the threat that they would sign or lose their charters, which are worth millions of dollars.
“We want to be healed from what (NASCAR) did to us,” Hamlin said.
We also saw NASCAR lawyers question Hamlin about public comments in support of the same league he is currently suing, and a NASCAR executive, Scott Prime, answer for communications with France about the controversial charter negotiations. On Tuesday, a multitude of messages between NASCAR executives were entered into evidence. They questioned France’s decisions that ultimately put the league in this position.
“They are playing with fire.” NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps said in an email to Prime the teams’ hesitancy regarding the charter agreement. “Lots of options, but all have the same theme: Pick a date and they can sign or lose their charter. It’s that simple.”
It is almost certain that it will only get more complicated. How could this not be the case? There will be more animosity, more evidence that paints one side or the other in an unflattering light, and a list of potential witnesses that just so happens to include team owner Richard Childress. In an exchange of text messages recently discovered during the discovery process, Childress was disparaged by Phelps, who said that Childress should be “taken out and whipped” and called him a “stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.”
Childress said in a statement that he was considering legal action. Whatever Childress decides, by testifying he could end up misrepresenting the knife deeper into a sanctioning body that he has repeatedly said over the years is out to get.
On Wednesday, Front Row owner Bob Jenkins, widely recognized as one of the friendliest people in the garage, testified and had his finances called into question, which apparently did not sit well with some members of the jury — one member, for example, leaned forward and shook his head.
“I can assure you this is not due to malpractice,” said Jenkins, who testified that his team has not made a profit in its more than two decades in the sport. “We are very frugal.”
Denny Hamlin, left, co-owner of 23XI Racing, and Bob Jenkins, owner of Front Row Motorsports. (Jeff Robinson/Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)
The spectacle unfolding in the Potter courtroom isn’t limited to NASCAR and the teams. During jury selection Monday in NASCAR’s backyard in Charlotte, several potential jurors said they don’t even know what NASCAR is. But many of them knew Michael Jordan, sitting in the room as co-owner of 23XI Racing. Some were excused because they said they could not be impartial in the case involving the NBA legend, who retired more than 20 years ago but began his rise in North Carolina. One of those jurors even pointed at Jordan and winked at him as he left the courtroom.
Add it all together, and there is a circus atmosphere surrounding the proceedings. And not the good kind of circus.
This ugliness could have been avoided. In the year since 23XI and Front Row filed their suit, both sides have had several paths to ending the proceedings. This would have allowed everyone to say that they had found common ground for the betterment of sport, allowing everyone to move forward, united. Instead, their collective heads are bloodied and the sport could be on the path to rapid implosion.
If NASCAR wins, two teams, which have invested millions in the sport, will almost assuredly close their doors. And if 23XI and Front Row win, the potential damage to NASCAR could be significant. The league could have to pay teams as much as $300 million. He could be forced to divest himself of the tracks he owns, which make up the bulk of the early Cup Series calendar. The entire charter system could be invalidated. France could be forced to split the championship.
Bell is unlikely to impose the last two potential damages, but the fact that it’s even possible shows why it would have been better to remedy this situation well before this week.
Yet here NASCAR, 23XI and Front Row stand, mired in a trail of wounds so deep they will leave permanent scars. An ugliness that could have been avoided if they had heeded Bell’s many warnings.
“Everyone is going to get hurt.”
