AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps said Friday “we are trying our hardest” to settle the federal antitrust lawsuit with the two three-car teams suing the stock-car racing series and sanctioning body, providing the most expansive comments yet from the defendants.
Phelps read from a statement that ran longer than six minutes and took no questions on the litigation between 23XI Racing — owned by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, retired NBA star Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk, the basketball legend’s longtime business manager — and Front Row Motorsports, which is owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins.
Both sides recently participated in two days of mediation in a courtroom and didn’t come to a resolution, but NASCAR had been hoping that continued conversations would lead to a settlement it could announce ahead of Sunday’s Cup Series season finale that will determine the championship driver for 2025.
“NASCAR is fully aligned with our race team partners who have submitted declarations hoping to end this litigation,” Phelps said at Phoenix Raceway during the annual state of the sport news conference.
“We are trying our hardest. I am trying my hardest both as a fan as well as the commissioner of this sport that I’ve loved since I was 5 years old. While two out of the 15 teams may not share that view and seem set on an unfortunate court battle, I hope that we can all agree that our racing is as good as it has ever been and we care about how we serve our fans, especially as we look forward to capping off our season by celebrating new champions across all of our national series.”
Corey Heim won the third-tier Truck Series title Friday night, when he won the championship race, while the second-tier Xfinity Series champ will be determined by Saturday’s race. Four drivers are eligible for the Cup Series title in Sunday’s race, with Hamlin joined by JGR teammate Chase Briscoe and Hendrick Motorsports drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson in that quartet.
The lawsuit was filed a year ago by 23XI Racing, a Toyota team. Front Row Racing, which runs Fords, aligned with 23XI after they were the only two organizations out of 15 competing in the Cup Series to not sign extensions last year on new charter agreements.
The new charter agreements were presented to the teams at the start of the 2024 playoffs with a deadline for them to sign. It followed two-plus years of tense negotiations over the charters, which are at the heart of NASCAR’s business model as they guarantee revenue and access to weekly races.
Front Row and 23XI likely will go out of business without them and are racing this season unchartered, which comes with significantly reduced prize money.
Other teams have called for a settlement to move forward, but mediation sessions and private negotiations have not worked. The trial is scheduled for Dec. 1.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell this week dismissed NASCAR’s countersuit against Polk.
NASCAR has routinely refused to discuss the lawsuit, but Phelps made an exception Friday with his prepared statement.
“This is not an antitrust case. The 2025 charter agreement is an improvement on the 2016 framework,” Phelp said as he read off enhancements that include “over $3 billion in guaranteed payments to the teams, enterprise value that is roughly $1.5 billion now to the race teams, guaranteed starting positions each week that allow teams to sell sponsorship on the best billboards in sports, the Next Gen car, and charters guaranteed for 14 years until at least 2039, plus an obligation to negotiate in good faith beyond that.
“The bottom line here is NASCAR is committed to charters.”
Phelps also defended the Florida-based France family, who founded the sport in 1948, financially support it and have grown it into the top motorsports series in the United States.
“The France family started NASCAR in 1948 using their own resources, grit and ingenuity. They have taken countless personal and financial risks, investing billions of dollars and untold hours into growing this sport to create opportunity for teams to race in front of fans for nearly eight decades,” Phelps said. “We are proud of what we built for fans together with the race teams, especially since the charters were introduced. … We’ll continue to defend and preserve it.
“Make no mistake, the lawsuit puts this at risk.”