Richard Childress took the stand Tuesday in Day 7 of the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports versus NASCAR antitrust lawsuit trial. While being questioned by NASCAR on cross-examination, a notable news item was revealed.

Childress admitted that he had been shopping an equity stake in his team around. That includes part of his 60% majority ownership. According to Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, Childress claimed that information was supposed to be under NDA, and he was surprised that NASCAR was aware of the talks.

Clearly, that is information Childress didn’t expect to get out, let alone in front of a jury. After the jury was dismissed, 23XI and FRM wanted a decision of Judge Kenneth Bell on the Childress tactic of the defense, according to Matt Weaver of Motorsport. The teams did not approve of NASCAR using documents that seemingly should have been covered by an NDA. They also requested the documents be turned over to them.

“Mr. Childress certainly thought it shouldn’t have been in their possession,” Bell said.

NASCAR attorney Chris Yates then explained why they brought up information apparently under an NDA. Yates said they were trying to impeach Childress for making inaccurate claims. Bell wasn’t buying that answer. He urged both sides to work together to come to a solution on the matter.

The group Childress was in discussions with about a partial sale of Richard Childress Racing was led by Bobby Hillin Jr. That deal never got across the finish line.

Richard Childress questioned over potential equity stake sale of RCR during NASCAR trial

Childress has had contentious relationships with NASCAR leadership over the years. His time as a team owner spans multiple decades and different variations of France family leadership. This lawsuit has brought out unforeseen circumstances. The Steve Phelps texts are perhaps the most egregious example so far.

Childress is known for being a character. He speaks his mind and isn’t afraid to make people mad. But we didn’t get much out of him Tuesday in regard to those “redneck” comments. According to Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic, Childress declined to comment about the text messages after his testimony. Childress has expressed interest in possibly seeking legal action over the comments.

Phelps, the NASCAR commissioner, reached out to Childress weeks ago to apologize for it, even before those messages were made public. “Stupid redneck” and “idiot” were terms thrown around by Phelps about the longtime NASCAR team owner. During his testimony, Phelps expressed regret over the text messages. However, the actual messages were not entered into evidence. Ahead of the trial, those messages were considered more prejudicial than probative.

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this report.

General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are making historic investments in motorsports as the two Detroit-based companies take on the world’s premier global performance brands in Formula One, Le Mans prototype racing and international GT sports car racing.

Add the third member of America’s Big Three, Toyota Motor Corp.

GM, Toyota and Ford are the new Big Three of U.S. sales with 18%, 15% and 14% market share, respectively (Stellantis is a distant sixth at 9%). And Tokyo-based Toyota is matching its competitors stride-for-stride in motorsports investment as well. With its announcement this month as title sponsor of the American-based MoneyGram Haas Formula One team, Toyota will compete in coming years with GM and Ford in F1, NASCAR and Le Mans endurance Hypercar and GT racing.

GM will compete in F1 with its Cadillac brand beginning in 2026, and Ford will partner with Red Bull. In NASCAR, Ford and GM’s Chevrolet brand compete. And in endurance racing, Cadillac (Hypercar) and Chevy Corvette (GT) carry the GM flag while Ford is entering Hypercar in 2027 and competes with the Mustang GT3 in GT racing.

NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps touted the safety of the Next Gen car during his Tuesday testimony in the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports versus NASCAR antitrust lawsuit trial. Phelps testified that the Next Gen car is the “safest car in all of motorsports.”

Phelps’ statement drew “audible gasps” in the Charlotte courtroom, according to Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press. 23XI co-owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin laughed. There was a reason for their laughter, as they recall the events of July 23, 2022. That afternoon at Pocono Raceway, then 23XI driver Kurt Busch crashed in qualifying. He suffered a severe concussion, one that forced him into retirement.

So, we go back to Phelps’ testimony that the Next Gen car is the “safest car in all of motorsports.” The plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler asked Phelps if he knew who Busch was and if the 2004 Cup Series champion retired due to a concussion. Phelps, per Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, acknowledged that but noted the car was designed to prevent fatalities. He added that NASCAR later increased crumple zones.

NASCAR’s Steve Phelps makes big statement during testimony

Since the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022, a number of drivers have suffered injuries while racing. Cody Ware was the most recent example in the Chicago Street Race. Erik Jones had a back injury in 2024. Noah Gragson missed a race in 2023 after a wreck. Alex Bowman missed a handful of races in 2022 after suffering a concussion in a wreck. Busch’s Hall of Fame career was cut short at Pocono.

Of course, there are examples of the Next Gen car holding up well in extreme wrecks. Ryan Preece and his flips show that the car can be safe and protect drivers in the worst situations.

Beyond safety, Phelps lauded the Next Gen car for improving the on-track product: “The racing is just better, so it has accomplished what I hoped it would accomplish.”

That’s a statement that might be controversial, as the superspeedway and short track product has been much criticized. That being said, intermediate races have largely been well-received by the NASCAR fanbase.

Five witnesses testified Tuesday in the trial that has grabbed the stock car racing world’s attention — but it was someone not employed by NASCAR, 23XI Racing or Front Row Motorsports who was most revealing.

Longtime Cup Series owner Richard Childress confirmed during his testimony Tuesday that he had engaged in discussions to sell a portion of his 60% stake in Richard Childress Racing, the company he founded in 1969.

The six-time Cup Series champion owner, who famously owned the car that helped bring Dale Earnhardt and the sport of NASCAR into the nation’s consciousness in the 1980s and ‘90s, appeared confused when he was asked during cross-examination about what he thought were confidential discussions with a group that includes former NASCAR driver Bobby Hillin Jr.

“I don’t want to answer that,” Childress said at one point during this line of questioning, before District Judge Kenneth Bell reminded him he was under oath and obliged to answer to the best of his ability.

Childress said that he sent Hillin a termination letter earlier this year — “They don’t have the money,” Childress said — and that both parties signed a non-disclosure agreement pertaining to RCR’s finances. Childress also clarified that Hillin was mainly going to purchase the stake in the company owned by Chartwell Investments, which has wanted out of their ownership of RCR for the last “five or six years.” When asked directly, Childress admitted to considering selling part of his stake to Hillin, too.

Once the jury departed for the evening, plaintiffs counsel requested to Judge Bell that the defense turn over the documents they have concerning Hillin’s claims about Childress’s finances and to find the source who availed those documents to NASCAR. The two legal teams were told to discuss the matter Tuesday evening.

Still, the 80-year-old NASCAR Hall of Famer answered more than he wanted to, as was apparent in the Potter Courtroom in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of North Carolina in uptown Charlotte. The answers, though not at the center of the case, were ostensibly relevant, however.

The fact that Childress is looking to sell a portion of his stake in RCR demonstrates that life in the Cup Series isn’t easy, something that he testified to at great length on Tuesday. Childress confirmed that his business affairs have yielded 55 straight years of EBITA — an economics term that shows a company’s operational profitability before interest, taxes and other processes — but he also clarified: “I have other businesses to pay our bills for NASCAR.”

“I’d be broke if I was just doing the Cup teams,” Childress said.

Those businesses include ECR Engines, a high-performance combustion engine development and production company, as well as RCR Manufacturing Solutions, which produces weapons and vehicles for the military. Both profitable businesses operate on the Richard Childress Racing campus in Welcome, North Carolina. Childress also owns a vineyard in Lexington.

Childress, despite being forced to disclose some aspects of his business, was not deterred by his primary point of being called as a plaintiff witness.

“That money should be going into my bank account (instead of) going to pay my NASCAR teams,” he said.

The point Childress was trying to make

Prior to his cross-examination, Childress was guided down a line of questioning from plaintiff attorney Danielle Williams and was direct in his frustrations with NASCAR and its current model of business.

His main gripe was with the 2025 charter agreement.

“We were negotiating a better contract for the charters,” said Childress, who owns two full-time Cup Series charters. “And then it just didn’t happen that way.”

Childress is referring to the document that was the catalyst to the lawsuit that has led us to this trial. The lawsuit was filed in October 2024 and involved Cup teams 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports asserting that the sanctioning body of NASCAR operated as an unlawful monopoly.

A quick refresher on the charter agreement: NASCAR established its charter system in 2016. A “charter” can be thought of like a franchise, similar to how the Chicago Bulls belong to the NBA. Cup teams that own one of the 36 charters have certain benefits; they have guaranteed entry into every race, for instance, and thus a guaranteed slice of each race weekend’s purse.

Team owners this week have testified that the 2016 deal was a good start but that come the expiration of that deal — in 2025 — the sport ought to improve the charter system. For the teams, that meant making the charters “evergreen,” or permanent.

Such a prospect would make it so teams wouldn’t have to forfeit their charters if they didn’t sign on to a new charter agreement, which, if trends persist, get renegotiated after seven-to-nine years. It would also foster a partner-to-partner relationship rather than a contractor-to-employer relationship, teams say — all teams want is an asset that can’t be taken away and that appreciates or depreciates as the sport fares over time.

“It wouldn’t cost NASCAR nothing to give us a (permanent) franchise,” Childress said. “All we want to do is be good partners.”

Childress also agreed with other owners who have testified and said that NASCAR offered the teams a “take-it-or-leave-it” ultimatum in September: In other words, if you don’t sign now, you lose your charters. Childress ultimately decided to be one of the 13 teams to sign onto the charter agreement.

The only two teams that didn’t sign the agreement are the ones who sued NASCAR and are the plaintiffs in this case: 23XI Racing (owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin) and Front Row Motorsports (owned by Bob Jenkins).

“We would’ve lost them,” Chidress said. “… Financially, I couldn’t lose our charters.”

Jim France takes the witness stand to little avail for teams

NASCAR board chairman and CEO Jim France took the witness stand Tuesday and was examined by plaintiff attorney Jeffrey Kessler. His testimony was largely uneventful; he mostly deflected Kessler’s questions, citing a faulty memory and relying on generalities.

For instance, when plaintiffs showed in evidence an email in which NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell wrote that “Jim’s overarching comment” in a charter negotiations meeting was a fiery one — “We are in a competition … we are going to win!” — France was steadfast.

“I’m not sure,” France said, when asked to recall his message to NASCAR leadership. He added, “That would be his interpretation.”

France had a similar response when he was shown a bevy of letters from NASCAR Cup Series owners during charter negotiations — leaders France referred to as friends, like Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske. He was asked about one line in particular from Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports: “HMS has won two Cup championships and lost $20 million (in the last five years). … To be asked to consider a lesser deal as your most recent proposal suggests is a slap in the face. I will not agree to it.”

France’s response when he was asked if he sees the letter: “I do see that.”

When asked if he remembers how the letter made him feel: “I do not recall.”

Other notes from NASCAR trial Day 7

—The five witnesses who testified Tuesday, in order: plaintiff expert economist Edward Snyder (who finished up from Monday), accountant Anthony Smith, NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps, Childress and France.

—Phelps reiterated the company line, stating that the charter system was good for NASCAR and that he set out to strike a compromise with the teams knowing that NASCAR did not want permanent charters. He also added that the Next Gen car is the “safest car in motorsports”; when reexamined by plaintiff counsel and asked about the concussions that transpired in 2022 and even one that ended the career of Kurt Busch early, Phelps acknowledged those early bumps but also acknowledged the progress the car has made and clarified that this car is safest against “big hits” that could cause “fatalities.”

—France was the final witness called by the plaintiffs. His cross-examination will continue and conclude Wednesday. Defense attorney Chris Yates informed Judge Bell that it is his team’s goal to get through all their witnesses by the end of the week, meaning that closing arguments are possible for Monday.

“We will endeavor to be as efficient as possible,” Yates said.

Plaintiffs counsel appeared skeptical of this goal as the defense still has over 10 people on its potential witness list; Yates said he and his team will pare down the witness list Tuesday night.

This story was originally published December 9, 2025 at 8:14 PM.

It is now Day 8 of the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports versus NASCAR antitrust lawsuit trial. The trial is happening after 23XI and FRM filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR in October 2024 alleging monopolistic practices; Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelly Earnhardt Miller feel it never should have gotten this far.

Speaking on Tuesday’s “Dale Jr. Download,” the JR Motorsports co-owners discussed the happenings of the trial up to this point. Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he’s “disappointed in both sides,” adding he’s skeptical any of this will help the sport.

“I’m very disappointed, I am. I’m very disappointed in both sides, honestly,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “I will say that I’m extremely disappointed that we are in this position, and I don’t see how any of this is going to — is helping us as a sport. So, I’m kind of frustrated at both sides. But I also feel like I can agree with certain aspects of both sides’ argument.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kelly Earnhardt Miller dive into NASCAR trial

After countless motions, failed settlement talks, etc., this case went to trial last Monday. Of the 15 Cup Series teams that hold the 36 available charters, 23XI and FRM were the only teams that did not sign the Charter Agreement in August 2024. Two months later, they filed a joint lawsuit against NASCAR and its CEO Jim France.

Multiple attempts at reaching a settlement before trial failed. Both sides believe they have a winning case. Judge Kenneth Bell, however, made it clear before the trial he doesn’t see a winner here.

“It’s hard to picture a winner if this goes to the mat — or to the flag — in this case,” Bell said in June. “It scares me to death to think about what all this is costing.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelly Earnhardt Miller share the same opinion as Bell. The latter expressed her sadness of how damaging this has been to the sport.

“This is a big deal,” Kelley Earnhardt Miller said. “And to your point of it dominating your thoughts, I don’t know where I land on everything because every day something new comes out, some more interesting information. I know from the very beginning, I’m sad that this is the position the sport is in, and I’m sad for the sport and the fans and all the people that have supported NASCAR and been a fan all these years for us to get to this point. The things that have come out, I can’t believe that either side would want to come out if they knew all that.”

While most media outlets have been fixated on the Paramount-WBD-Netflix deal, Michael Jordan has spent the last week sitting in a Charlotte, North Carolina, courthouse, testifying in one of the most consequential antitrust trials this year.

Here’s what you need to know: Two racing teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, have sued NASCAR for monopolistic and anticompetitive practices.

Among other things, which we’ll get into, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports claim that NASCAR has illegally used its monopoly power to control the sport’s financial structure, limiting team revenue and stifling competition through its charter system and other restrictive practices, such as controlling track access and car parts.

Court proceedings can sometimes feel like you are a teenager counting down the minutes for a high school class to end, but antitrust cases are different. The best way to learn how a business or industry really works is to pay attention to an antitrust trial.

Over the last week and a half alone, this trial has provided exclusive access to team and league financials, including annual profit-and-loss statements. For example, we now know how much money Michael Jordan has invested in 23XI Racing over the last five years ($40 million), the average expenses required to run a NASCAR Cup Series car each year ($20 million), how much money NASCAR lost on its three Chicago street races ($55 million), the total amount of money Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins has lost since entering the sport in 2005 ($100 million), and even how NASCAR strategically moves around its revenue to reduce its on-paper profits.

Plus, like any discovery process, some juicy emails and texts have emerged. NASCAR’s president once called team owner Richard Childress a “stupid redneck” who should be “taken out back and flogged,” while Michael Jordan laughed off the cost of signing a driver by telling his financial advisor, “I have lost that in a casino. Let’s do it.”

For those who aren’t up to speed on NASCAR, 23XI is a racing team owned by Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin. The team began racing in 2021 and currently runs three cars, winning nine NASCAR Cup Series races.

Front Row Motorsports is another NASCAR Cup Series team. Owned by fast-food restaurant magnate Bob Jenkins, Front Row has fielded cars in the Cup Series since 2005. In total, Front Row has won four races over two decades, with the team’s most notable win coming when driver Michael McDowell won at the 2021 Daytona 500.

While rumors of legal fights have always existed beneath the surface, NASCAR teams have generally avoided confrontation for fear of retribution. At its core, NASCAR is a family business. Bill France founded NASCAR in 1948, and the France family still owns and runs it 77 years later, with four generations occupying leadership roles.

But while others were unwilling to risk the tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars that they had invested in the sport through cars, factories, drivers, equipment, and employees, Michael Jordan was uniquely positioned to take on the challenge.

Jordan has more money than he’ll ever need and is a lifelong NASCAR fan. He isn’t scared of what the France family will do because NASCAR isn’t his primary business.

So while every other team signed NASCAR’s 2024 charter agreement (more on that later), 23XI and Front Row refused to sign it. Instead, the two teams joined forces to file an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, hiring Jeffrey Kessler to represent them.

If you don’t know Jeffrey Kessler’s name, you have at least seen his work. The 70-year-old lawyer has worked on some of the most significant legal cases in sports history.

Kessler created the NFL, NBA, and NHL player associations. He represented Tom Brady during Deflategate and secured equal pay for the U.S. women’s national soccer team. Kessler also negotiated the free agency and salary cap systems in the NFL and NBA, and just won $2.8 billion in back pay for student-athletes from the NCAA.

Many people seem to believe that this trial will determine whether NASCAR is considered a monopoly, but that’s not accurate. Judge Kenneth Bell has already ruled pretrial that NASCAR holds monopoly power. The jury in this trial is now tasked with determining if NASCAR used that power to engage in anticompetitive conduct.

23XI and Front Row are upset about many things. They don’t like that NASCAR is unwilling to open its books to show teams how much money it is making. They don’t like competing with NASCAR for sponsors, and they also don’t like NASCAR owning roughly 50% of the tracks that the Cup Series races on each year. These tracks receive a percentage of the sport’s TV money, which ultimately winds up back in NASCAR’s hands, and even non-NASCAR-owned tracks are contractually prohibited from hosting non-NASCAR events, making it nearly impossible for a competitor to emerge.

But that’s just one piece of this trial; the bigger issue is NASCAR’s charter system.

Historically, NASCAR treated its teams like independent contractors. Team owners paid for everything, from the cars and drivers to the pit crew and motorhomes. Each team brought its cars to the racetrack, but was never guaranteed a starting spot. Every car had to qualify on speed. If you weren’t fast enough that weekend, you didn’t get to race. If you didn’t get to race, you spent a lot of money just to leave empty-handed.

This was a disastrous business model for teams. Without guaranteed revenue, team financials were unpredictable. There was no incentive to invest in facilities or hire engineering talent, as teams were going out of business just as quickly as they came in.

So, with audiences declining, sponsorships unsteady, and teams folding, NASCAR distributed 36 charters in 2016. As a charter holder, you are guaranteed a starting spot and a share of the prize money from every Cup Series race. Each team can own up to four charters, which can be sold, bought, or leased. If a new team wants to join NASCAR, it must purchase a charter from an existing team. If an existing NASCAR team wants to expand by adding another car, it must buy or lease another charter.

NASCAR distributed these charters to teams for free in 2016. Since then, the price to purchase a charter on the secondary market has increased from $6 million in 2018 to $40 million in 2023. But while NASCAR says its charter program is clear evidence of value creation for its teams, owners disagree. Charters were distributed based on a team’s success from the prior three seasons. So if you are losing millions of dollars every year, didn’t you technically pay for that charter by continuing to show up?

To be clear, team owners were initially happy with the charter program. It was a change they requested and felt provided a step in the right direction. The problem today is that these same owners believe the charter system hasn’t evolved enough.

During the last round of negotiations to extend charters, teams requested several changes. With NASCAR signing a new $7.7 billion media rights deal, teams wanted to receive more than $12.5 million in guaranteed revenue per car. Teams also requested that charters become permanent, providing them with equity value that extends beyond the current rolling 6-year term (and something that NASCAR can’t just take away because it feels like it). Outside of financials, teams also wanted periodic access to NASCAR’s books and a governance vote on business and competitive decisions.

These negotiations lasted more than two years. Based on the evidence presented in court so far, there were heated phone calls, meetings, and emails throughout the process. But when team owners were presented with the final document on a Friday night, NASCAR gave them just six hours to sign it or potentially lose their charter.

The final charter agreement included only a few tweaks from what NASCAR had previously presented. But still, a six-hour deadline on a Friday night meant that many teams couldn’t even have their lawyers review the final 112-page document before signing it, a particularly concerning outcome given the charter extension agreement included language prohibiting teams from filing antitrust lawsuits against NASCAR.

“There was a lot of passion, a lot of emotion, especially from Joe Gibbs; he felt like he had to sign it,” Front Row’s Bob Jenkins testified. “Joe Gibbs felt like he let me down by signing. Not a single owner said, ‘I was happy to sign it. Not a single one.’”

Several teams have since reiterated those comments. Even if they disagreed with the details, some owners had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the sport and weren’t willing to risk their charter by fighting it. In the end, 13 of NASCAR’s 15 teams signed the agreement, while 23XI and Front Row chose to file a lawsuit instead.

NASCAR is a private business. That means it is not required to report attendance numbers or concession sales, much less its annual revenue or operating profit.

Outside of a few press releases each year or a leaked report, we typically get no insight into how the sport and its teams are performing financially year in and year out.

But that’s what’s so unique about this trial. The discovery process has given us an inside look at the financials — and let’s just say, it doesn’t look great for NASCAR.

According to 23XI’s annual profit and loss statement, the Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin-owned team has consistently teetered on the edge of profitability. For instance, 23XI Racing reported a $300,000 loss in 2020, a $500,000 profit in 2021, a $2.5 million profit in 2022, a $3.5 million profit in 2023, and a $2.1 million loss in 2024.

Denny Hamlin told the jury this week that it costs $20 million to bring a single car to the track for all 38 races, excluding driver salaries and other expenses. Each chartered car now receives $12.5 million in annual revenue from NASCAR, up from $9 million during the last charter agreement. But that means teams have to make up the difference — $7.5 million per car, excluding driver salaries — through sponsorships.

The inability of 23XI Racing to consistently turn a profit is even more concerning when you consider that they have something no other team has: Michael Jordan.

Since joining NASCAR in 2021, 23XI Racing has leveraged Michael Jordan’s name, brand, and popularity to build one of the sport’s most impressive sponsorship portfolios. The team now generates $40 million annually from brands like Toyota, McDonald’s, Monster Energy, Xfinity, Columbia, Coca-Cola, and the Jordan Brand.

The ability to land sponsors is really the only thing keeping 23XI from losing money.

For example, if you compare 23XI Racing’s annual profit and loss statement to that of Front Row Motorsports, you’ll notice that Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s team generates $30 million more in annual sponsorship revenue, with Front Row typically losing between $5 million and $10 million in a given year (excluding COVID). Add that up over 20 years, and Front Row says it has lost $100 million or more since 2005.

NASCAR’s response to these financials has always been that teams are spending too much and that if they want to consistently turn a profit, they need to cut expenses.

NASCAR’s lead attorney, Chris Yates from Latham & Watkins, has even explicitly called out Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin during the trial for 1) building a brand new $35 million facility in Charlotte and then charging their own team $1 million in rent, and 2) spending $83,000 on a Christmas party for 23XI Racing employees in 2022.

I’ll let you decide whether those two expenses are egregious. However, the reality is that 23XI and Front Row aren’t the only teams struggling. According to a NASCAR-commissioned study that doesn’t include 23XI or Front Row due to litigation, as well as one other team, only 3 of NASCAR’s remaining 12 teams made a profit last year.

One NASCAR team finished the year with $3.08 million in profit, while the other two profitable teams brought in $130,951 and $143,890, respectively. As for the other nine teams that participated in the study, they collectively lost $33.4 million last year. If you add 23XI and Front Row’s losses to those numbers, at least 11 of NASCAR’s 15 teams lost money last year, with the average unprofitable team losing $4.1 million in 2024.

These financial losses have been a key argument for 23XI Racing and Front Row at trial. Jeffrey Kessler even read an email to the jury that Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick sent to NASCAR CEO Jim France in 2024, stating that he had reached a “breaking point” and that, despite Hendrick Motorsports winning two NASCAR Cup Series championships over the past five seasons, the team still lost $20 million.

Of course, after proving that teams are struggling financially, 23XI and Front Row’s legal team was quick to point out that NASCAR generated more than $100 million in net income last year (not counting the profit they may have earned from their tracks).

NASCAR has been on its back foot for several months. Not only did Judge Kenneth Bell rule pretrial that NASCAR was a monopoly, but he also ruled that the relevant market was premier stock-car racing. That limited NASCAR’s ability to claim that teams could always race in other motorsports series, such as INDYCAR or Formula 1.

Antitrust cases are notoriously hard to predict. You just never know how a jury will respond. However, even the most neutral observer will tell you that the testimony and evidence presented over the last week and a half haven’t been good for NASCAR.

NASCAR executives have often said they don’t remember or can’t recall specific details. Michael Jordan has shown up to court every day as 23XI’s representative, a strategic move given his popularity. In fact, two jury members were dismissed for being Jordan fans, while another had to leave for saying, “NASCAR killed NASCAR.”

Judge Kenneth Bell warned both parties a year ago that they would be better off reaching a resolution before trial. While that might have sounded dramatic at the time, they should have listened to him. Now everyone’s dirty laundry is being aired out in public.

If NASCAR wins, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports will likely shut down and leave the sport entirely. Having to go through this trial is bad enough. If the outcome leads to the country’s most popular athlete exiting NASCAR altogether, that’s worse.

However, if the jury finds that NASCAR has been using its monopoly power to limit race team finances and restrict competition, several other outcomes are possible.

Monetary damages could exceed $1 billion, as an economist testified during the trial that 23XI and Front Row are owed $364.7 million. The jury would decide if that is the correct number, but then a judge can triple the damages under U.S. antitrust law. If that happens, 23XI and Front Row would get paid but still likely leave NASCAR.

The judge would then determine how to break up NASCAR’s monopoly and limit anticompetitive practices. That could include forcing NASCAR to make charters permanent, share more revenue with teams, sell tracks, or dump exclusivity clauses.

But behind the scenes, many people seem to be rooting for a third option. Regardless of the trial’s outcome, NASCAR, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports can always negotiate a settlement before, during, or even after a verdict. Both parties will appeal if the trial doesn’t go their way, so there is still plenty of time to work out the details.

If you’re NASCAR, giving team owners some of what they want (permanent charters, voting rights, etc.) could end up saving you billions of dollars in the long run.

At this point though, it’s hard to see a clean ending for anyone. The evidence has exposed a business model that no longer works for most teams, and the longer this drags on, the more pressure NASCAR faces to rethink how the sport is structured.

Whether the jury rules for the teams or NASCAR eventually forces a negotiated peace, one thing is certain: this trial has already changed the sport by pulling back the curtain in a way that can’t be undone. And whatever comes next — a breakup, a settlement, or a complete redesign — will reshape stock-car racing for decades.

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