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.