The civil trial between 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports and NASCAR is now three days old. And for three days, the 23XI/FRM team led by lawyer Jeffrey Kessler has appeared to throw fastballs right over the center of the plate.
Court isn’t baseball: NASCAR has plenty of time and witnesses to start carving out its defense. But in speaking with those in and around the courtroom today, it’s hard to find anyone who could say Wednesday (Dec. 3) ended in their favor. And the more one side runs up the score, the deeper the hole is going to be to dig out of in a civil case where, remember, you don’t need to prove things beyond a reasonable doubt.
Here’s some analysis on the important moments of the day. Be sure to check out the Frontstretch Day 3 recap and our podcast, Bringing The Heat, for more in-depth information.
NASCAR Vs. 23XI/FRM Lawsuit Day 3 Recap
A Witness Admitted NASCAR Chose A “Take It or Leave It” Charter Offer Over Other Options… And There Was No Real Counterargument
For me, this moment was the most important one of the day. Scott Prime, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, was pressed by Kessler as to whether the current charter agreement, put in place in 2025, was a “take it or leave it” offer.
For those who might not know or remember, NASCAR gave a deadline of Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, to sign onto the current agreement or else. Prime not only admitted, after much prodding, that the deal was “take it or leave it” but that the teams would not be on strong financial footing to stay in the sport otherwise.
It led to the following back-and-forth between Kessler and Prime about NASCAR.
Kessler: “Because you’re a monopoly, yes?”
Prime: “We are the premier stock car series.”
Kessler: “Because there’s no other one?
Prime: “Premier means there’s only one of them, yes”
Let’s stop right there. The whole crux of the 23XI/FRM argument is that NASCAR used their monopoly (already established as one in this case) to inflict financial harm on those with less power.
The very definition of bullying reads “seeking to harm, intimidate, or coerce (someone perceived as vulnerable).” Right here is the heart of the argument, something Prime admitted was true: they put together a take-it-or-leave-it situation, then shoved it down the throat of the teams or else grave financial harm would be inflicted upon them (by their exclusion).
NASCAR’s move to counter Prime’s admission was to reemphasize how the sport had negotiated in good faith, offering a significant increase in revenue. Again, they emphasized how the deal that was signed resulted in more money for the teams.
Prime was also directly asked, “Did you believe you were putting a gun to their heads?” regarding the Sept. 6 deadline. Prime replied with a “no, we believe we had all the issues resolved,” attempting to show it was not so much a deadline to sign the agreement but a formality.
Not to 23XI/FRM it wasn’t. And there was plenty of evidence out there Wednesday in support of that point.
No matter how you slice it, Kessler showed that the final move in negotiation was the very definition of a bullying tactic. And as Prime left the stand, it was hard to find any evidence that contradicted it.
Bringing the Heat: Reacting to Day 3 of the NASCAR vs. 23XI/FRM Trial
NASCAR Put Options On The Table Internally To Blow Up The System
One of the more fascinating parts of Prime’s testimony was an email where he presented five options to NASCAR executives on how to handle the charter negotiations. Not all of them were to keep the current charter system in place.
Among the interesting ones: Having a first come, first serve situation where the first 32 teams get a charter. Could you imagine? It’s like going to a baseball stadium where the first 1,000 fans get a bobblehead doll… except hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake?
What if someone misses the email? Bob Jenkins, for example, said he was out to dinner when the infamous Sept. 6 charter “demand” came in and wasn’t aware of the signing deadline. If NASCAR chose this option, you could literally have someone like Roger Penske on vacation or something and they come back hours later only to find out they lost all their charters. What a crazy idea.
Another option Prime listed: the “Gold Codes,” a situation where NASCAR would retake full control of the charters. That option would have ripped away all the leverage from teams and put the sport fully in charge of who gets to race going forward. There was also an option openly discussed to ditch charters altogether and go back to a 100% open qualifying system, cutting off the partnership NASCAR had worked to establish with team owners over the past decade.
In the end, NASCAR went with the “take or leave it” style of negotiating, a PR nightmare in its own right. But a look at these other choices shows just how much worse it could have been.
Bob Jenkins Has Lost A Lot Of Money To Own A NASCAR Team … And Has The Receipts To Prove It
The second and final witness for Wednesday was Bob Jenkins, the owner of Front Row Motorsports for the past two decades. While 23XI Racing is a year removed from making the Championship 4, Jenkins’ history makes him the quintessential middle-class NASCAR owner for the jury. He’s won just four times through the years, posting no finish better than 15th in points and has not made a profit in any season he’s been racing in NASCAR.
Just think about that for a second. An owner of three NASCAR Cup teams, comprising 7.5 percent of a hypothetical 40-car grid, loses money every year. Compare that to, say, a NBA franchise like the Boston Celtics who were recently valuated and sold at $6.1 billion. It’s some financial dysfunction that separates this sport from the stick-and-ball ones in a highly negative way.
It’s not just a profit Jenkins is missing out on. As he testified, what’s hobbling FRM is the increasing amount they’re spending. A powerful moment is when Jenkins explained he only paid $1.8 million for parts between the 2017 and 2021 seasons, only for that to increase substantially to $4.7 million from 2022-24. Of course, those years were when the Next Gen chassis, designed to reduce expenses, became mandatory for all Cup race teams.
As Jenkins explained it all, Kessler got busy building up his character to the jury. The fact he doesn’t charge his sons whenever they sponsor his cars through the family’s Long John Silver’s franchise. His commitment to build and support Christian schools. The money Jenkins spent freely out of his own pocket, knowing he wouldn’t recover it because of his passion for the sport.
That, in my opinion, makes him a more sympathetic figure to a new-to-NASCAR jury than Denny Hamlin. Despite his millions, Jenkins came off like a decent man trying to simply survive in the sport but suffering, in his words, “taxation without representation.”
Some Drivers Pay Money To Race In The Cup Series
This revelation isn’t a surprise, per se, to fans who follow the sport closely. It won’t even have a bearing on the outcome of the case. But it’s one of a myriad of problems NASCAR needs to work on solving long after this trial is over.
FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass had a good summary of how Jenkins’ driver contracts worked.
Some Front Row financial info:
-Matt Tifft contract was for him to pay $2.1M for Cup ride plus $500K to Lakeway Christian Schools (which Jenkins founded), deal never completed after Tifft medical issues
-Chandler Smith paid $1.5M for truck ride
-Ford paid team $1.175M in 2025
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) December 3, 2025
For a sport born and bred from blue-collar roots, it’s hard to relate to drivers who are paying millions for the right to get behind the wheel of a race car, regardless of past results or overall talent. It’s a total disconnect in a sport where independents like Dave Marcis and Jimmy Means were able to qualify, then race with a crew of near volunteers.
Could you imagine if Shohei Ohtani had to fundraise $2 million just to get on the field? Or if Lebron James was replaced in the starting lineup because he didn’t have enough sponsorship to keep the team financially viable? It’s a pay-to-play system that doesn’t make it feel like NASCAR is fielding the most talented drivers available.
A court case fighting over millions, with drivers fundraising millions just to drive in it every weekend? Feels very unrelatable to the average guy just looking to play around at your local short track while making ends meet during the week. The hope is, whatever happens, a better system emerges so your corporate marketing skills don’t dictate a driver’s future athletic career.
Follow Tom Bowles at @NASCARBowles
Majority Owner and Editor in Chief at Frontstretch
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 40+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1’s former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.