Let’s see if MJ’s winning ways translate to a different court.
PublishedDecember 5, 2025 6:30 PM EST•UpdatedDecember 5, 2025 6:30 PM EST
FacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link
The landmark NASCAR antitrust case began in earnest today with retired NBA legend and longtime stock car racing fan, Michael Jordan, taking the stand earlier on Friday.
For context, Jordan co-owns a team in NASCAR, 23XI, but his involvement in this case indicates his frustration with the league as well as with a business model he sees putting the lives of drivers at risk for the benefit of the business.
“Someone had to step forward and challenge the entity,” Jordan told the jury on Friday, according to the New York Post. “I sat in those meetings with longtime owners who were brow-beaten for so many years trying to make change. I was a new person, I wasn’t afraid. I felt I could challenge NASCAR as a whole. I felt as far as the sport, it needed to be looked at from a different view.”
The whole sticking point for Jordan, as well as a group of others that includes racing legend Joe Gibbs’ daughter-in-law, Heather, was about the supposed forced signing of a charter, the sport’s equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports.
“The document was something in business you would never sign,” said Gibbs. “It was like a gun to your head: If you don’t sign, you have nothing.”
Jordan added, “The revenue split was far less than any business I’ve ever been a part of. We didn’t think we’d ever get to what basketball was getting, but we wanted to move in that direction.
“I wanted a partnership and permanent charters wasn’t even a consideration. The pillars that the teams wanted, no one on the NASCAR side even negotiated or compromised. They were not even open-minded to welcome those conversations, so this is where we ended up.”
Jordan’s presence in the case should bring extra sets of eyes to the matter and to the sport of NASCAR in general, which has long been seen as a niche sport.
The six-time NBA champion being involved has already garnered the attention of the public and has even given us our first viral moment of the hearing.
As Jordan walked into the courthouse today, a fan played “Sirius,” his intro song from his days on the Chicago Bulls.
One thing is for certain, Jordan is not happy and is uber-competitve, a combo that NASCAR probably doesn’t want to see.
Couple that with the money he’s reportedly lost since launching his NASCAR team in the early 2000s (an estimated $100 million) and the stock car industry could incur the wrath of Jordan.
And, as anyone who watched MJ play at the height of his powers can testify, that doesn’t bode well for his opponents.