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AVONDALE, ARIZONA – NOVEMBER 03: NASCAR commentator and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Burton speaks to the media during the NASCAR Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway on November 03, 2022 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The NASCAR<\/a> garage has been increasingly tense for weeks due to a heated antitrust dispute<\/a> dividing the sport, a conflict veteran driver Jeff Burton is deliberately steering clear of.<\/p>\n At the center of the storm are 23XI Racing, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin. Front Row Motorsports is also involved, pushing back against NASCAR over business practices they say harm the teams.<\/p>\n For many in the sport, the legal drama has become an unavoidable backdrop to the season. But for veteran driver Jeff Burton, the off-track chaos is something he\u2019s choosing not to let into his lane.<\/p>\n Jeff Burton Keeps His Eyes on the Track<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I\u2019ll be honest with you. Unfortunately, in these things like that, things kind of get ugly from time to time, and you wish they didn\u2019t,\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff Burton admitted when asked about the ongoing dispute. His message was clear<\/a>: he\u2019d rather let the lawyers and executives hash it out while he keeps his eyes on the track.<\/p>\n Jeff Burton emphasized that this year\u2019s playoff field is far too competitive to waste energy on anything else.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to stay away from that. Trying to focus on the racing. We\u2019ve had a lot of great racing this year \u2019cause the playoffs are the closest they\u2019ve ever been. And so, honestly, that\u2019s getting all my energy.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a measured response from someone who has seen the sport go through its share of political dustups. Jeff Burton knows NASCAR thrives on the drama of door-to-door battles and photo finishes, not lawsuits and leaked text messages.<\/p>\n Leaked Messages Expose NASCAR\u2019s Internal Tensions<\/p>\n And yet, the texts are out there, adding fuel to an already fiery dispute.<\/p>\n A series of private exchanges<\/a> has surfaced recently, offering a rare glimpse into the fractured relationship between the two parties.<\/p>\n When questions about the future of team ownership and revenue-sharing came up, Jordan pushed back against the idea of selling his stake.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not selling even if they were for sale. What would we do?\u201d he said<\/a> in a conversation that also included a joking reply from Curtis Polk, 23XI\u2019s other co-owner: \u201cThis is just a hobby!!!\u201d Jordan\u2019s retort summed up his competitive nature perfectly: \u201cI can only play but so much golf.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other side, NASCAR executives were hardly hiding their frustrations either. Steve Phelps<\/a> admitted negotiations had flatlined, bluntly calling one early proposal \u201czero wins for the teams.\u201d<\/p>\n He also warned that the eventual deal \u201cmust reflect a middle position or we are dead in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press<\/a>, even NASCAR\u2019s own president of competition, Steve O\u2019Donnell, ripped an early draft, saying \u201cit would drag the system back to \u20181996 terms\u2019 with an attitude of, \u2018(Expletive) the teams, dictatorship, motorsport, redneck, southern, tiny sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Fryer also reported that Jeffrey Kessler, attorney for 23XI and Front Row, pointed to these exchanges and NASCAR\u2019s contingency plans to block rival competition as clear proof the sanctioning body is trying to monopolize stock car racing.<\/p>\n That tension is exactly what Jeff Burton and many fans, frankly, want to tune out. Because while boardroom battles can reshape the business, it\u2019s the intensity of the racing that keeps the sport alive.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDogli Wilberforce<\/a> Dogli Wilberforce is a sports writer covering football, basketball, MMA, and other trending sports stories for outlets including Total Apex Sports, and Last Word on Sports. He has built a reputation for delivering timely, engaging coverage that blends sharp analysis with accessible storytelling. Wilberforce has covered everything from major football transfers to fight-night drama, bringing readers the insight and context behind the headlines. More about Dogli Wilberforce<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Sports\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Image AVONDALE, ARIZONA – NOVEMBER 03: NASCAR commentator and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Burton speaks to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-114026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}