{"id":119845,"date":"2025-09-04T17:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/119845\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:29:09","slug":"f-the-teams-dictatorship-texts-leaked-as-michael-jordan-battles-nascar-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/119845\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018F\u2014 the teams dictatorship\u2019 texts leaked as Michael Jordan battles NASCAR owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"902\" height=\"595\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Denny-Hamlin-and-Michael-Jordan.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-card-featured-post size-card-featured-post\" alt=\"#11 driver Denny Hamlin and 23XI racing co-owner Michael Jordan pose at Talladega during NASCAR lawsuit\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.5\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Jordan and Denny Hamlin at Talladega | Chris Graythen\/Getty Images\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Denny Hamlin said of the owners, &#8216;My despise of the France family runs deep&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753699281_362_tts-pre-loader.gif\" alt=\"Carbonatix Pre-Player Loader\"\/><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 13px; margin-left: 20px;\">Audio By Carbonatix<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-1_86\">Michael Jordan dominated the NBA in the 1980s and 1990s, winning six championships with the Chicago Bulls. He forever changed fashion with his Nike Air Jordan sneaker line. When he took on Hollywood with his Space Jam, remains the highest grossing basketball film for decades. He first invested in a sports team in 2006, buying a stake in Charlotte\u2019s NBA team. His latest investment, 23XI racing is a NASCAR team. But while his drivers go wheel-to-wheel with other cars, Jordan is taking on NASCAR llc itself.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-2_58\">Each racing team must have a charter from NASCAR to compete. NASCAR CEO Jim France (son of Association founder Bill France) is against these charters becoming permanent. When the Association presented a \u201ctake it or leave it\u201d non-permanent charter agreement for 2025, in the midst of the 2024 season, teams reported feeling \u201cthreatened and coerced\u201d into signing it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-3_57\">Michael Jordan refused to sign. bob Jenkins\u2019 of Front Row Motorsports stood with him. But every other team caved. When Jordan learned Gibbs signed he texted \u201cF\u2014-ers!!!!\u201d and \u201cTeams are going to regret not supporting us. P\u2014ies!!!!!!\u201d His 23XI team, along with Front Row Motorsports, is hiring NASCAR with an antitrust lawsuit claiming the Association is monopolistic.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-4_33\">Jordan\u2019s co-owner, Denny Hamlin, said, \u201cI\u2019m in for the fight with NASCAR. My despise of the France family runs deep, but whatever we do, please lets not sabotage our own business over principle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-5_40\">Jordan, whose net worth is estimated at over $3 billion, appears willing to go to war for the principle of it.\u00a0\u201cIf I have to fight this to the end for the betterment of the sport, I will do it.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>A divide in NASCAR leadership<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-6_72\">As part of the trial, the defendants and plaintiffs have subpoenaed certain communication, such as Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin\u2019s texts quoted above. Some of the most inflammatory texts come from a group chat with members of NASCAR leadership. Someone had just spoken to Executive Vice Chairwoman Lesa France-Kennedy. Someone summarized Lesa France-Kennedy\u2019s counter-offer for the teams as \u201chere is a bit more money, f\u2014 off everywhere else.\u201d Translation: No permanent charters.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-7_36\">Lesa France-Kennedy had reportedly said this approach was \u201cgetting us close\u201d to a deal. In the group chat, NASCAR President O\u2019Donnel said \u201cClose to a comfortable 1996, f\u2013 the teams, dictatorship, motorsport, redneck, southern, tiny sport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin at Talladega | Chris Graythen\/Getty Images Denny Hamlin said of the owners, &#8216;My&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-119845","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-motorsports","11":"tag-nascar","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119845","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=119845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}