{"id":326221,"date":"2025-12-05T03:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T03:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326221\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T03:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T03:41:09","slug":"nascar-vs-23xi-frm-lawsuit-day-4-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326221\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Vs. 23XI\/FRM Lawsuit Day 4 Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 It was a rollercoaster day for the defense side of the 23XI Racing \/ Front Row Motorsports vs. NASCAR trial on Thursday, Dec. 4. The day started with FRM owner Bob Jenkins delivering the end of his testimony to NASCAR\u2019s attorneys and resulted in both high and low moments for the sanctioning body\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

After Jenkins, NASCAR\u2019s president Steve O\u2019Donnell joined the courtroom for his testimony, which included a range of questions regarding both NASCAR\u2019s track exclusivity provisions within its new charter agreement and O\u2019Donnell text messages about NASCAR chairman and CEO Jim France. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Jenkins continued his testimony with defense attorney Lawrence Buterman that was paused from the previous day. The topic discussed was regarding Jenkins\u2019 testimonies about the Next Gen NASCAR Cup Series car. In December 2019, Buterman provided evidence that Jenkins had actually endorsed the Next Gen car, a vehicle he had testified cost more money than what was promised when NASCAR first introduced the concept.<\/p>\n

However, Jenkins doubled down on his original testimony by pointing out that he had endorsed only the \u201cconcept\u201d of the Next Gen when it was, as he recalled, supposed to only cost $205,000. Today, Jenkins testified that the car costs almost double that amount, $350,000. Buterman pointed out that this was before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and \u201ccosts go up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterward, a negative moment for the defense began when Buterman began speaking about the merger that was being discussed between 23XI and FRM in 2021 that included a sale of one of FRM\u2019s charters to the Toyota team. Buterman, attempting to point out the similarities of anticompetition that the plaintiff is arguing of NASCAR, introduced a text message from Jenkins and FRM general manager Jerry Freeze from that year. Within it, Jenkins told Freeze he no longer wanted to sell one of his charters to Hamlin and told him to tell Rick Ware, owner of Rick Ware Racing and another person interested in selling his charter, to charge Hamlin \u201cwhatever he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buterman asked if Jenkins was attempting to influence the deal\u2019s price from Ware to Hamlin. Jenkins responded by telling him he never told Ware an exact amount to charge Hamlin. After Buterman asked Jenkins about the message several times, the plaintiff side finally objected for irrelevance. The judge answered by saying, \u201cI\u2019m starting to wonder myself. I think it\u2019s best if you move on to another subject.\u201d Buterman complied. <\/p>\n

Buterman cross-examined Jenkins for a little over an hour afterward. At one point, the attorney provided evidence that NASCAR added $100 million to the new pool money per year under the new agreement and asked Jenkins if that sounded like, as the FRM owner testified on Wednesday (Dec. 3), \u201ctaxation without representation.\u201d Jenkins stated that he still believed it was.<\/p>\n

In perhaps NASCAR\u2019s most positive moment of that day, Buterman began to question Jenkins about his financial evidence. Within it, the team owner displayed to the court the figure amount he had lost every year in the last three years. Buterman stated that those figures also included his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series losses, as FRM has also fielded a Truck team since 2020. Jenkins stated he did not make the displays presented in court and agreed that it wasn\u2019t relevant. <\/p>\n

Buterman then recalled Jenkins\u2019 testimony of his yearly Cup costs. Jenkins had testified in court that it costs $20 million a year to run a Cup car. However, Buterman then introduced FRM\u2019s annual statements since 2021, and pointed out that, while entering two Cup cars and even a Truck team, FRM has never spent more than $28 million in one year. The attorney said that Jenkins was requesting $140 million from NASCAR in the lawsuit and questioned if that was an accurate number of damages.<\/p>\n

Jenkins stated the $20 million number was a \u201cmedian cost\u201d of all Cup teams, after which Buterman reminded Jenkins that he had testified under oath the amount was $20 million. Jenkins could only respond by saying he didn\u2019t actually know the amount when he testified.<\/p>\n

In response, during secondary questioning from the plaintiff attorney, Jenkins was asked if FRM is an efficient team and if it \u201cdoes the most with the least.\u201d Of course, the team owner agreed. The plaintiff rested soon after and requested that O\u2019Donnell join the witness stand.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the questioning by the plaintiff\u2019s lead attorney Jeffrey Kessler, the two main points appeared to be NASCAR\u2019s exclusivity deal with its Cup tracks and Jim France\u2019s influence in the charter negotiations.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Kessler began to start mentioning NASCAR tracks. The attorney pointed out in notes written by O\u2019Donnell that NASCAR would need to partner with tracks even outside of Speedway Motorsports would need to become exclusive under the charter agreement.<\/p>\n

Under the 2024 agreement, Kessler pointed out with evidence, independent tracks such as Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Road America and Bowman Gray Stadium all were under the sanction provision and could not host races for any other racing series with some exceptions. Kessler pointed out that the Camping World SRX Series was not among these exceptions. However, O\u2019Donnell quickly replied that the zMAX CARS Tour, a stock-car racing series on short tracks, was listed as an exception and actually shares a racing venue with NASCAR in North Wilkesboro Speedway.<\/p>\n

Kessler\u2019s argument, which was the same as yesterday, was that NASCAR was attempting to prevent teams from breaking away and starting their own series and competing on the same tracks as NASCAR. The lawyer asked O\u2019Donnell what superspeedways and intermediate tracks would be available to compete at with a stock-car series outside of NASCAR. O\u2019Donnell replied that he didn\u2019t know any outside of the ones they already compete at.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long after that the topic of the France family came up again when Kessler presented handwritten notes written by O\u2019Donnell as evidence. The NASCAR president had written notes regarding the new charter agreements where Kessler pointed out the lines, \u201cWhat are we? \u2026 One NASCAR from [Steve] Phelps down \u2026 Try to be a step ahead \u2026 Difficult with existing board \u2026 Legacy mindset hinders growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterward, Kessler displayed texts from O\u2019Donnell to other members of NASCAR leadership regarding a meeting between O\u2019Donnell and the France family. In it, O\u2019Donnell said, \u201cWe just need to keep trying to move the needle. Teams won\u2019t get everything they want, and hopefully we can just meet in the middle. I just listened as she didn\u2019t want to hear any opinions, but I of course didn\u2019t hold back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kessler attempted to provide context asking O\u2019Donnell if these were messages regarding the France family and bringing up the teams\u2019 demands during charter negotiations. <\/p>\n

Following this, Kessler displayed texts from O\u2019Donnell to NASCAR Executive Vice President and France\u2019s nephew Ben Kennedy<\/a>. O\u2019Donnell stated, \u201cJim [France] is now reading Heather [Gibbs\u2019] letter out loud and swearing every other sentence.\u201d The letter in the text was regarding charter demands.<\/p>\n

In response, O\u2019Donnell testified that France wasn\u2019t actually swearing. When Kessler asked what he was doing that made him mad enough for O\u2019Donnell to send the text, the NASCAR president said he didn\u2019t remember. Kessler, in response, asked how he could have known if he wasn\u2019t swearing if he didn\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

After a 15-minute recess, Kessler asked some more questions to O\u2019Donnell before handing him over to the defense for cross-examination. It appeared the defense was attempting to explain NASCAR\u2019s relationships with its tracks. <\/p>\n

At one point, the defense attorney asked O\u2019Donnell about Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Phoenix Raceway. He asked him how much money has gone into upgrading Daytona since its construction, to which O\u2019Donnell testified, nearly $1 billion worth, which illustrated NASCAR\u2019s argument of needing money to continue to develop its tracks in both quality and safety.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, O\u2019Donnell was asked by Kessler how much money was lost by NASCAR when going to new markets such as Mexico City this year and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2022 to 2024. O\u2019Donnell testified the company had lost $10-12 million over the course of three years in Los Angeles and $6 million in 2025 at Mexico alone.<\/p>\n

NASCAR\u2019s defense followed up on this, asking why the company went ahead with these events when it knew it was going to lose money. O\u2019Donnell replied for each event it was to \u201cgrow the sport\u201d by reaching new potential fans. He testified that it was successful in doing so.<\/p>\n

Before releasing the court for the day, the judge pointed out that the trial was \u201cnot on the pace we\u2019re hoping for\u201d and urged both sides to consider cutting some of its witnesses to which both sides agreed.<\/p>\n

The judge also stated that \u201csome of the examinations are beating a dead horse\u201d and \u201csome witnesses aren\u2019t answering even the most harmless of questions.\u201d He followed this by asking the counselors on both sides to tell their witnesses to answer the questions and that \u201cwe wouldn\u2019t be at trial if there weren\u2019t some bad facts for both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial is set to resume for its fifth day on Friday, Dec. 5 at 9 a.m. ET. <\/p>\n

\"Donate<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NASCAR At Track Coordinator\u00a0at\u00a0Frontstretch<\/p>\n

Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin’ Out Loud column, co-host of the\u00a0Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast,\u00a0and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.<\/p>\n

Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 It was a rollercoaster day for the defense side of the 23XI Racing \/ Front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-326221","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\/326221","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=326221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}