{"id":326602,"date":"2025-12-05T07:52:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326602\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T07:52:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:52:06","slug":"steve-odonnell-admits-nascar-felt-threatened-by-srx-series-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326602\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve O&#8217;Donnell admits NASCAR felt threatened by SRX Series, ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/pro\/category\/nascar\/news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASCAR<\/a> president Steve O\u2019Donnell admitted Thursday that the sanctioning body had concerns about Superstar Racing Experience (SRX). Specifically, how much SRX was beginning to resemble NASCAR.<\/p>\n<p>SRX, founded by Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham, was a startup stock car racing circuit which debuted in June 2021. Judge Kenneth Bell has already ruled at NASCAR is a monopoly. 23XI and FRM are arguing that NASCAR uses its power to keep drivers and teams from competing elsewhere. <\/p>\n<p>Before the start of the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports versus NASCAR antitrust lawsuit trial, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/pro\/news\/nascar-lawsuit-reveals-concern-over-srx-executives-wanted-to-put-a-knife-in-espn-series\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">series of text messages<\/a> came to light in which NASCAR executives voiced displeasure of their drivers and team owners competing in the series. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh great, another owner racing in SRX,\u201d a person said in the thread, whose name was redacted on the document. O\u2019Donnell and NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is NASCAR,\u201d O\u2019Donnell replied. \u201cPure and simple. Enough. We need legal to take a shot at this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese guys are just plain stupid,\u201d Phelps responded. \u201cNeed to put a knife in this trash series.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>23XI and FRM lead attorney Jeffrey Kessler questioned O\u2019Donnell about his concerns of SRX. O\u2019Donnell testified, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/racer.com\/2025\/12\/04\/nascar-s-odonnell-admits-to-concerns-over-srx-series-as-antitrust-case-continues\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kelly Crandall of RACER<\/a>, \u201cI was concerned with what was happening on the racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASCAR\u2019s Steve O\u2019Donnell questioned about concerns of SRX<\/p>\n<p>Kessler further questioned O\u2019Donnell about his comment that he wanted NASCAR\u2019s legal to look at SRX. Included in the exhibits of text messages was a screenshot Phelps shared of a fan comment on an SRX social media page, Crandall reported. The fan said that SRX was beginning to resemble NASCAR, the same way LIV Golf resembled the PGA Tour. <\/p>\n<p>Many NASCAR drivers competed in SRX until it folded. Those drivers included Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin among others. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought this looked more and more like NASCAR,\u201d\u00a0O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n<p>NASCAR even blocked SRX from racing at a Speedway Motorsports track by invoking its exclusivity clause. O\u2019Donnell said this was done because \u201cwe were in a major negotiation\u201d for a new media rights deal and \u201cwe wanted to retain as much revenue as possible for the teams,\u201d per a report from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6862423\/2025\/12\/04\/nascar-trial-steve-odonnell-michael-jordan-bob-jenkins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kessler wrapped up his examination Thursday and NASCAR\u2019s legal team began its line of questioning of O\u2019Donnell. NASCAR\u2019s questioning of O\u2019Donnell will resume Friday when the court resumes at 9 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell admitted Thursday that the sanctioning body had concerns about Superstar Racing Experience (SRX). Specifically,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-326602","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\/326602","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=326602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}