{"id":326748,"date":"2025-12-05T09:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326748\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T09:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:32:09","slug":"despite-incurring-losses-nascars-visits-to-chicago-and-mexico-led-to-amazons-interest-in-the-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326748\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Incurring Losses, NASCAR\u2019s Visits to Chicago and Mexico Led to Amazon\u2019s Interest in the Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third day of testimony skinned the curtain on the standoff between NASCAR and its race teams over the charter extension. According to the testimonies, teams approached NASCAR leadership in early 2022 with a clear message: the existing revenue model left them underwater, and they needed structural change to keep their operations afloat. Steve O\u2019Donnell, then NASCAR\u2019s chief operating officer, acknowledged that some of the teams argued they were fighting for their financial survival, but countered that NASCAR itself had taken sizable hits while trying to push the sport into new markets.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell<\/a> detailed the league\u2019s own losses, noting that NASCAR bled $55 million across three years running the Chicago Street Course and another $6 million staging the Mexico City event in June. Yet he framed those decisions as calculated bets taken to grow the sport\u2019s audience and secure long-term partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a strategic investment because if not for that, Amazon would not have become a broadcast partner\u2026 We would not have been in Mexico City (in 2025), and the TV partner (Amazon Prime Video) would not have paid the money they did,\u201d O\u2019Donnell testified.<\/p>\n

He also explained<\/a> how the Chicago Street Course project, initially a hard sell to the board and to chairman Jim France himself, became the linchpin of NASCAR\u2019s pitch to Amazon. After Kessler wrapped his cross-examination, O\u2019Donnell reiterated to outside counsel Chris Yates that Amazon made it clear they would not have entertained any conversation about rights deals without the<\/p>\n

Chicago proof of concept. \u201cIt was a long shot, but we were able to pull it off, and it was a successful event,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

Still, the timing of these big-dollar gambles rubbed against the teams\u2019 own precarious finances. Internal communications presented in court revealed that NASCAR privately worried about an outright breakaway, something akin to the LIV Golf disruption, if teams felt cornered.<\/p>\n

That anxiety intensified with the rise of SRX, the short-lived but nationally televised summer series founded by Tony Stewart. NASCAR viewed SRX as a genuine threat, particularly because current Cup drivers and team owners participated, lending it credibility and siphoning attention away from the league.<\/p>\n

Kessler attempted to draw a straight line from that fear to NASCAR\u2019s efforts to lock down exclusivity agreements with racetracks, effectively blocking any alternative stock-car series from running on Cup venues. To him, it revealed that NASCAR sought not collaboration but total control, leaving the teams boxed in.<\/p>\n

As of now, though, both sides remain dug in beneath the courtroom lights, each insisting its actions served the sport\u2019s long-term health. Whether the jury sees those decisions as stewardship or strong-arming will determine far more than which party prevails; it could reshape the balance of power in modern NASCAR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third day of testimony skinned the curtain on the standoff between NASCAR and its race teams over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,17579,144455,634,8354,82],"class_list":["post-326748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-street-race","tag-mexico-nascar-race","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326748","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=326748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}