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CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – DECEMBER 1: Michael Jordan, co-owner of 23XI Racing, departs the Charles R Jonas Federal Building on December 1, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jury selection and an opening statement began an antitrust lawsuit filed by Jordan’s 23XI Racing team against NASCAR. (Photo by Grant Baldwin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Heather Gibbs, the co-owner of Joe Gibbs Racing<\/a>, gave some of the strongest and most emotional testimony yet in the NASCAR antitrust trial. According to Jenna Fryer of AP News<\/a>, teams were given only six hours to review and sign a 112-page charter extension in September 2024. She said the terms and the deadline were nothing like what a normal business would face.<\/p>\n \u201cThe document was something in business you would never sign,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cIt was like a gun to your head: if you don\u2019t sign, you have nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Pressure inside Joe Gibbs Racing<\/p>\n Gibbs told the court the rushed deadline shook the entire company. \u201cEverything was going so fast, the legacy of Coy, the legacy of J.D., everyone at JGR was very upset, she said.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Coy Gibbs and J.D. Gibbs had held major leadership roles at the team before their deaths years apart. Coy died in his sleep in 2022, hours after his son Ty won the Xfinity Series title.<\/p>\n She said Joe Gibbs personally called NASCAR chairman Jim France to ask for more time to review the document. \u201cJoe said, \u2018Jim, you can\u2019t do this she testified.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAnd Jim was done with the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n The Athletic<\/a> added another detail from her testimony. According to Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck<\/a>, France\u2019s stance was direct: \u201cIf I wake up and I have 20 charters, I have 20. If I have 30, I have 30.\u201d<\/p>\n Gibbs described the stress of that night, saying she left Joe Gibbs \u201csitting in the dark, listening to his blood sugar monitors going off\u201d while the team worked to respond. In the end, she said the team felt it had no real choice. \u201cWe decided we had to sign. We can\u2019t lose everything,\u201d she told the jury. \u201cI did not think it was a fair deal to the teams.\u201d<\/p>\n Why permanent charters matter<\/p>\n Much of her testimony focused on why teams wanted stronger and permanent rights tied to charters. \u201cIt\u2019s the most important point, a permanent place in their history books,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cIt is absolutely vital to the teams for us to know we have security\u2026 to know what we\u2019ve invested in is ours.\u201d<\/p>\n The court also reviewed a letter she wrote to NASCAR leaders in May 2024. In that letter, entered into evidence, she pushed back on NASCAR\u2019s financial model and pointed to the team\u2019s long history in the sport. \u201cWe\u2019ve put 32 years into investing and building a dream, building careers, building families, and building NASCAR she wrote.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWe have raised champions and buried their leaders\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n That letter drew sharp reactions inside the sanctioning body. Jenna Fryer of AP News<\/a> reported that Steve O\u2019Donnell<\/a> was questioned about a text he sent to Ben Kennedy describing France\u2019s reaction: \u201cJim is now reading Heather\u2019s letter out loud and swearing every other sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n Wider NASCAR antitrust trial issues emerge<\/p>\n O\u2019Donnell spent the morning under cross-examination. He described his past talks with 23XI Racing investor Curtis Polk as \u201cthe most difficult meetings I\u2019ve had with an individual in my 30 years in NASCAR,\u201d according to The Athletic<\/a>. O\u2019Donnell also said he had concerns about SRX, the series cofounded by Tony Stewart, especially after Chase Elliott<\/a> raced there in a car that appeared close to a NASCAR-style stock car.<\/p>\n Gibbs\u2019 testimony tied into the larger case about how much control teams have in the sport. Joe Gibbs Racing has about 450 employees and operates four charters, with each car costing more than $20 million per season, mostly covered by sponsorship.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDogli Wilberforce<\/a> is a sports writer who covers NASCAR, Formula 1 and IndyCar Series for Heavy Sports. With bylines at Total Apex Sports and Last Word on Sports, Wilberforce 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 Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Image CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – DECEMBER 1: Michael Jordan, co-owner of 23XI Racing, departs the Charles R…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-327796","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\/327796","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=327796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}