{"id":336498,"date":"2025-12-10T09:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T09:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/336498\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T09:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T09:29:07","slug":"nascar-boss-jim-frances-dodgy-testimony-does-him-no-favors-as-brick-wall-allegations-grow-stronger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/336498\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Boss Jim France\u2019s Dodgy Testimony Does Him No Favors As \u2018Brick Wall\u2019 Allegations Grow Stronger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday marked a pivotal moment in the NASCAR<\/a> charter lawsuit, with Jim France taking the stand as a witness\u00a0on the day. Founded over 76 years ago, NASCAR has been privately owned by the France family since its inception, with Bill France Sr.\u2019s youngest son currently serving as its head.<\/p>\n

Last week, the plaintiffs\u2019 attorney, Jeffery Kessler, portrayed the chairperson as a \u201cbrick wall\u201d in negotiations over the new revenue-sharing model. And following his most recent appearance in the jury trial, it looks likely that Kessler\u2019s allegations aren\u2019t fading away anytime soon.<\/p>\n

No Let Up for Jim France and His \u201cBrick Wall\u201d Image in the NASCAR Charter Lawsuit<\/p>\n

Before the latest agreement was signed by 13 teams (with 23XI and Front Row Motorsports refusing to sign), NASCAR spent two years locked in aggressive negotiations with the teams. Ultimately, the deal given to the teams on the eve of the start of the 2024 playoff races\u00a0lacked most of the teams\u2019 requests.<\/p>\n

Moreover, it gave the teams a mere six-hour deadline to sign the 112-page document, which, Heather Gibbs subsequently described as a \u201cgun to the head\u201d strategy from NASCAR.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, Kessler spent most of his time trying to portray France as the primary holdout party in allowing the teams what they wanted. And following yesterday\u2019s developments, the \u201cbrick wall\u201d allegations on the 81-year-old\u00a0stand taller than ever before.<\/p>\n

Per a string of updates on X by journalist Toby Christie<\/a>, the general theme of France\u2019s testimony remained \u201cI\u2019m not sure\u201d and \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Towards the end of his testimony, France ultimately agreed that the team owners, including but not limited to Joe Gibbs, Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush, and Roger Penske, all wanted permanent charters. However, it was the NASCAR CEO who never changed his mind and ultimately denied the request.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Steve O\u2019Donnell, during his time on the stand in the trial, had revealed that France wasn\u2019t particularly impressed while he was reading Heather\u2019s (Gibbs) letter out loud. Addressing the same, the 81-year-old pressed that he didn\u2019t remember it happening, but also asserted that he wasn\u2019t labelling O\u2019Donnell a liar. \u201cHowever, he doesn\u2019t think he\u2019d read it out loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the financial aspect, France testified that he earns $3.5 million per year as the NASCAR CEO. He further revealed that Lesa France Kennedy, the daughter of Bill France Jr., also earns a yearly salary. However, he didn\u2019t recall her job title or her earnings.<\/p>\n

Notably, the $3.5 million per year compensation is in addition to the $397 million diverted towards the France family trust from the revenue earned between 2021 and 2024.<\/p>\n

With that, the court proceedings for the day came to an end. France will be taking the stand once again on Wednesday, with the NASCAR legal team asking him questions. While the CEO will face friendlier fire next, the popular opinion remains that France\u2019s testimony was shockingly bad. Many believe it was a massive hit for the sport, and there may be no coming back from this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday marked a pivotal moment in the NASCAR charter lawsuit, with Jim France taking the stand as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-336498","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\/336498","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=336498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}