\u2014 Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) December 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n And what did we learn along the way?<\/p>\n We learned how much money was sent by NASCAR to the France family trust over period of time: $400 million.<\/p>\n We learned the salary of the highest ranking person in the sport not named France, Commissioner Steve Phelps.<\/p>\n Phelps testified that he made $2.5 million a year and could earn up to $2.5 million in bonuses for a total of $5 million<\/p>\n $5 million to do what?<\/p>\n According to Phelps, the exact same thing he had been doing when he was NASCAR\u2019s president.<\/p>\n We also learned that Phelps, Steve O\u2019Donnell and France didn\u2019t know or didn\u2019t recall a lot of important things when questioned during the trial.<\/p>\n 4 Takeaways From the 23XI\/Front Row Motorsports-NASCAR Settlement<\/p>\n We also learned NASCAR might have the most paranoid executive suite in sports.<\/p>\n Somehow, someway, the powers that be saw Tony Stewart\u2019s Superstar Racing Experience, the mid-week racing series that was essentially an exhibition league that didn\u2019t compete on any active NASCAR track, as an existential threat that had to be destroyed.<\/p>\n All because a few Cup drivers (including Chase Elliott) went and had fun on a national television network that wasn\u2019t paying NASCAR.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just O\u2019Donnell and Phelps.<\/p>\n We learned that Sam Flood, a president at NBC Sports, doesn\u2019t trust the intelligence of NASCAR fans.<\/p>\n Phelps testified that Flood called him and said that the inclusion of Elliott in a SRX race in a car sponsored by NAPA was causing confusion in the marketplace.<\/p>\n Phelps is now under cross examination by NASCAR as we head to lunch recess. Phelps has testified that he was concerned about SRX from day one, but that things reached a head when NBC\u2019s Sam Flood complained about Chase Elliott winning at the fairgrounds using the \u201cstylized\u201d No. 9\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014 Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) December 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n To believe that anyone, especially motorsports fans, would somehow conflate NASCAR\u2019s most popular driver competing in a SRX race during the week with what he does on Sunday is comical and insulting.<\/p>\n Different tracks. Different car. Even a different car number (the 94 is not the 9, last time I checked).<\/p>\n That none of these men in power allowed themselves the thought that a \u201cjust for kicks\u201d racing series on a different network \u2014 with a potential new audience \u2014 would be a good way to promote NASCAR and its weekend broadcasts is jarring.<\/p>\n It\u2019s shows a lack of imagination in time when the sport needs it.<\/p>\n It also reminds us that even that if they\u2019re in motorsports, Top Men with titles like \u201cpresident,\u201d \u201cchairman\u201d and \u201ccommissioner\u201d have one goal: making money.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason that the judge in the antitrust trial at one point instructed NASCAR\u2019s attorneys that \u201cgrowing the sport\u201d couldn\u2019t be used in testimony as a reasoning for something anymore. To paraphrase, he said: We get it. That means more money for NASCAR.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to miss the Nine Days of NASCAR Christmas that we got.<\/p>\n Instead of executives being forced to tell the controversial truth (or some version of it) under oath, it\u2019s back to canned responses at press conferences that sound informative but aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be lucky if we ever get to hear from the introverted Jim France on the record in front of a hot mic ever again.<\/p>\n But I\u2019ll cherish the memories that we made over the last two weeks.<\/p>\n They were bitter, sometimes amusing, but necessary.<\/p>\n Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast “Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin” presented by Democrat-Gazette.<\/p>\n You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.<\/p>\n \t\t![\"Denny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-las-vegas-2-cup-denny-hamlin-wins-victory-lane-logan-riely-getty-images-150x100.jpg\")
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