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Michael Jordan, left, shakes hands with NASCAR attorney Lawrence Buterman as NASCAR chairman Jim France, center, looks away, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, outside the federal courthouse in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo\/Jenna Fryer)<\/p>\n
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Michael Jordan and NASCAR chairman Jim France stood side-by-side on the steps of a federal courthouse as if they were old friends following a stunning settlement Thursday of a bruising antitrust case<\/a> in which the Basketball Hall of Famer was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit accusing the top racing series in the United States of being a monopolistic bully.<\/p>\n The duo was flanked by three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin<\/a> and Curtis Polk, the co-owners of 23XI Racing with Jordan, Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins<\/a> and over a dozen lawyers as they celebrated the end to an eight-day trial that ultimately led NASCAR to cave and grant all its teams the permanent charters they wanted.<\/p>\n \u201cLike two competitors, obviously we tried to get as much done in each other\u2019s favor,\u201d Jordan said, towering over the 81-year-old France. \u201cI\u2019ve said this from Day 1: The only way this sport is going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities. I think we\u2019ve gotten to that point, unfortunately it took 16 months to get here, but I think level heads have gotten us to this point where we can actually work together and grow this sport. I am very proud about that and I think Jim feels the same.\u201d<\/p>\n France concurred.<\/p>\n \u201cI do feel the same and we can get back to focusing on what we really love, and that\u2019s racing, and we spent a lot of time not really focused on that so much as we needed to be,\u201d France said. \u201cI feel like we made a very good decision here together and we have a big opportunity to continue growing the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n FILE – Denny Hamlin is introduced before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo\/Rick Scuteri, File)<\/p>\n A charter is the equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports and in NASCAR it guarantees 36 teams a spot in every top-level Cup Series race and a fixed portion of the revenue stream. The system was implemented in 2016 and teams have argued for over two years that the charters needed to be made permanent \u2014 they had been revokable by NASCAR \u2014 and the revenue sharing had to change.<\/p>\n NASCAR, founded and privately owned by the Florida-based France family, never considered making the charters permanent<\/a>. Instead, after two-plus years of bitter negotiations,<\/a> NASCAR in September 2024 presented a \u201ctake-it-or leave-it\u201d final offer that gave teams until end of that day to sign the 112-page document.<\/p>\n 23XI and Front Row refused and sued, while 13 other organizations signed but testimony in court revealed many did so \u201cwith a gun to our head\u201d because the threat of losing the charters would have put them out of business.<\/p>\n Jordan testified early in the trial that as a new team owner to NASCAR \u2014 23XI launched in 2021 \u2014 he felt he had the strength to challenge NASCAR<\/a>. Eight days of testimony went badly for NASCAR, which when it began to present its case seemed focused more on mitigating damages than it did on proving it did not violate antitrust laws.<\/p>\n Although terms of the settlement were not released \u2014 NASCAR was in the process of scheduling a Thursday afternoon call with all teams to discuss the revenue-sharing model moving forward \u2014 both Jordan and NASCAR said that charters will now be permanent for all teams. 23XI and Front Row will receive their combined six charters back for 2026.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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